Trigger Machine Flows via BPA using commands

This section describes how to trigger Flows from IFS cloud BPA

IFS Workflows/BPA

Workflows in IFS cloud is their take on Low Code workflows powered by Camunda. It doesn’t come close to Novacura Flow but has the advantage that it’s integrated into IFS cloud. You can for example prompt for input directly inside of Aurena, you can also connect it to a particular projection being triggered. Much like how events used to work.

Read more:

How to trigger a Machine Flow via IFS workflows using REST

Creating the IFS Workflow

  1. Navigate to Workflows and press New.

  1. Give the workflow a meaningful name. Press ok.

  1. Press Expand.

  1. Select the version you want to edit. Then press Design. This will open the Workflow Designer.

  1. Pull the Task and EndEvent element to the design area.

  1. Options appear when clicking an element. Connect the elements with arrows.

  1. Change the task element to IFS REST Call.

  1. Time to configure the REST call. For simplicity a GET request with no input parameters is used in this example. It is possible to pass parameters as well. The URL to the Flow can be found in Flow studio.

Fill in the highlighted fields. Basic auth header is in the format username:password and is Base64 encoded.

In the example above the URL and Auth is hardcoded. This is not recommended. If you find a good solution to store and fetch them as global variables within IFS Cloud please contact Project Office, so we can update the guide. project.office@novacura.se

  1. Save the workflow and publish.

Click the refresh symbol to load the latest save. Select the version you want to deploy and click Deploy. Now the workflow is ready to be connected to a command.

This guide is focused on how to setup a REST call to trigger a Machine Flow. Please refer to IFS docs for more info on IFS Workflows.

Adding custom command

Make sure that your Flow server is accessible from the IFS cloud instance.

  1. Navigate to the page where you want your button and open the page designer to add your command.

The page designer won't be covered here but it's recommended you are familiar with it and how to handle contexts before proceeding. Here's the section on Page Designer in IFS Docs : https://docs.ifs.com/techdocs/23r2/040_tailoring/225_configuration/200_client_configurations/100_page_designer_basics/

  1. Click the "+"-sign next to Commandgroups.

Make sure you put the command in the correct context.

  1. Choose ExecuteWorkflow

  1. Give the button a name and select the Workflow from the drop down list. And click confirm.

Here you can also specify the parameters you want to pass to the workflow. Use the same, ${<variable>}, annotation to point to that variable in the workflow.

  1. Now your custom button should be visible if "Preview of custom config..." is enabled. Press the button and VOILA!

  1. The button command can now be saved and deployed.

Last updated