Designing your Workflow Process

See Also

To create a workflow process for a table in your team solution, you should analyze the process each item must go through and identify the steps in the process. For each step, you add an associated state to the workflow. Keep in mind script can be added to actions to validate conditions, control the process, trigger other events, and so on.

To design a workflow process

1. Identify the business processes associated with the information you are tracking in your database. For example, in a sales database, you might want to create ordering rules to track the order entry and delivery process, as well the status of new sales leads.
   
   
2. Identify the steps of your business process, and determine the actions and conditions you want to associate with each step.

   For example, your solution might track issues that progress from being Activated to Resolved to Closed. The workflow has a state associated with each step. For more information about planning your workflow process, see The Workflow Engine Model.

   Basic states and actions identified for issue tracking

   

3. In the Access Workflow Designer, use the Main Table Selection wizard to create a hierarchy for the tables in your solution. To add workflow to a table, it must be a main or detail table. There are certain schema limitations on creating a hierarchy for workflow, review these in Defining Hierarchy Schema.
   
   
4. In the Access Workflow Designer, use the Workflow Process wizard to define the basic states for your workflow. This creates a linear workflow process. For more information, see Adding a Workflow Process to Your Solution.

   When you use the wizard, your workflow automatically scripts basic transitions for you that provide a linear flow between the states. These events turn validation on, which requires the previous state be fulfilled before the item can move to the next state in the process.

   For a simple tracking solution, you may want only to specify the states you want to track and prevent an item from moving to the next state until the previous one is done. For example, before moving from Activated to Closed, an issue must go through the state, Resolved. Adding workflow to a table provides this level of control automatically.

5. If your team solution is more complex, use the workflow diagram in the Access Workflow Designer to add additional states and actions to the workflow. For details, see Adding and Modifying States in a Workflow.
   
   
6. Add additional script to the workflow events for each action.

   For example, you might want the Close action to trigger the sending of e-mail to the person who opened the issue. For more information about adding script to your workflow process, see Scripting Workflow.

7. Using your team solution, test your workflow.