Call Workflow
Introduction
To improve the maintainability of a workflow, you can split a larger process into smaller pieces and avoid having repeated tasks. You can use the Call workflow activity for this purpose and use another workflow as a sub-workflow for the current one.
You can drag the Call workflow activity into the flow and either select an existing workflow or create a new one. The called workflow is then used as a sub-workflow for the current, calling workflow.
The calling workflow waits for the called workflow to finish before continuing with the rest of the activities.
It is also possible to nest Call Workflow activities, i.e. to use Call workflow in the called workflow.
Properties
An example of call workflow properties is represented in the image below:
Call workflow properties consist of the following sections:
Common Section
Name is the internal name of the element. When referring to the element in the app you will use this name. It must be unique within the workflow, but you can have two elements with the same name in different workflows.
General Section
Caption
The Caption describes what happens in this element. It is displayed under the workflow element to make the Call workflow activity easier to read and understand without needing to add annotations.
Workflow
The workflow that is called by this element.
Parameter Mapping
This property indicates parameters of the selected workflow, parameters pass data to the Call workflow.
To change the parameter, either double-click the parameter from the list or select the parameter row and click the Edit parameter value button. When editing the parameter, you can define how the context entity of the calling workflow is mapped (related) to the context entity of the called workflow (sub-workflow). The context object of the called workflow can be selected by either using the calling workflow context object or by using an expression: you can select a context object that is associated to the calling workflow’s context object. The Type column shows the context object of the selected workflow.
State Changes
When a calling workflow or a called workflow changes a state, they may have impact on each other.
State of Calling Workflow When Called Workflow Changes Its State
Usually state transition of a called workflow does not affect the calling workflow except for when the called workflow fails, is aborted or locked. When the called workflow fails or is aborted, the calling workflow fails. When the called workflow is locked, the calling workflow fails because calling workflow tries to call the locked workflow.
All other state changes of a called workflow do not affect the workflow.
State of Called Workflow When Calling Workflow Changes Its State
The following cases when the state of the calling workflow changes affect the state of a called workflow:
- Calling workflow is aborted (the called workflow is aborted)
- Calling workflow is restarted (the called workflow is aborted)
- Calling workflow jumps to a different activity (the called workflow is aborted)
- A failed workflow is retried (the running called workflow is aborted and a new called workflow is triggered)
All other state changes of the calling workflow do not affect the called workflow.
You can use the Workflow state change property to extend the behavior described above and, for example, configure a behavior that when the calling workflow is paused, the called workflow is paused as well.