Configuring a Workflow in Studio Pro for the Employee Onboarding Process

Last modified: June 5, 2026

Introduction

Workflow is a new visual language that allows you to build extendable processes. It is fully integrated with other visual languages, such as microflow editor and page editor.

This how-to explains how to build an employee onboarding process using the workflow editor.

This how-to teaches you how to do the following:

Create a workflow
Create user tasks for different user roles
Configure pages for the user tasks
Restrict page access to the relevant user roles
Create a decision in the workflow
Use a microflow to extend logic of the workflow
Test your workflow from the perspective of different users

The how-to describes the following use case:

You want to build an employee onboarding process. First, an HR specialist initiates the onboarding process for a new employee. The employee's manager then steps in and selects devices for the employee. The manager also specifies whether the new hire is working from the office or from home. The Facilities department then prepares a workspace. Depending on where the new hire works from (the office or home), the Facilities department will either prepare a desk or ship the devices to the employee's address.

Prerequisites

Before starting this how-to, make sure you have completed the following prerequisites:

Your app includes the Workflow Commons module. For more information on how to set up Workflow Commons in an existing app, see Adding a Workflow to an Existing App: Using Workflow Commons.
Make sure your app has Atlas 3. As a result of installing Atlas 3, your app should contain the following modules that Workflow Commons depends on: Atlas_Core, Atlas_Web_Content, and DataWidgets.
Familiarize yourself with workflow terms. For more information, see Workflows.
Make sure that the User entity is set to Administration.Account in your App Settings > Workflows tab.
Make sure that the domain model of the module you are working in looks the following way:
Make sure you have the following enumerations configured:
- The ENUM_PhoneModel enumeration:
- The ENUM_LaptopModel enumeration:
Make sure you have an EmployeesOnboarding_NewEdit pop-up page that can be used to add a new EmployeeOnboarding object. For more information on how to create an entity detail page, see Create Overview and Detail pages
Make sure you have an EmployeeOnboarding_Overview page that looks like the following:
- Contains a New Employee onboarding button that is configured to create a new EmployeeOnboarding object via the EmployeeOnboarding_NewEdit pop-up page
- Contains a list view and has the EmployeeOnboarding entity as the data source

Setting Up Security

Configuring User Roles

Administrator and User roles are part of your app by default. Create three app roles for a manager, Facilities, and HR and configure them correctly.

Do the following:

In the App Explorer, open App > Security and set security to Production.
Open the User roles tab and click New.
In the Add User Role dialog box, set the Name to Facilities and make sure that only MyFirstModule is selected, as you do not need to create a specific Facilities role for all modules.
Click OK.
Assign the User user role to Facilities for all other modules. Double-click the newly created Facilities role.
In the User Role dialog box, click Edit in the Module roles section.
In the Select Module Roles dialog box, select the User role for the Administration, Atlas_Core, and WorkflowCommons modules where no role is selected and click OK:
Confirm your choice by clicking OK.
Refer to steps 2-8 to create and configure the Manager role.
Refer to steps 2-8 to create and configure the HR role.
You already have the Administrator role by default. Now you need to enable this role to monitor workflows, view their progress, and manage their settings in your app. Do the following:
1. In the User roles tab, double-click Administrator.
2. In the User Role dialog box, click Edit in the Module roles section.
3. In the Select Module Roles, find the WorkflowCommons module and select the Administrator role:
4. Confirm your choice by clicking OK.
Click OK to save changes to security.

You have configured new app roles for Facilities, Manager, and HR, and enabled the Administrator role to monitor workflows, view their progress, and change their settings.

Configuring Demo Users

Create demo users for the newly created app roles to test your app later. For more information, see the Testing Workflow section. Follow the steps below:

In the App Explorer, open App > Security > the Demo users tab.
Click New.
In the Add Demo User dialog box, set the User name to demo_facilities.
Set the same entity you selected for the User entity setting in App Settings > Workflows tab: set Entity to Administration.Account.
Assign the corresponding user role in the User roles section: select the Facilities role and click OK.
Repeat steps 2-5 to add the demo_manager demo user.
Repeat steps 2-5 to add the demo_hr demo user.

You have configured demo users for your app.

