Support hub All articles Request help Community

Building workflows

The Workflow Manager is a powerful automation tool within GraceBlocks that enables users to automate various tasks, such as sending emails, text messages, updating records, and triggering conditional actions. With a user-friendly interface and extensive customization options, builders can define workflows tailored to their operational needs. This article covers:

Creating a new workflow, including:
Understanding workflow management options:

Adding new / Modifying existing workflows

Builders can complete the steps below to add a new workflow.

Step

Action

Visual

From any Block, click the Manager workflows icon (tripple arrows) in the top left bar.

The workflow manager appears in a new tab.

Enter a form name, and click Create new workflow.

The workflow editor launches with the initial trigger editor open.

Workflow Triggers

Complete the trigger definition form and click Save.

Once the trigger is saved, the system will display trigger condition options, defining when the workflow should execute. A trigger consists of:
Trigger name – The name of the trigger as it will appear in the canvas designer (shown in step 5 below).
Trigger event – The condition that activates the workflow - options for event type are outlined in the table below:

Event Location – The Block and Tab where the system monitors for the event.

Trigger Event Options	Explaination
New record creation	When a new record is created in the specified Block/tab that meets the critera defined, the workflow will initiate.
New or updated field(s)	When one or more fields on a record is modified or specified for the first time. You will need to specify one or more fields to monitor. If monitoring multiple fields, specify whether updates must occur simultaneously or if any individual change can independently trigger the workflow. Combine this option with trigger conditions (next section) of these same fields to initiate workflow only on certain values are specified in the field(s) being monitored.
Receive email	When an email is received to the specified Block/tab that meets the criteria defined, the workflow will initiate.
Send email	When an email is sent from the specified Block/tab that meets the criteria defined, the workflow will initiate.
Receive text	When a text message is received to the specified Block/tab that meets the criteria defined, the workflow will initiate.
Send text	When a text message is sent from the specified Block/tab that meets the criteria defined, the workflow will initiate.
Schedule recurring task	The workflow will run repeatedly according to the defined frequency specified. To learn how to specify frequency, see how to enter a cron expression in the important notes at the bottom of this article. This type type of event will require specifying a Block, tab and specific record system ID where the occurances will be tied for tracking purposes.

Specify the additional conditions where this workflow should occur. This will allow you to limit which records will cause the workflow to be triggered. Conditions consists of:
Manage filter conditions – Where you sill specify records you want filtered into the criteria of the workflow. This criteria definition works using the same filtering logic defined for filtering records.
Additional field filters for email (from or to, subject, body) and text (message body)
Method of creation/update for event triggers of new record creation or new or updated field(s). Note: By default, if nothing is selected here only Manual updates will trigger workflow. You MUST specify Workflow if you want prior workflows, API if you want the API, and Email if you want incomming emails that create new records to be able to trigger trigger the workflow.

And, if you speify Manual you will have the option to choose Web Forms, if this is done, those web forms will be the only way the workflow can be triggered, regardless of anything else that is selected. If you do not choose a web form, then action a user can directly take that updates or creates a a record will cause it to fire

Click Save to Save the workflow trigger.

The workflow trigger node appears on the workflow canvas designer. (Note the number in the top next to the name of the workflow, this is the ID of the workflow, 90 in this case.)

Click on the blue square below the trigger link and drag down and release. This will allow you to define the first of many actions which can occur in this workflow.

The first action node (blue box) for the workflow will appear on the canvas. (Note the number in the bottom left cornder of the Action, this id of this action and will be associated in history to any event that occurs on a record based on this action, 2 in this case).

Double Click the blue action box representing this action node.

The editor for this node will appear.

Workflow actions

Complete the action definition form and click Save when done. An action consists of:

Action name – The name of the action as it will appear in the canvas designer.

Event – The event that is desired to occur, options such as add new records, updating the triggered record, deleting records, sending email and or text messages, adding/modifying/deleting licensed users, calling external apis, and AI related actions are all supported.

