Copy / Duplicate a Workflow

Hi, I haven’t seen this requested yet so I thought I’d add the request. If it’s something that is already doable and I just haven’t figured out how to do it, please feel free to close this request out!

I’d like to be able to duplicate a workflow I created between db’s. With a close to 3 yr old Fibery instance my team uses, we have developed some fairly good workflows in certain db’s - 8- 10 states, custom icons and colors (which are great features of workflow!). We have boards that won’t work unless certain types (dbs) have the exact same workflows, because we use columns for states. Occasionally we create a new db that’s related to an existing one with one of these advanced workflows. When this happens, in order to duplicate the workflow from the existing db, it can be a 6- 8 minute process to manually make sure all the states are named the same, have the same icons, and color. If you could do this with a click of a button that would be so much easier!

With an advanced Fibery instance it’s not something that is going to be an issue for my particular team as we don’t have a lot of db’s to add, but I could see a new team wanting to do, for example, a dev board and needing bugs, stories, tasks, indcidents - say 3 + dbs in one workflow - , that could use this quick ability to duplicate the workflow attribute. Basically a big time saver when setting up a new Fibery instance.

Thanks guys!

It sounds like you should use a fully-fledged database for your workflow states, rather than the native workflow field. Then it can be reused for multiple databases across the workspace.

Can you do that and still have all the inbuilt Workflow features (Assignments, notifications, etc)?

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The native workflow state automatically includes notifications, so if you made a new DB you’d need to create automations to do this.
The only other difference is that the native workflow states have the ‘completion/tick’ icon included.
There’s no interaction between workflow and assignees.

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@Chr1sG , I created a seperate database for a ‘reusable’ workflow state. However, they are displayed out of order. Meaning, the drop down in a table/grid view show the options in Alphabetical order (rather than the state order).

Is there a work around to show the proper order on the table?

Note the Board view shows the states in the proper order.

As an example, the Table view shows as:

  • Beta
  • Done
  • Evergreen
  • Icebox
  • In Process
  • Next
    …etc

I would like to to show:

  • Icebox
  • Open
  • Next
  • In Process
    …etc

When you click on the cell to choose a state, you will see a funnel icon and a double arrow icon. Click the double arrow, and you’ll see that the default sort order is by name. If you remove that sort option, the choices will be shown in rank order (which is probably what you need). If you need to change the rank order, create a view (list, grid, board) of the state options, and drag and drop to reshuffle.

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@Chr1sG: It works, thanks!