Adding a Status Workflow for Projects
The Status attribute for your project assets can be used to describe the “stages” of a project in which the initial stage is always Planned, followed by Ongoing, and then finally Completed. You can incorporate these rules by adding a workflow for the Status attribute to the asset management system.
1
Click the cog wheel in the top navigation bar and select Database in the opened Administration menu.
2
Click Primitive Workflows in the Database navigation sidebar.
3
Click Add to open the Add Primitive Attribute Workflow page for adding a new workflow for a primitive attribute.
4
In the Attribute list, select Status. Keep the preselected Process workflow option in the Mode list.
5
Write Status Workflow in the Label field.
6
Click Continue to continue to the next page
The Add Primitive Attribute Workflow page shows three state values and two transitions automatically generated based on the three allowed values for the Status attribute. The two transitions are Planned to Ongoing, and Ongoing to Completed. For the purpose of this tutorial, these transitions will do just fine.
1
For the Planned state value, under State conditions, select the Default checkbox to enable the value as the initial stage in the workflow.
2
In the first empty Label field, under Transitions, write Start Project. In the second empty Label field, write Complete Project.
3
Click Save.
With the workflow created, you need to add it to the Project asset type for it to apply to your assets.
1
Click Asset Types in the Database navigation sidebar.
2
Click Project to open the Asset Type page. Click Edit.
3
Click the Workflow menu option and select the Use workflows checkbox to enable workflows for the asset type.
4
In the Add workflow list, under Member workflows, select Status Workflow.
5
Click Save.
Open the Asset page for the busbar redesign project. The page now displays a Start Project button next to the Planned value in the Status field. The button corresponds to the transition from the “planned stage” to the “ongoing stage”.
1
Click Start Project.
A new version is saved with the Status field updated to Ongoing. The Start Project button has also been replaced with a Complete Project button on the Asset page.
2
Click Complete Project.
An additional version is saved with the Status field now updated to Completed. No button is shown as we have reached the last stage.
You can also try out the workflow rules by creating a new project. As you will notice, the Planned option is automatically preselected as the initial value for the Status field. Select the Completed option and click Save. As expected, Model Manager shows an error informing you that the transition from Planned to Completed is not allowed for the Status Workflow. Select the Ongoing option instead and click Save. A new project already in the “ongoing stage” is successfully added to the database.
See Using Workflows to Set Up Organizational Processes to learn more about the workflow management system of a Model Manager server.
This concludes this introductory tutorial on the asset management system.