Creating the Simple Process Flow

In this step of the Simple Process Flow Tutorial, follow this procedure to create the simple Process Flow to send an email message when a new company is added to the system:

1. Open a new record from the Process Flows service.
2. In the Name field, enter XY Send email where XY are your initials. If desired, enter a description.
3. Enter email Notifications in the Category field. This links the record to the Process Flow Categories record we created earlier in the example.
   
   
4. Click the Input Properties tab and enter the properties listed below.
   
   • During the outlining process for the business case, we determined a list of data that may be used by the process flow we are generating. To tell the system which data elements to capture and store in the Context Object, the list must be created as Input Properties. 
     
     

   Name	Type	Default Value	Required	Value List Type
   To	String		Yes	None
   Subject	String		Yes	None
   TextBody	String		Yes	None

   
   

5. Click the Result Codes tab.
6. Create two Result Codes records: one for SUCCESS and one for FAILED, as shown in the following figure.
   
   
7. Save the Process Flows record.
8. Click the Design tab.
9. Select the Insert Component Step button in the toolbar.
10. Move the cursor to the design area and click the mouse button to drop the component step in the selected location.
    
    

    

    • A new step appears in the Design area. The step's details load in the Properties area on the right-side of the Process Flows record.
    • Resize the form as necessary so you can read all of the fields in the Properties area.
      
      
11. Within the step's Properties area, select the Send Email component from the Component drop-down list.
    
    • The Send Email component is located under the Messaging category.

    

    • Each Process Component set up in Aptify is configured with a list of Input Properties which detail all data elements used by that component. Components are also set up with a list of data returned by the component (if any), and all expected results when the component is run.
    • Once a component is selected in the Component field, several tabs on the Properties dialog automatically inherit information which reflects that defined at the component level: Input Maps, Output Maps, and Action Maps tabs. These must all be configured before the step is completed. Note that for this business case, no output maps are configured.
      
      
12. Modify the Step Name to read XY Send E Mail, where XY are your initials.
    • When you select a component, the system automatically updates the step's Name to match the name of that component.
      
      
13. Click the Description tab and replace the placeholder text with This step sends an email message.
    
    
14. Click the Properties tab and configure the step's input properties. Note that this type of interface is known as an Input Map.
    
    • On each step of any process flow, we must tell the system where the data is to be found. Do we expect the system to derive the data from the database? Do we expect it to be stored within that Context Object bubble? Or are we going to provide a value that remains constant, no matter how and when that process step is called?
      
      
    • Only certain Input Maps are required for this step, so for the purposes of this tutorial, only those Input Maps are configured.
      
      
    • Each input map may be edited directly within the grid. You may also double-click on the line item in the grid to display an Edit Mapping dialog box. Note that you can select a value from a Source drop-down list for Context Object inputs. The drop-down list displays the items you specified for the Process Flow's Input Properties tab.
      
      
    • Note that 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.
      
      
    • Configure the following Input Maps as follows:

    Name	Source Type	Source
    MessageSystemName	Static	Outlook Mail
    To	Context Object	To
    Subject	Context Object	Subject
    TextBody	Context Object	TextBody

     

    
    
    

15. Save the record.
    
    
16. Click the Action Map tab.
    • The Action Map tells the system what to do once the step has finished. Should it trigger another step, or should it tell the system that the process flow has ended?
    • Remember, we determined in the process flow outline that this process flow has only one step. This means that no more steps are called upon completion of the XY Send Email step, no matter what happens.
      
      
17. By default, the Send Email component has one outcome, SUCCESS. For this item, select End Process from the Action drop-down list.
    
    
18. Enter the corresponding SUCCESS process flow result code (which you previously specified on the Process Flows record's Result Codes tab) in the Process Flow Result Code field for this outcome.
    
    
19. Close the Process Flows record. When prompted, click Yes to save the record.

At this point you can use the Process Flow Debugger tool to test your process flow without having to create an Event Handler. See Using the Process Flow Debugger for details.