Chapter 0 - Overview
First draft. This chapter has not been reviewed yet and may contain mistakes. Please read it with that in mind, and tell us about anything that does not match what you see.
On this page0.1 What Central Flows does0.2 How it fits together0.3 How this guide is organized0.4 Conventions
Central Flows is Qdabra's workflow solution for Qdabra Forms. It adds an approval process to a form template: workflow steps, task assignments, e-mail notifications, approval history, form locking and a dashboard of the forms waiting for each user. It is included with Qdabra Forms. This guide is for the administrators who set Central Flows up and the form designers who add it to their templates.
0.1 What Central Flows does
- Workflow steps and assignments. Each form moves through the steps you define, with conditional logic and approvers per step. Approvers can be users, SharePoint groups or distribution lists.
- Task pane in the form. The user sees the current step and the action buttons (for example Approve and Reject) in the form itself.
- E-mail notifications. A default task e-mail goes to the assignee on each step; you can switch it off for drafts or replace it with your own e-mail views.
- Approval history. Every action is recorded with user, date, step, button and comment.
- Form locking. A form is locked while someone has it open, so two people cannot overwrite each other's changes.
- Session timeout. An inactive user is warned and then signed out, which releases the lock.
- Proxies. A user can act for another user, for example during a vacation.
- Dashboard. Each user sees the forms assigned to them, the forms they submitted and, for administrators, all forms in the system.
0.2 How it fits together
| Component | What it is | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Central Flows XTP | The workflow logic, task pane, history and locking, added to each form template | Added in FormsDesigner with Add XTP (Chapter 2) |
| DBXL | Stores the tasks, history, configuration and user documents, and provides the document locking services | Your DBXL server (DBXL Administration Guide) |
| Central Flows database | SQL Server tables and views for tasks, history, workflow steps, users and proxies | Your SQL Server (Chapter 1) |
| Central Flows Config | The form where you define the workflow steps of each template | Uploaded to FormsViewer (Chapter 1) |
| Central Flows Dashboard | The list of forms per user and the Global Admins entry point | Uploaded to FormsViewer (Chapter 1) |
| Central Flows Global Admins | The form that lists the Central Flows administrators | Uploaded to FormsViewer (Chapter 1) |
| Environment variables | DBXL address, user key mode, database name and optional Microsoft Graph keys | FormsViewer Manage Environment Variables (Chapter 1) |
The order of work is: set up the server side once (Chapter 1), then add the XTP to each form that needs a workflow (Chapter 2), then define its steps in the Config form.
0.3 How this guide is organized
| # | Chapter | Read it when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prerequisites and server setup | You are setting up Central Flows for the first time: database, DBXL document types, environment variables, the Config / Dashboard / Global Admins templates |
| 2 | Adding Central Flows to a form | You want a form template to use Central Flows |
| 3 | Workflow steps | Defining the steps, buttons, assignees and conditions of a form's workflow in the Config form, and testing it |
| 4 | E-mail notifications | Setting up the DBXL e-mail mapping, controlling when e-mails are sent, using your own e-mails |
| 5 | Dashboard and history | Finding your tasks on the Central Flows Dashboard, notes, filters, working as a proxy, the approval history |
| 6 | Administration | Global Admins and template Admins, proxies, extra dashboard columns, locking and session timeout |
0.4 Conventions
- Bold names are things you click or see on screen.
Monospaceis text you type or an exact value: field paths, rule names, variable names, URLs.- Paths such as
v2_XtpLogic_CentralFlows > XtpLogic > Actionsare what you expand in the FormsDesigner Data Fields pane; the first part is the data source.
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