Run conditions – Choose if the action will occur once any or all prior events have occurred. While not applicable when adding the first action to a workflow, downstream actions can have multiple prior evets connected to them and you can choose if all or only one must be complete to cause the triggering of this action.

Occurrance - The deefault here is that an event will always run. However, if an even should only ever occur once or once within a given timeframe, chose the other options available to limit how many times the action can fire for the same record.

Action details - This section appears after event selection and varies based on your selection. This section defines in detail the action to be taken.

Action conditions - Add any filters to limit which records this action should be applied to. For every preceeding event in the workflow, you will have a dropdown list of available events and can then add filters related to that event occuring to limit the action event from occuring.

Timing - This allows you to control when the action will occur. By default it will happen as soon as the event is triggered. However, you can control the timing of the event based on the triggering date, or any other date field availabe to the workflow based on any date field associated with preceeding events of the workflow. When a date field is used, you can specify the action to occur either before or after the specific date linked to the field on the associated action event. For example let's say a request is for a specific deliverable date. A reminder email and text might be sent to the owner of the request the day prior reminding them of the pending due date. And, a follow-up message might be set as a separate automated email/text action for the recipient of the request the day after it was due thanking them for their collaboration and support.

Repeate steps 7 and 8 until all actions have been added to your workflow.

Should any actions need to be deleted, double click them, scroll to the bottoom and click Delete forever. Then confirm you want to complete this action by following the prompt instructions.

The action will be removed from the permanently deleted and removed from the workflow canvas.

While working, click Save to save any changes and continue working on your the workflow definition.

The workflow edits you have applied as saved and you can continue working. 🔔 Important, you must save your changes for them to be applied and available for testing/validation.

While working, if you realize you need to add fields or options to support the workflow definition, you can update the Block/Tab/Fields in Graceblocks and return to this workflow, first Save the action where you are working. Then click Refresh Schemas, the updated adjustments will be applied to the workflow definition options to allow you to use the new values in your configureation.

The screen will confirm that the workflow schema has been refreshed after a few seconds.

When finished configuring the workflow, click the workflow name and back arrow to return to the workflow list.

The workflow manager list of workflows appears.

Activation/Testing/Deactivation

By default, newly saved workflows are not active. You will want to validate your workflow immediatly after activating it to ensure it is running properly. When you are ready to validate your workflow, toggle it on to activate it.

Take actions in GraceBlocks that should trigger each scenario of your workflow definition. Validate expected behavior. This step is critical. Document what is and is not working and review and tweak the workflow until you are getting the expected results.

If results ae not expected and you need to pause testing, deactivate the workflow and only reactivate it when you are ready to resume testing.

Understanding workflow management options

From the workflow manager main page each workflow listed has an Actions button which. Take the following steps to access workflow options:

Step

Action

Visual

From any Block, click the Manager workflows icon (tripple arrows) in the top left bar.

The workflow manager appears in a new tab.

Filter to find the workflow of interest, then choose the Select and actions dropdown to select an action.

The action selector appears.

Workflow Action: Viewing history

Each workflow retains a history of all actions taken within the last 90 days. After this time period, the history is no longer available. You can access this information through the 'View history' action. Follow these steps to effectively review and navigate workflow history. The visual and accompanying table below outlines how to interpret and use all of the elements of the history page for a workflow.

