Pause Until
A workflow pause is used to pause a workflow until a specified date, or time period has elapsed.
When the time has elapsed, the workflow will automatically resume and continue running until the workflow execution hits a workflow object that requires user interaction. The workflow Pause Until object is very handy for designing workflow that needs to “hibernate” for a time-period and then automatically “wake up” and continue working. This is useful for HR Onboarding/Offboarding, delayed requests, time-sensitive operations, Change Management and more.
Use
Requires the Automation service
The HelpMaster Automation service must be configured and running in order for the workflow pause functionality to operate.A workflow pause can be inserted anywhere within the workflow (except the very first object), and multiple workflow pause objects can be used within a workflow.
A workflow pause requires a time period, or “resume date” to be set. This can either be set as a time-period offset (eg. In 2 hours), or a specific date that has been set by a workflow variable.
Workflow ideas
Set and/or calculate dates
Use dates within the job to either act as the pause-until trigger date, or calculate a new date based on another date. Oftentimes, a workflow will require something to happen before a certain date. Use the workflow date variables and date modifiers to set/calculate a date that can be used by the workflow pause object. Dates are often stored in Control Sets - consider using these.
Prompt for a date
Prompt the user for a date and use that as the pause trigger.
Loop back to a pause if a condition is not met
There is no reason why the workflow pauses cannot be re-used in the same workflow. If the process requires it, it is possible to loop back to the workflow pause and re-start the time-interval pause. In effect, this creates a time-based delay that is used multiple times. The only way out of the loop is if a decision process branches out of it. This may be a user decision, a variable-check decision, a control set decision, or some other branching method that progresses the workflow away from the pause. In the example below the pause will loop back until the Control Set positive condition is met.
Loop Interval
In this type of loop it’s good practice to make the pause interval as long as possible but within a reasonable period depending upon how often the positive condition may be met in a day. So that the Automation Service log doesn’t get too bloated. Every hour or two would be reasonable in this case.
This may be useful for things like…
- Every X hours, try something (scripts, prompts, check conditions / variables etc.)
- Every 2 days, send an email (Job resolution survey?), and then exit the loop after 2 attempts
In this type of configuration the Workflow panel on the job General tab will look something like this, while on the Workflow tab and History panel it will show a HelpMaster System loop count item.
Remember also that automation features such as the Priority Manager and Triggered Events can also do time-based actions.
Cascade Workflow Pause for a staggered series of events
If the business process requires it, you can configure a process that will traverse through a series of pauses before executing some action. This maybe helpful in sales/CRM style workflows where an email, or other action is performed at defined intervals after the job is logged. eg.
See also
Variables
Set a variable based on user input
Set a variable based on a script
Workflow Concepts
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