An archive or failure Workflow state?

[Dimitri_S]

Seems like workflows seem to be designed to go from 0% (not started) to 100% (done)

How would one account for super-states / alt-states like “archived”/"backlog’ or “failed”/“rejected”?

For example in software dev a feature request can have the following states: requested (0%) → planning (25%) → working (50%) → in-review (75%) → completed (100%)

It can also have ‘super-states’ which may temporarily or permanently take the prospect out of the default state flow. Example: getting moved to backlog, or getting closed for various reasons

Another example is in a simplified CRM workflow: outreach (0%) → proposal (33%) → negotiation (66%) → closed (100%)

This would also have ‘super-states’ which may temporarily or permanently take the project out of the default state flow. Example: getting moved to rejected

A final real-life example is we are trying to track the status / state of our clients from Proposal (0%) → Onboarding (50%) → Active Client (100%). But what happens after the relationship with the client ends?

I added the Former Client state and the state icon seems to go back to 66%? Should I just move the Former Client to first and have it be 0%?

[Matt_Blais]

You could create a Formula field of Text type that will return an icon of your choice - or a formula field that returns a number/percentage, based on your calculation (to use as a replacement for the State icon).

[Dimitri_S]

Interesting approach. When I briefly tried adding my own custom icons it seemed like the default icons remained (the incomplete circle or the check mark). Was I supposed to hide them somehow?

[Chr1sG]

See here:

Allow custom colours (or shading) for workflow states

In some cases I use the workflow states to indicate when an entity is progressing from ‘draft’, through ‘in review’ to ‘approved’ state. In these cases, it’s actually preferable that the ‘draft’ and ‘in review’ states are greyed out, and only the ‘approved’ state is shown in white (i.e. the opposite of the current functionality). Can we have the ability to customise the shading (or even the colours) of the workflow states. Also, although it is nice that there are little icons to represent the …

Being able to customise the colours/shading/icons for workflow states would be useful.

It’s worth pointing out that you can create your own ‘workflow’ using a single-select, with your own choice of colours/icons.
What you lose with that method is the ability for the assignee to be notified of a status change, which the workflow extension automatically provides.

See also these discussions:

Proper workflow: States, Transitions, etc

Workflow should consist of States and Transitions. States have Transitions. Transitions have Guards (conditions and permissions) and target States. Transitions can be triggered via a user action (e.g. button) if they have the required permission, or automatically if the condition formula is true. A Role has Permissions on an entity based on the State of the entity. Groups can have roles. Users can have roles, and they can belong to groups (inheriting the roles of the group).

Workflow Extension Enhancements for Advanced Dev Teams

Hi guys, I really like the fact that in this early phase of Fibery, we already have a concept of “Workflow”, thanks to the extension, that has some nice handling that you don’t see in other Nocode, where generally you have to use a single-select Property in a Field to get Workflow. In Fibery we have an element of Conditional Formatting already built in if you think about it with “done” items both “graying out” on boards, and showing as “strikethrough” when referenced - terrific work with those…

[Oshyan]

@Chr1sG

What you lose with that method is the ability for the assignee to be notified of a status change, which the workflow extension automatically provides.

Wouldn’t this be fairly easy to setup with Automations once Notifications are a part of it?

[Chr1sG]

@Oshyan

Wouldn’t this be fairly easy to setup with Automations once Notifications are a part of it?

Indeed.
And this would mean that the workflow extension becomes nothing more than a generic pre-fab version of what can be set up manually.
Of course, I don’t know if the team have plans for the extension that would confer additional benefits that can’t be achieved otherwise :-?

[Polina_Zenevich]

Here is how you can decide which State is the final one.
As for the setting a State based on the Formula calculated Progress, there are two variants (as correctly mentioned)

• Text formula, that would write the status based on some conditions
• Wait for the Automations

Archive Feature is in the backlog, but now sure would be delivered soon - as you can always add such a State Manually

[Chr1sG]

@Polina_Zenevich

which State is the final one

There can be more than one state with ‘Final’ checked, right?
So e.g. an ‘Archived’ state can also be shown with a tick.

[Polina_Zenevich]

You can have as many Final States as you need

[njyo]

Hi all, sorry I’m late to this discussion.

I would love to have is an additional option of Archived next to Final to distinguish between a done and an abandoned state and similar. Of course I can use filters, but to me semantically the two sthinsg are different, as one indicates completion (as does your little progress icon) while the other indicates if this entity needs to be seen.

We have many workflows like this:

1. Draft
2. Ready to go Live
3. Live (marked as Final)
4. Archived (marked as Final and Archived)
5. Abandoned (marked as Archived)

Most of the time I do not want to see #4 and #5. Many workflows have more states… like a user story could have like a dozen, so the is Final flag is a great filter. Having is Archived maybe even enabled by default would be a nice little touch.

Thanks!

[Matt_Blais]

@njyo Would it not work to simply add a couple new custom states to your Workflows (Archived and Abandoned), mark them Final, and then use filters in your views/reports to exclude those?

For my own similar needs I will probably create an entirely separate field for “Archived”.

[njyo]

Yes, that’s exactly what I am doing now, but it litters the status with extra options that one has to configure again and again.

The ability to set some statuses as “hidden by default” saves on that config work.

And, maybe I’m nitpicking, but the generated process icon of just feels wrong there… it should be something different.

[Chr1sG]

Just for the benefit of anyone reading this who doesn’t know/realise, the Final state is a checkbox property of workflow states. It is possible to add extra properties (including ‘Archived’) for whatever you need.
Ultimately though, it is ticking the Final checkbox that determines that a state is displayed with a tick icon (and results in cards being greyed out).

One alternative is to define your own single select field, with whatever options (and properties) you like, and pick icons that suit your needs.
You will lose the default state icon behaviour (gradually filled circle and ticks) and the greying out behaviour, but will gain flexibility.

[Dimitri_S]

Just to update this thread, I ended up just creating a separate DB for archived entities.

This is a clunky solution because you need to manually convert entities to the archived DB and then delete the original entity. This also might possibly breaks some long-term report types, although you might be able to join the entities from the two DBs.

But it does have the added benefit that the archived entities are completely separate in search and selection fields. Also has the benefit that you can have extra fields for the archived entities without polluting the regular entity fields.