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Ability to re-use a Business Process stage


Drew Davies

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Morning,

Apologies if this feature already exists (or if it's already been requested elsewhere) but would it be possible to save a Business Process 'Stage' as a template that you can then insert into other processes? I've found myself repeatedly creating the fairly standard 'Closure' stage with very little or no differences from other processes.

Currently, I'm selecting every node in the process and copy/pasting which although functional just feels clumsy.

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I have in the past found issues with copying to different windows (possibly tabs, can't remember) - which is the normal layout when I'm duplicating/updating Processes. This may have been fixed, but if not, copy/paste isn't as powerful as it could be.
If this is still an issue the workaround is to copy, browse to the new process in the same tab, then paste.

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To be honest our first and last stages are the same for 90% of tickets so I have created a template BPM with the required stages created and the middle 1 or 2 just Start>End. I just copy the process whenever I need a new one, add the required stages, done.

I would be more interested in being able to save customised nodes (or groups) to be able to add them like normal nodes to any BPM. And the same for PC nodes.

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For now, something that might help is the Group Box.  On a stage you can put your entire flow into a Group Box and then when the Group Box is selected and you use the ''Copy Selected Nodes'' option it will copy everything in the Group box.

image.png

 

You can even have your workflows divided up into small groups to simplify your workflow if it is getting too busy... and then copy the Group Box to other Stages if you want to re-use the same nodes.

 

image.png

 

Regards,

James

 

 

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Hi @James Ainsworth

The workarounds are viable but still clumsy, although likely an issue with my PC any time I try to copy anything the system freezes up and the page reloads. Currently I'm having to have a colleague copy and paste everything and re-save so I can continue.

Is there room on the board for this suggestion?

 

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  • 1 month later...

@Drew Davies have implemented feature where you can save stage and/or selected nodes as a template. You can then add those stage and/or node templates into other processes. It requires new server release, once that is available the feature should activate. 

You will be able to access template save/paste options from canvas context menu and from stage toolbar.

Cheers

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Hey @NeilWJ - I can see the screenshots now, thanks! :) Looks good too, am looking forward to putting this to use as will save a lot of time.

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  • 6 years later...

Hi @James Ainsworth '... and then copy the Group Box to other Stages if you want to re-use the same nodes' - this only works within the original workflow?
Thought it might be a slightly easier way of marking a group of nodes, but doesn't seem available to copy into a different workflow.

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On 04/05/2018 at 16:33, NeilWJ said:

implemented feature where you can save stage and/or selected nodes as a template. You can then add those stage and/or node templates into other processes. It requires new server release, once that is available the feature should activate. 

@JJack

Have you tried the option to save selected nodes as a template?  While this doesn't take the place of being able to make a call to an external workflow that can be reused, it might be easier than copying and pasting between workflows.

image.png

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Hi @James Ainsworth Yes, thanks, I use the save as/paste from templates quite a lot.
I liked the idea of 'boxing up' a few nodes from a stage to copy to a different workflow - I'll have to stick with just using the standard Windows click/ctrl-c to copy several nodes.
By the way, it usually seems I have to open the workflow I want to copy from first, and from that open a new Workflows tab and open the one I want to copy to. Without doing it that way, a 'paste nodes' usually refuses to  do anything.

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8 hours ago, JJack said:

By the way, it usually seems I have to open the workflow I want to copy from first, and from that open a new Workflows tab and open the one I want to copy to. Without doing it that way, a 'paste nodes' usually refuses to  do anything.


That's interesting.  I'll feed that back to development.  I couldn't say at this point if it something that can be changed, but I'll see what they have to say.

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