Using Entry Processes to Determine the First Step in a Workflow

When you deploy a workflow, you can choose which process is the first to attempt in a workflow. This allows you to skip steps that have already been accomplished or are not required in certain environments. Being able to select the process to begin with can also be helpful when creating a workflow as part of testing and troubleshooting the steps in a workflow.

An entry process is any process in a workflow that can be selected as the first process to attempt in a workflow. You can enable and disable processes in a workflow as available entry processes for the workflow. By default, the first process created in a workflow is defined as an entry process; all other processes are disabled as entry processes.

To be able to select a process in a workflow as the first process to attempt, it must be enabled as an entry process. In the workflow area, right-click a process and select Toggle Entry Process. This enables or disables a process as an entry process for the workflow. A process that is defined as an entry process is displayed with a green flag symbol, as shown in the image below.

Although any process, other than an exit process, can be enabled as an entry process for a workflow, you should limit the steps that are enabled as entry processes for various reasons:

• Some steps in a workflow may not work as entry processes. For example, a decision process that relies on the exit code of the previous process should not be enabled as an entry process. This is because the decision process could not retrieve the required exit code. Without the ability to retrieve an exit code, the decision process would not be able to perform a comparison, and the workflow would appear to be unresponsive.
• When deploying a workflow using System Manager, each available entry process is listed. Providing many available entry processes can cause confusion as to which entry process to use to begin the workflow.
• When deploying a workflow, starting at a certain step can cause previous steps to be skipped entirely, depending on the logical order of the workflow. Ensure that skipping certain steps still allows the workflow to be valid in the scenarios that it will be used in.