Chapter 3: Running an App That Involves Multiple Users

Let’s try running a Workflow App in which multiple people are involved in the process.

In preparation, first add users to the Workflow platform. Then run the sample app and ask the added users to perform work.

Let’s try processing tasks while switching between the two users.

Set up an Organization

In the tutorials that follow, some pages will handle processes related to the user’s department and assign tasks to users who belong to a specific department.

Here we will use a Workflow App to process work for a small organization of five people, consisting of the Management Department, Sales Department, and the President, as shown in the organizational chart below.

In Questetra BPM Suite, an organization such as a company is represented by four pieces of information: user, organization, role, and position.

• User represents each employee or member registered in the workflow platform. In the diagram above, it corresponds to an individual such as you or Sumatra
• Organization represents a department. In the diagram above, it corresponds to “Company Name”, “10 Management Department,” and “20 Sales Department.” The organizational information includes the hierarchical relationships between organizations, so you can say things like the Management Department is a subordinate organization of the Company
• Position can be set arbitrarily to indicate the position within a department, such as leader. In the above diagram, Sumatra can be expressed as the leader of the Management Department, and Galapagos can be expressed as the leader of the Sales Department

We will not go into details about roles as we will not be using them this time.

The organization to which each individual belongs is included in the user information. Questetra BPM Suite has a simple organizational structure set up in advance. In the tutorial, we will use the set up organizations, but when using it in real business, please modify the organization settings to match the actual structure of your company.

Add More Users

Let’s register more users. You can add users to Questetra one by one, and import users, via CSV input.

Registering Users in Bulk

Now let’s register users in bulk. When you log into the Workflow Platform, your user name is displayed on the right side of the menu bar. Click it to open the pull-down menu and select [System Settings].

This will open the [User List] page in System Settings, where you can enter CSV data using the [Bulk User Registration] button below the title.

User information can be imported by pasting CSV data into the text box. Specify one user per line as follows.

Name, Email (, Organization 1, Organization 2,… )

Notes for Each Setting Item

User Name

A mandatory setting. You can’t create two or more users who have the same name.

Email Address

A mandatory setting. An email address cannot be registered for more than one user.

Password

An optional setting.

1. When not specified
   Each user specifies their password at their first login.
2. When specified
   Login passwords are set for the users. The passwords must comply with the password policy.
   *You can change this setting by going to [System Settings] -> [Login].

Organization

An optional setting. Enter the name of an Organization (such as division, department, group, unit) registered on your Workflow Platform. You can specify the user’s position in the organization by adding “!!” and the name of a position registered on the platform after the organization, such as “Sales Department!!Leader”.

Here is a template of CSV data for bulk user registration.

Sumatra,sumatra@example.test,Password##01,10 Management Department!!Leader
Canary,canary@example.test,Password##02,10 Management Department
Galapagos,galapagos@example.test,Password##03,20 Sales Department!!Leader
Oahu,oahu@example.test,Password##04,20 Sales Department

We will add 4 users – Sumatra, Canary, Galapagos, and Oahu.

Leave the email addresses as dummy addresses. In this tutorial, we will add test users using dummy addresses.

Please specify the passwords in accordance with the password policy^*. If you use a dummy address, you will not receive an email and will not be able to set a password for the first login, so you will need to set a password at the time of bulk registration.

* You can check the password policy via the [Show Password Policy].

The dummy address and password you enter will be used for each user’s login, so please remember them.

We will use the pre-registered Organizations for this tutorial.

On the [Import Users] screen, paste the CSV data and click the [Confirm] button to display the confirmation screen.

Please make sure that the pasted CSV data matches the added content. Then, click [Update].

As shown above, you can register all members in your organization at once using CSV data created according to the format.

Disabling Email Receipt

Users registered with a dummy address cannot receive email notifications and must be configured to turn off receiving email.

1. On the User List screen, click on a user added with a dummy address
   
2. Click [Edit Property]
   
3. Mark [Check if unable to receive emails.] and click [Update property]
   
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 for each user added with a dummy address

NOTE: When adding user accounts that will be used in actual business operations

Please replace the email addresses in the template with the actual addresses.

