In this step of the Simple Process Flow tutorial, an organization requests that the system be configured so that an immediate email notification is sent to the sales department any time a new company is added to the database. This configuration is meant to enable them to track not only Companies records created by call takers within their organization, but also any records created from web-based links to their applications.

Outlining the Process Flow

Outlining is one of the most important steps in configuring Aptify Process Flows, no matter how simple the flow may seem.

• How Many Steps?

• Does the Functionality Already Exist?

• What Data Will the Process Flow Use?

• Is Any Data Returned?

• Completing the Outline

How Many Steps?

The purpose of the business case stated above is to notify the sales department by email each time a new Companies record is created. This is a very simple process, with only one process step – sending the email message. No further processing is necessary.

Does the Functionality Already Exist?

The next step is to determine the functionality of each step. In the case of this example, there is only one step, and the functionality of this step is to send an email.

Aptify comes with a standard set of Process Components, each of which defines a set piece of functionality. These components are listed in Process Components as Delivered. One of the standard components is named Send Email, indicating that the functionality desired is available within the system. We simply need to configure the system to make use of this existing component.

What Data Will the Process Flow Use?

When a process flow starts, all required data is gathered at one time. This data is then placed in a temporary storage place, called the Context Object. This data might come from fields on a form, be derived from the database using a SQL statement, or be hard-coded in the system.

Regardless of the source, it is important to remember that once the process flow starts and the Context Object is populated, it can not go outside the Context Object to retrieve any more data. The process flow is, in a sense, surrounded by a bubble. The Context Object data is inside the bubble, and everything else is outside. For this reason it is critical that all data which may be used by all steps within the flow be determined in advance.

Determining the data used by a process flow can be a challenging task, and is yet another reason why it is important to outline the entire process flow before beginning any configuration within Aptify. This is because once all the steps in the process flow are defined in the outline, the underlying functionality of each step is known. Basic knowledge of the delivered Process Components records will help a developer or administrator determine the data required by each step in a process flow.

However, it is also possible to determine some of the data required simply by looking at the Process Flow outline. For this tutorial, we need to ask ourselves what we know so far. We know that:

• There is only one step.
• The functionality to send an email exists within Aptify.

Required Data

In order to send an email message, an email system requires specific data elements from the user. Some of these data elements are:

• The message system that will send the email (this tutorial uses Microsoft Outlook; therefore, you must have Microsoft Outlook installed and operational on your computer to successfully create and test this process flow)
• The recipient of the message
• The sender of the message
• The subject of the message
• The text of the message

email messages may be sent in a variety of formats, such as plain text or HTML. Most email programs require that the format be determined before the message is sent. Thus the following may be added to the list of required data:

• The type of message format

To verify that the list includes all required data elements, review the items found on the Input Properties tab of all process components used in the process flow. In this case, the flow only calls the Send Email process component.

Other Data

There are other data values which could be useful for this process flow, but are not required. These include:

• email addresses for the carbon copy (CC) list
• email addresses for the blind carbon copy (BCC) list

Based on what we've gathered so far, we now have a list of data which may be used by the process flow.

Is Any Data Returned?

Now that we know what data the process flow uses, the next question to ask is whether the process flow returns any data. Let's look at the requirement again: send an email notification when a new Companies record is created in the system. Remember, we already determined that no further processing is necessary after the email is sent. Therefore, the answer to this question is no.

Completing the Outline

We have determined the number of steps in our process flow and the functionality for each of them, the data to provide, and whether the functionality exists within the system. Now we are ready to actually create the process flow in Aptify.