Configuring Entity Access

The next step in setting up security is to configure the entity access; otherwise, you might run into consistency errors, and the users of your app may see too much or too little information. For more information on what the entity access is, see the Entity Access section in Module Security. Follow the steps below:

Open the domain model.
Double-click the EmployeeOnboarding entity to open its properties.
In the Properties dialog box, open the Access rules tab and click New to create a rule for the HR role:
In the New Access rule dialog box, do the following:
1. In the Rule applies to the following modules section, select the HR role.
2. In the Access rights section, select Create objects in Entity rights. This allows HR to create a new EmployeeOnboarding object.
3. Set Default rights for new members to Read, Write to ensure the role has the necessary permissions for creating new objects.
4. In the Member read and write rights section, set the access rights of FullName and FirstDay to Read, Write as HR needs to fill in the new employee's full name and their first working day.
5. Set the access rights of WFH, PhoneModel, and LaptopModel to Read.
6. Click OK to save settings.
In the Access rules tab, click New again to create rule for the Manager role.
1. In the Rule applies to the following modules section, select the Manager role.
2. In the Member read and write rights section, set the access right of FullName to Read.
3. As the Manager should be able to select where the new employee is working from and devices that they need, set the access rights of WFH, PhoneModel, and LaptopModel to Read, Write.
4. Set the access right of FirstDay to Read.
5. Click OK to save settings.
In the Access rules tab, click New again to create rule for the Facilities role.
1. In the Rule applies to the following modules section, select Facilities.
2. In the Member read and write rights section, click Set all to Read.
3. Click OK to save settings.
In the Access rules tab, click New again to create rule for the User role.
1. In the Rule applies to the following modules section, select User.
2. In the Member read and write rights section, click Set all to Read.
3. Click OK to save settings.
Click OK in the Properties dialog box.

You have set up the entity access.

In some cases you may want to restrict access to the entity or to some of its attributes by configuring the access rules more specifically.

Creating a Workflow

To create a workflow that you will add activities to and create pages for, do the following:

In the App Explorer, right-click the MyFirstModule module and select Add workflow in the drop-down menu.
In the Add Workflow dialog box, do the following:
1. Type Employee_Onboarding as the Name of the workflow.
2. In the Workflow context section, click Select to select an entity. The Workflow Context parameter uses this entity to carry the business data that is added during workflow execution.
In the Select Entity dialog box, select the EmployeeOnboarding entity and click Select.

Good job! You have created a workflow and configured the Workflow Context parameter.

Triggering the Workflow from a Page

To start your workflow, you need to trigger it. In this use case, an HR specialist first adds a new hire by filling in their name and their first day, and then clicks a Start Onboarding button that triggers the workflow.

You have an EmployeeOnboarding_Overview page that contains a New Employee onboarding button that creates a new EmployeeOnboarding object for a new hire, and a list view that has the EmployeeOnboarding entity as the data source:

The page access is restricted to the HR user role:

To add a button that initiates the workflow, do the following:

Open the Toolbox and search for a Call workflow button.
Drag the button into the first row of the data grid. The button will automatically appear in every row. The Select Workflow dialog box is displayed.
In the Select Workflow dialog box, select Employee_Onboarding workflow and click Select:
Open the button properties, click the ellipsis icon in the Caption property, and set it to Start Onboarding.

Good job! Now when the HR specialist clicks the button, the workflow starts:

Employee Onboarding data grid with Start Onboarding button in each row

Selecting a Device and a Location for the New Hire

The manager of a new employee gets a task to specify devices for the new hire and indicate whether the new hire is working from home or in the office. For this functionality, you need to add activities to the workflow. Follow the steps below:

In the App Explorer, double-click the Employee_Onboarding workflow to open it.
Navigate to the Toolbox pane, find a User task activity, and drag it into the workflow editor.
Select the User task activity and open the Properties pane.
Set the Caption property to Manager: Specify Device and Location to easily see who this task should be assigned to.
To be able to differentiate this user task from other ones, set the Name property to Specify_Device_and_Location:
Configure the user task to be assigned to the Manager role, as only managers should specify devices and location for the new employee. In the Targeted users section, make sure Target is set to User(s) and click the ellipsis icon in the XPath constraint property.
In the Edit XPath Constraint dialog box, switch to the XPath expression mode in the upper-right corner, type in the expression: [System.UserRoles = '[%UserRole_Manager%]'], and click OK:
To create a page where the manager specifies details for the new employee, click the ellipsis icon in the Page property.
In the Select web page dialog box, click the New button.
In the Create web page dialog box, you can see the templates for workflow pages. Do the following:
1. Set the Page name to SpecifyDeviceAndLocation_Workflow.
2. Set Navigation layout to Atlas_Default (Atlas_Core).
3. Select the User Task Extended template.
4. Click OK. A new page is generated based on the template you selected. This page is exclusively for this task. When you generate the first task page also a microflow is generated that retrieves data of user tasks.
Make sure that only the relevant information is displayed on the SpecifyDeviceAndLocation_Workflow page. In the App Explorer, double-click the SpecifyDeviceAndLocation_Workflow page to open it.
By default, all attributes are added to the data view with the employee details. Leave only the attributes related to the task and restrict the manager from changing the fields that are not part of the task. For example, the name of the employee has been entered by the HR department, so the manager does not need to change it and should see this field as read-only.

