Importing and Exporting Workflow

Workflows can be moved from one workflow manager to another via the import and export mechanism.

Import

To begin an import, right-click on a workflow queue or group from the Workflow View and select "Import". (You will need read and write access to the queue or group.) The workflows will be submitted to the queue or group you selected.

From the resulting file chooser, select one or more files to import and click "Open".

Each selected workflow will be loaded into the import tool. Then, each workflow will be validated. The validation process finds issues that prevent the workflow from being submitted. Generally workflows fail validation because the workflow references assets, users or other entities that do not exist. The results of the validation will be shown in the output window at the very bottom of the UI.

From the import tool, you can select each invalid workflow in turn, double click to edit it or press the "Edit Workflow" button to begin editing the workflow in the workflow designer. Once the validation errors are fixed press the "Save Work and Return" button to save the changes back to the import tool. Once saved, a new validation will be performed.

Selecting Workflows

The second column of the import tool contains a check box. If you elect not to include a workflow in your submission, uncheck it.

Submitting Workflows

Once all selected workflow have passed validation, the button on the lower right "Submit All Selected Workflows" may be pressed to submit all the workflows for approval.

Preserving ACLs

By default, submitting a workflow creates a new initial workflow ACL just like copying a file in Linux would create a new file with your default permissions. If you wish to preserve the ACLs on the workflow during the import process, select the "Preserve security on the imported workflows" check box. See Default ACLs for more details.

You do not need any special permission to select this option. The impact of the advanced permissions this operation causes will be at approval time.

Admin Automation Hold

You may also set an automation hold on the workflow as it is submitted. The admin automation hold prevents the workflow from automatically executing until the hold is removed. See Admin Automation Hold for more details.

In order to set the admin automation hold, you must have the "User can control the queue and set/clear administrative holds" policy checked.

Exporting Workflows

To export one or more workflows, from design mode, select the workflows in the Queue View, right-click, and select "Export".

You will then need to pick a location to save the workflows. If you select a single workflow, you can pick the name of the file to contain the workflow. If you select multiple workflows, you can select a directory and the name of the file will match the workflow's name.

Admin Automation Hold

You may also set an automation hold on the workflow as the workflow is saved. The admin automation hold prevents the workflow from automatically executing until the hold is removed. See Admin Automation Hold for more details.