ID	Item	Description
1	Workflow name and Unique Identifier	The top of the page displays the name of the workflow being viewed, along with its unique identifier.
2	Actions toggle	This setting is enabled by default. When active, the history table includes a row for each workflow action. If a workflow has 10 actions, a single workflow trigger ID may be linked to multiple actions (listed as events in this table). Toggle off to only see one row in the history table per triggered workflow. Toggling off will also hide columns reference above as 11, 12 and 14 - 17.
3	Filter option	Use this to filter workflow option to filter the information in the table using any identifiers and terms visible in the history grid.
4	Refresh	Use this option if you have active workflows running and you want to ensure you have the latest information visible on the page.
5	ID	Whenever a workflow trigger initiates and at least one action is completed, a unique identifier affiliated with this workflow instance is generated. This ID is displayed in this column.
6	Instance status	For each workflow id , this column denotes the status of that instance of the workflow. A given instance is can have the status of either running, complete or failed.
7	Trigger date	The date and time when the workflow instance was triggered.
8	Block and Tab	These columns identify the Block and tab location of the triggering record which initiated the workflow instance.
9	Triggering event	This is the trigger event defined for the workflow.
10	Action ID	This is the identifier associated with the action in the workflow. When editing a workflow's design, this ID is on the lower left hand corner of the action tile.
11	Action name	The name of the action as defined in the workflow.
12	Action status	The status of the action. A given action is can have the status of either running, scheduled, or missing requirements.
13	Trigger record	The specific record which triggered the workflow.
	Action Block	The Block where the action is associated.
	Action tab	The tab where the action is associated.
	Action record	The specific record affiliated with the action (click to view details). If the action taken changes the data on a record, you can also navigated directly inside GraceBlocks navigation to this record and review the history tracking tab of this record, you will see a reference to this workflow instance in the history timeline. In this case this action was taken using Workflow ID 56, Instance ID 1394, Action ID 2 In the case of email messages, in white text in the footer of the email, you can find this same identifier to help you trace any workflow based emails and what caused them to be sent.
	Action date	The date and time when the action occurred, provided the action is completed.

Workflow Action: Editing an existing workflow

To edit an existing workflow, complete the following steps below.

Step	Action	Visual
1	From any Block, click the Manager workflows icon (tripple arrows) in the top left bar. The workflow manager appears in a new tab.
2	Find the workflow you wish to edit and select Edit from the Select an action dropdown. The workflow editor launches.
3	Click Refresh Schemas in the workflow editor to pull back the latest configuration changes related to the Block(s) involved in the workflow. Once refreshed, a confirmation message will appear towards the bottom of the screen.
4	Double click the trigger or action which you would like to modify. The editor for the selected trigger or action will appear in the right panel.
5	Modify the action as desired and when done click Save. Not all attributes of a trigger or action are editable. If something is grayed out, it is not possible to edit this attribute. Instead, a new workflow should be created.
6	Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all actions are modified as desired.
7	To change connectors between actions, double click the line (the line will be removed) and then redraw the connector that is desired. (Click, drag and then double click to where you want it connected.) Note: Sometimes, depending on the change to the connection, it may be necessary to rebuild the workflow step that is moved into a new position if the positioning has changed data that is allowed to feed into the action. It is important to thoroughtly test when changing connectors and confirm the results are behaving according to what is desired. If the behavior is not aligned, delete the action and rebuild it.
8	If any actions need to be deleted, double click the action, scroll to the bottom of the action modal and click Delete forever. Then follow the prompts. Once confirmed, the action will be deleted.
8	With all edits applied, click Save in the top left of the page to save all of the workflow changes.
9	Click the back arrow/name of the workflow to navigate back to the workflow manager page.
10	IMPORTANT: TEST YOUR CHANGES and confirm the expected results are as desired.

Workflow Action: Rename a workflow

To rename a workflow, complete the steps outlined below.

Step	Action	Visual
1	From any Block, click the Manager workflows icon (tripple arrows) in the top left bar. The workflow manager appears in a new tab.
2	Find the workflow you wish to rename select, Rename from the Select an action dropdown. The Name of the worklfow becomes editable.
3	Adjust the name of the workflow as desired and click Rename. The new workflow name replaces the old one.

Workflow Action: Duplicate a workflow

If you need to make major changes to a workflow, it may be best to duplicate the existing workflow. IMPORTANT. MAKE SURE ONLY ONE VERSION of the workflow is active at any given time. Follow the steps below to duplicate a workflow.

