Workflow FAQ

What is a form type?

Flowable provides form types to type variables in the forms used by start events and user tasks. For more information about form types, see Form property types.

What is a user expression?

Flowable provides a number of user expressions to indicate candidate users for user tasks, or to use them as an argument in any other expression. For the full list of user expressions, see Candidate user expressions.

What is a business item?

A business item is any item to which a running workflow definition instance is linked and on which that workflow can perform actions. Workflow definitions can be started to handle tasks for one specific business item. That business item uniquely identifies the running workflow definition instance at any moment in time. In Collibra Platform, a business item can be an asset, domain or community. Some workflow definitions do not apply to a business item at all. These workflow definitions are global workflow definitions.

For the methods that can be called on a business item, consult the BusinessItem bean or the Workflow beans Java documentation for the BusinessItemBeanV2 Class.

When does the workflow user perform a task?

The workflow user is an out-of-the-box hidden user that Collibra uses exclusively to perform certain workflow tasks.

The workflow user performs asynchronous operations, such as when you select multiple assets and start a workflow. In this case, the workflows are run by Collibra, so all the changes that result are attributed to the workflow user. The same situation occurs when a timer starts the workflow.

If you start the workflow on one resource, the action is synchronous and the tasks are attributed to you.

Synchronous script tasks are attributed to the user who starts the task. Asynchronous script tasks are attributed to the workflow user.

Notwithstanding the above, the type of actions that the scripts invoke determine whether Collibra checks for permissions or not:

  • If the script invokes synchronous calls, such as domainApi.removeDomain or workflowInstanceApi.startWorkflowInstances, the actions are performed within the workflow context. The users who start the task do not need roles with permissions that allow the task to complete.
  • If the script invokes asynchronous calls, such as importerApi.importExcelInJob or domainApi.removeDomainInJob, the jobs run outside of the workflow context. The users who start the task need roles with permissions that allow the task to complete.