Best way to define new workflow states

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1

The default states are Open, In Progress and Done. If for a particular workflow and/or types we need more states, what is the recommended way to model this?

  1. Add more states to the State (workflow) field? This would mean they would only be relevant for some entity types, does that cause complications building views that include multiple types?

  2. Add a separate Single Select field to model a completely independent workflow state. This then has to be replicated across all types that need combining.

Any guidance much appreciated!

2

Any changes to the choices of the workflow state only affect the database where the changes are made - they’re not global.
So you can have totally different workflows for different types of entities.
If you do want to re-use the same workflow, but you don’t want to replicate it for all databases that need it, consider creating a database of entities to represent the workflow states, and create many-to-one relations to it from all the databases that need it (and maybe store this database in a space with read-only access, so users can’t change the choices).

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3

It really depends on the context of your process and workflow.

I generally like to use Workflow / State for clearly defining the most important stages in your process or sub-process

Then supplement the State with a more detailed Single Select field, if necessary.

I’m not sure if there is a downside to using Workflow vs Single Select as you can use them interchangeably in most cases. Except that Workflows have a defined sequence and final state when it comes to automation.

Below is my recent use case of having both States and Single Selects for task management using a board view. Where the Single Selects are used for not-so-linear states that supplement the primary states of Open, In Progress and Done.

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4

Workflow fields have the advantage of being able to be updated inline in some circumstances (i.e. without having to open the entity)

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5

Oh, I should also perhaps have added that the ‘sequence’ of workflow states (i.e. how much the circle is filled in) is governed by the ordering in the setting of the field, with the exception that any workflow state(s) that are defined as ‘Final’ will show the tick icon.

For anyone reading this who doesn’t already know, you can define whether a state is ‘Final’ by opening the state (alt-click on its name) and setting/clearing the checkbox:

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With the state configuration options set up as shown below:

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if I chose to define states B and D as final, the state options show up as follows:
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Note the icons, even though C is the default value for new entities.

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6

Oh, and cards that are in the Final state will be ‘greyed out’ on board view:

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7

@Chr1sG this :arrow_up: should in some form be added to here:

The overall documentation on the capability of each fields needs to be detailed much better IMO…

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