Do the following:
1. Select the text box for the FullName attribute and go to its properties.
2. Set the Editable property to Never to make the field read-only.
3. Delete the First day date picker widget as it is not relevant for this task.
4. Leave WFH, Phone model, and Laptop model radio buttons:
Only the Manager role can access and interact with the SpecifyDeviceAndLocation_Workflow page, so restricting the access to this page is the next step. Navigate to the page properties and do the following:
1. In the Visible for property, click the ellipsis icon.
2. In the Condition for visibility dialog box, make sure Show the text box is set to always in the Context section.
3. In the Module roles section, select Show the text box for selected roles.
4. In the module roles list, select only Manager and click OK:

Great job! You have configured the user task for the Manager role:

This can be also a good time to test your app: you can create an employee, start the onboarding process, and test the first task for the Manager demo user. For more information, see the Testing the Workflow section.

Following Different Paths for the Hire's Location

Depending on whether the new hire is working from the office or home, there are two different processes to onboard this hire: prepare a desk in the office or send the laptop and phone to the new hire's home address. This step of the onboarding process should be done by the Facilities department.

Do the following:

Open the workflow editor > Toolbox and drag the Decision activity after the Manager: Specify Device and Location user task.
Decision means that the workflow path can split and follow one of the outcomes depending on the condition of the decision. For more information, see Decision in Workflows. Open the decision properties and do the following:
1. Set the Caption to WFH?.
2. Click the ellipsis icon in the Condition property.
3. In the Condition dialog box, type in the expression that will split the flow into two depending on the WFH attribute: $WorkflowContext/WFH.
Since the WFH attribute is a Boolean, it has a true (when the new hire works from home) and a false (when they work from the office) outcome. These outcomes are added to the workflow automatically:
Configure what happens in both scenarios: when the new hire works from home (true) and when the new hire works from the office (false). Open the Toolbox, drag a User task activity to the false path, and do the following:
1. Name the user task Prepare_Desk and set its title to Facilities: Prepare Desk by referring to steps 3-5 of the Selecting a Device for the New Hire section.
2. Configure the task to be assigned to the Facilities role by only referring to steps 6 and 7 of the Selecting a Device for the New Hire section and using the [System.UserRoles = '[%UserRole_Facilities%]'] expression.
3. Set a new page called PrepareDesk_Workflow for the Page property by referring to steps 8-10 of the Selecting a Device for the New Hire section.
Make sure that only the relevant information is displayed on the PrepareDesk_Workflow page. In the App Explorer, double-click the PrepareDesk_Workflow page to open it.
By default, all attributes are added to the employee detail form. Make sure that the Facilities department can view the fields but not change them. Do the following:
1. Select the data view with the employee details and go to its properties.
2. Set the Editable property to No to make the remaining fields in the form read-only.
To restrict access to the page to the Facilities role only, follow the step 13 of the Selecting a Device for the New Hire section.
Create a user task for Facilities when the employee is working from home. Open the workflow editor.
Open the Toolbox, drag a User task activity to the true path, and do the following:
1. Name the user task Ship_Devices and set its title to Facilities: Ship Devices referring to steps 3-5 of the Selecting a Device for the New Hire section.
2. Configure the task to be assigned to the Facilities role only referring to steps 6 and 7 of the Selecting a Device for the New Hire section and using the [System.UserRoles = '[%UserRole_Facilities%]'] expression.
3. Set a new page called ShipDevices_Workflow for the Page property it referring to steps 8-10 of the Selecting a Device for the New Hire section.
Make sure that only relevant information is displayed on the ShipDevices_Workflow page and that this page can be accessed by the Facilities department only. In the App Explorer, double-click the ShipDevices_Workflow page to open it.
Repeat steps 6-7 above to make the employee detail form read-only and to restrict the page access to the Facilities role.

Great job! You have configured the decision and user tasks on whether the new hire is working from the office or from home:

Extending Workflow Logic

You can extend workflow logic by calling a microflow. If the new employee works from the office, you can show in the system that the desk prepared by the Facilities department is assigned to this new employee. This way, HR and Management will see where the new colleague is sitting in the office.

To call a microflow in your workflow, do the following:

Open the workflow editor > Toolbox and drag the Call microflow activity after the Facilities: Prepare Desk user task:
Open Call microflow properties and click the ellipsis icon in the Microflow property.
In the Select microflow dialog box, click New.
In the Create Microflow dialog box, set the Name to ACT_EmployeeOnboarding_Assign_Desk and click OK.
Change the Caption property to Assign Desk.
The created microflow automatically receives the workflow context parameter:

You can now add the actual desk assignment logic to the microflow, which falls outside the scope of this how-to. For more information on microflows and their properties, see Microflows and Microflow Properties. Now if the manager indicates that the new employee works from the office, the desk prepared by the Facilities department will be assigned to the new employee and will be shown in the system.

