Notify Workflow
Introduction
The Notify workflow activity is used to resume or trigger logic within a workflow. It specifically targets two types of elements:
- A Wait for notification workflow activity currently suspended in a flow.
- A Notification event sub-process defined within the workflow.
When the Notify workflow activity is executed, the Workflow Engine checks for an active receiver. If a valid Wait for notification activity or a Notification event sub-process is found and successfully triggered, the activity returns true. If no active receiver is found, it returns false.
Completed or Aborted results in a runtime error. For information on how to handle these cases, see Error Handling in Microflows.Execution Behavior
The table below describes how the Workflow Engine responds when a Notify workflow activity is called, depending on the state of the workflow and the type of receiver configured.
| Workflow/Element State | Action Result | System Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Aborted or Completed | Error | The activity fails. An error is logged indicating the workflow is no longer in an active state and cannot be notified. |
| Paused, Failed, or Incompatible | True | The notification is accepted and "queued." The targeted activity or event sub-process is triggered automatically once the workflow is resumed or resolved. |
| Wait for notification (Active) | True | The workflow resumes execution from the point of the Wait for notification activity. |
| Event sub-process (Inactive) | True | The event sub-process is triggered immediately and its execution path begins. |
| Event sub-process (In Progress) | False | The notification is ignored because an instance of this specific sub-process is already running. No new instance is created. |
| No matching receiver | False | If the workflow is active but does not contain the specified Wait for notification activity or Event sub-process, the activity returns false. |
Properties
An example of Notify workflow properties is represented in the image below:
There are two sets of properties for this activity, those in the dialog box on the left, and those in the properties pane on the right.
The Notify workflow properties pane consists of the following sections:
Action Section
The Action section of the properties pane shows the action associated with this activity.
You can open a dialog box to configure this action by clicking the ellipsis (…) next to the action.
You can also open the dialog box by double-clicking the activity, or right-clicking the activity and selecting Properties.
Workflow Object
The workflow instance that will be notified by this activity.
Activity
The (caption of the) wait for notification workflow activity that suspends the workflow instance. This wait for notification workflow activity needs to be notified so that the workflow can continue.
Variable Name
The name of the variable returned by the activity. This variable will be a Boolean that indicates whether the notification is received or not by the workflow instance.
It returns false in the following situations:
- The wait for notification workflow activity is not suspended at the time Notify workflow is triggered, meaning it is not waiting.
- The wait for notification workflow activity has already been notified.
For more information on the return values, see the Introduction section above.