	Action	Visual
1	From any Block, click the Manager workflows icon (tripple arrows) in the top left bar. The workflow manager appears in a new tab.
2	Find the workflow you wish to rename select, Duplicate from the Select an action dropdown. The selected workflow will be duplicated using the same name as the origional workflow with the word copy at the end. The newly created workflow will be inactive.
3	Proceed to adjust the duplicated workflow as desired. When ready to test, first Deactivate the origional workflow by toggling OFF the active/inactive toggle.	REMEMBER TO KEEP ONLY ONE WORKFLOW VERSION ACTIVE AT ANY GIVEN TIME.

Workflow Action: Delete a workflow

If you delete a workflow, it will permanently delete the workflow's configuration and history. Follow the steps below to delete a workflow.

Step	Action	Visual
1	From any Block, click the Manager workflows icon (tripple arrows) in the top left bar. The workflow manager appears in a new tab.
2	Find the workflow you wish to rename select, Delete from the Select an action dropdown. The prompt appears to confirm deletion.
3	Read and follow remaining prompts to complete the delete action.

Important notes about managing workflows

🔔 When configuring frequency of a workflow using the recurring task event trigger you will need to specify the frequency using a cron expression.

Understanding Cron Expressions for speficying workflow scheduling frequency

Common scheduling examples

- Every minute: * * * * *
- Every 3 hours: 0 */3 * * *
- Every Monday at 9:00 AM: 0 9 * * 1
- Every day at midnight: 0 0 * * *
- Every first day of the month at 8:00 AM: 0 8 1 * *

Cron expressions are made up of five fields (or six if specifying seconds), separated by spaces:

Field	Allowed Values	Special Characters
Minute (0-59)	`0-59`	`, - * /`
Hour (0-23)	`0-23`	`, - * /`
Day of Month (1-31)	`1-31`	`, - * / ? L W`
Month (1-12 or JAN-DEC)	`1-12` or `JAN-DEC`	`, - * /`
Day of Week (0-6 or SUN-SAT)	`0-6` or `SUN-SAT`	`, - * / ? L #`

Special characters explained

- * → Any value (e.g., * * * * * runs every minute)
- , → List separator (e.g., 0 9,12 * * * runs at 9 AM and 12 PM)
- - → Range (e.g., 0 9-17 * * * runs every hour from 9 AM to 5 PM)
- / → Step values (e.g., */5 * * * * runs every 5 minutes)
- ? → No specific value (used in Day of Month or Day of Week fields)
- L → Last (e.g., L in Day of Month means "last day of the month")
- W → Weekday closest to a given day (e.g., 15W runs on the closest weekday to the 15th of the month)
- # → "Nth" occurrence (e.g., 2#3 in Day of Week means "the 3rd Tuesday of the month")

A detailed case example:

Let's say you want the workflow to run at 8:15am every 3rd Saturday of the month of Feb and June only. Cron has you covered:

15 8 15-21 2,6 6

Breaking it down:

Field	Value	Meaning
Minute	15	Runs at minute 15
Hour	8	Runs at 8 AM
Day of Month	15-21	Runs between the 15th and 21st (to capture the 3rd Saturday)
Month	2,6	Runs only in February and June
Day of Week	6	Runs only on Saturday

Why This Works?

- - The third Saturday of any month always falls between the 15th and 21st.
  - By specifying 6 for Saturday and limiting days to 15-21, it ensures it only runs on the 3rd Saturday of February & June.

You can specify how many megabytes of attachment space an individual can use when attaching files on a web form. By default, it's 5MB. Increase by going to web form settings and changing the value in the field named MAX SIZE IN MB FOR ATTACHMENTS.
If you have created an attachment field with categories, each category is its own independent field to be placed on the form designer using the naming convention of <Field name> - <Category>. This allows the independent gathering of information for each category. The uncategorized attachments or a field with no categories will have the specification of - Uncategorized at the end. Be sure to rename the field to be what it should be for individuals using the form. In the example below, Image - Uncategorized is renamed to Video File.
In the form designer, when multiple attachments are supported, you can specify how many attachments an individual can upload using the Max # Attachments field illustrated below. The default max number of multiple attachments to include in a form is 3.