Congratulations! The onboarding workflow is completed, and you can test it with different roles by running your application locally.

Before testing the workflow, set up the navigation menu so that users can access their task inboxes and administrators can manage workflows. Follow the steps below:

In the App Explorer, open App > Navigation.
Make sure you are on the Responsive profile tab.
In the Menu section, click New Item to create a My Tasks group:
1. Set Caption to My Tasks.
2. Set Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.task-list-multiple.
3. Leave On click set to Do nothing (this is a parent item).
4. Click OK.
Select the My Tasks item and click New subitem to add child items:
1. Add Task Inbox: set Caption to Task Inbox, Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.notes-checklist, and On click to Show a page. In the Select web page dialog box, navigate to WorkflowCommons > UseMe > Pages and select TaskInbox. Click Select, then click OK:
2. Add Task Dashboard: set Caption to Task Dashboard, Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.analytics-bars, and On click to Show a page > WorkflowCommons.TaskDashboard. Click OK.
3. Add My workflows: set Caption to My workflows, Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.controls-play, and On click to Show a page > WorkflowCommons.MyInitiatedWorkflows. Click OK.
Click on the root level of the menu and click New Item to create an On Boarding group:
1. Set Caption to On Boarding.
2. Set Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.layout-list.
3. Leave On click set to Do nothing.
4. Click OK.
Select the On Boarding item and click New subitem:
1. Set Caption to Employee Onboarding.
2. Set Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.add.
3. Set On click to Show a page > MyFirstModule.EmployeeOnboarding_Overview.
4. Click OK.
Click on the root level of the menu and click New Item to create a Workflow Admin group:
1. Set Caption to Workflow Admin.
2. Set Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.cog.
3. Leave On click set to Do nothing.
4. Click OK.
Select the Workflow Admin item and click New subitem to add child items:
1. Add Admin Center: set Caption to Admin Center, Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.cog-shield, and On click to Show a page > WorkflowCommons.WorkflowAdminCenter. Click OK.
2. Add Workflow Groups: set Caption to Workflow Groups, Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.user-neutral-group, and On click to Show a page > WorkflowCommons.WorkflowGroup_Overview. Click OK.
3. Add Conflict Resolution: set Caption to Conflict Resolution, Icon to Atlas_Core.Atlas.alert-triangle, and On click to Show a page > WorkflowCommons.ConflictResolution. Click OK.

The resulting menu structure should look like the following:

Page visibility in the navigation is determined by how your app roles map to module roles in WorkflowCommons. The Administrator and Manager roles are mapped to the Administrator role in WorkflowCommons, so they can access the Workflow Admin pages. The HR, Facilities, and User roles are mapped to the User role in WorkflowCommons, so the Workflow Admin pages are not available to them.

Testing the Workflow

Now you can test your workflow from the perspective of different users. To test your workflow, you need to switch between different user roles. Follow the steps below:

In the top bar of Mendix Studio Pro, click Run Locally ( ).
After your app is deployed, click View App:

The button opens your browser with the application login page. Log in with the default credentials: username MxAdmin and password 1.
Click the user icon on the right to switch to another user role:
Switch between different demo user roles to test the use case. You can do the following:
1. Start the onboarding process: select the HR demo user, add a new employee, and then click Start Onboarding.
  
  HR can start the onboarding process for the same employee more than once, which is acceptable for testing purposes but not ideal in reality. A good solution is to add an OnboardingStatus attribute to the EmployeeOnboarding entity and configure the Start Onboarding button to trigger a microflow that updates the OnboardingStatus and then starts the workflow. Also, add conditional visibility for the Start Onboarding button so that it is not visible anymore after the OnboardingStatus is updated after the HR presses the button. For information on how to add conditional visibility for a button, see the Visibility Section in Properties Common in the Page Editor. This solution, however, falls outside of the scope of the current how-to.
2. Test the process: switch users, view the inbox for each user, complete tasks, and see how new inbox items are created for the user roles you configured at the next task in the process.
3. Open the Workflow Admin Center.
4. Open the Workflow Dashboard.

For certain user roles, there are specific pages available. The Manager and HR roles have access to the New Employee onboarding button to add new employees. After adding an employee, they can start the onboarding workflow by clicking Start Onboarding in the corresponding row:

Users who have tasks assigned to them (Manager and Facilities roles) see their task inbox where they can manage and complete tasks assigned to them:

The Admin role has access to the Workflow Admin Center, which serves as a hub for workflow management, task assignments, workflow groups, and conflict resolution:

The Workflow Dashboard is the main monitoring page where administrators can track workflow and task progress, view statistics on completed tasks, and identify overdue items:

Great job! You have deployed your app locally and tested your workflow from the perspective of different users. You can now work on adding more functionality to your app.

Adding a Workflow to an Existing App: Using Workflow Commons