The workflow tab on the ticket

In short: A workflow can be a tab among the tabs of the ticket. In that tab you see the workflow’s canvas with the latest run on this ticket: which steps it passed, where it is now and what it is waiting for. A pulsing dot in the tab bar means that aishaa is working right now; an orange dot means that the workflow is waiting for a colleague.

Where to find this

Open a ticket through Tickets. The workflow tabs are among the other tabs to the right of the conversation, with the workflow’s short name (or its name). Everyone from the Viewer role sees the tab.

An Organisation admin switches a workflow on as a tab in the editor (Account > Workflows, open the workflow, Workflow panel, Show as ticket tab). A tab only appears for a published workflow (status Active or Paused) of the ticket’s organisation or of the whole account.

A ticket with the tab of a workflow on the right: the canvas with Message read at the top, the steps passed highlighted and the current step in view, Live and the Camera follows button in the header; in the tab bar a pulsing dot after the name of the tab.

Switching the tab on

1. Go to Account > Workflows and open the workflow.
2. Make sure nothing is selected, so that the Workflow panel is visible.
3. Switch on Show as ticket tab.
4. Optionally fill in Short name in the tab (at most 24 characters). Empty: the workflow’s name.

This works at once, without publishing. A workflow that writes replies is automatically a tab: the standard workflow, a workflow that is created with a Write the reply step, and a workflow that has such a step at its first publication. You can simply switch the tab off afterwards.

A new workflow tab is added at the end of the row. Every colleague can change the order or hide a workflow tab under My profile at Ticket view, just like the other tabs. See Customer context next to the ticket.

The dot in the tab bar

If you have set your system to reduce motion, the dot does not pulse.

If you open a ticket while a workflow is working on it at that moment, its tab opens by itself. A workflow that has run and is done only marks its tab: it does not open on every ticket, otherwise it would push the other tabs aside. What is waiting for you is also shown in the card above the reply field.

What you see in the tab

The canvas is the same drawing as in the editor, with the latest run of this workflow on this ticket on top of it. At the top it shows:

On the canvas, a waiting step shows what it is waiting for: Waits until {time} for a Wait step, or Waiting for someone in To do (with · expires {time} if there is a deadline).

Reading the message: Message read

For a workflow that starts on Message read, you see the steps even before there is a run. As soon as a customer writes, the top box pulses and aishaa is reading the message… is shown. Once the message has been read, the run starts and you see the steps light up one by one. If reading has still not succeeded after five minutes, the pulsing stops.

Watching along and looking around yourself

• As long as the run is running or aishaa is reading, Camera follows is on: the view moves along with the current step.
• If you drag or zoom the canvas yourself, the view stops moving along. Click Camera follows to switch it on again.
• If a new run of the workflow starts on this ticket, the camera follows it again from the beginning.

Viewing a step

Click a step on the canvas. The header then shows:

• the name of the step (the text at What this step does, or the name of the block);
• the status of the step: Done, Busy, Waiting or Failed;
• the exit the step took, with an arrow, for example “→ yes” or “→ executed”;
• the time and how long the step took.

If the run did not pass this step, it says Not passed in this run. If the run went through the step several times (in a repetition), you browse with Previous time and Next time; the header shows, for example, “2 of 5”. Close the selection with Close.

The workflow tab with a step clicked: in the header the name of the step, the Done label, the exit taken with an arrow and the time and duration.

The tab only shows the names of the steps, never what they read or wrote. That is why everyone who sees the ticket may see the tab. What every step did exactly, you see with View full run: that button is there for those who may change the workflow and opens the run in View > Runs of the workflow.

The run line above the reply field

If a workflow is working on the conversation, or if something is waiting for a colleague, a line with the run is shown above the reply field. With Open in canvas you open that workflow’s tab there. If the workflow is not a tab, Open in canvas opens the run in the editor, for those who may change the workflow. With the Set up by itself switch, what is waiting for you comes forward by itself, never while you are typing.

Good to know

• The tab only shows the latest run of the workflow on this ticket.
• A workflow that is a draft and has never been published does not appear as a tab.
• The tab follows the live version. A run that ran on an older version is drawn as it ran.
• If the drawing of a workflow cannot be read, you see This workflow cannot be shown right now. The ticket simply keeps working.

Related

• Following runs and handling errors
• Create, test and publish a workflow
• Answering customer messages with workflows
• Customer context next to the ticket
• To do
• My profile