It is preferable to have each user set their own password when they first log in, rather than setting their password at the time of bulk registration. Here is the template where passwords are not set by bulk registration.

Sumatra,sumatra@example.com,,10 Management Department!!Leader
Canary,canary@example.com,,10 Management Department
Galapagos,galapagos@example.com,,20 Sales Department!!Leader
Oahu,oahu@example.com,,220 Sales Department

After adding users, please instruct those who will use the added user accounts to set their passwords according to the following procedure.

Setting the User Password by the User

1. Go to the login page of the Workflow Platform that you are using and click [Forgot password?]
   
2. Enter the email address associated with your user account in [Email] and click [Submit]
   
3. You will receive an email to set your password at the address you entered
   
4. Follow the link in the email to access the page and set your password (be sure to remember the password you set)
   

Modify Your User Settings

Confirm Your Organization

By default, your user account is set to belong to all organizations. You can change this setting from your user details screen.

1. Click “User List” from the menu on the left side of the screen to open the User List in System Settings. (If “User List” is not in the menu, follow the same steps as before by clicking on your username in the top right and then on “System Settings.”)
   
2. Click on the row with your name and details
3. The [Affiliation] section lists the organizations to which you belong. Check any organization other than the top-level organization and click [Delete]
   

Now the only organization you will belong to is the top-level organization.

The name of the top-level organization is “00 {Company name you entered when you registered for free}”. In the tutorial screenshot, it is set to “00 Whole Company”.

Changing the Icon

As a default everyone has the same icon as their profile picture. Let’s change the icon for just your user account so that you can tell users apart.

Click the user name displayed in the top right of the page to open [Account Settings]. Here you can change the user name and icon of the account you’re logged in with.

Replace the icon with an appropriate image. If you’re not sure what image to use, you can use the icon below. This is Questetra’s mascot character, Ques-kun.
(Save the image in PNG format. In Chrome, right-click the image and select “Save link as”, and in Edge, select “Save link as.”)

This completes the setup of the environment! Let’s try using the workflow app again.

Run the App

Now, let’s see how the Workflow App “Work Request Flow” works in a process involving multiple users. Since you will be using two accounts in the procedure, please use two different browsers if possible (e.g. Firefox and Chrome).

If you only have one browser, you can also log out and log back in with a different account.

As in the previous chapter, let’s experience how tasks are processed. First, start the “Work Request Flow” with the following steps.

1. Click the [Workflow] tab
2. Click [ Start] on the left menu to display the list of apps
3. Click the [ Start and Operate First Step] button on the “Work Request Flow” app

The first task, [1. Input Requested], will start.

Again, the only thing you need to set is the destination, but this time, let’s select Canary. You can display a list by clicking the [Search] button, or you can narrow down your search by typing a few characters in the text box.

Once you have selected the recipient, click [Finish “1. Input Request”] to complete the process, then click OK in the next dialog to finish the first task.

The next task [2. Reconfirmation/Completion] is assigned to the person specified as the request recipient in the “Work Request Flow” app. This time, we specified Canary, so let’s log in to the Canary account in another browser.

Switch Between Users to Complete Tasks

When you log in with your Canary account, the task you just requested will be available in My Tasks.

Let’s check the details of the process by clicking the [Details] button next to [Work Request Flow]. In the task “2. Reconfirmation/Completion” in the workflow diagram, an icon representing Canary, who is the immediate person in charge of the task, is displayed.

Now let’s get started.

1. Return to the My Tasks list and click the [ Operate Task] button to process task “2. Reconfirmation/Completion”
2. This is just practice, so do not fill in the form and select the [Reconfirmation] button at the bottom of the page

This should return the task to the requester. Let’s take a look at your account, the requester.

Just like before, the task “1x. Response to Reconfirmation” has arrived in My Tasks.

If you check the workflow diagram from the [Details] button, you’ll see that it’s designed to keep sending the task back until the requestee gives the OK.

So let’s proceed.

1. Click the [ Operate Task] button to open the task processing screen
2. Click [Finish “1x. Response to Reconfirmation”] at the bottom of the page to complete the process, and the token will be transferred to the requestee
3. When you return to the account of the requestee, Canary, you’ll find another task, so process it from the [Operate Task] button
4. Just like before, but this time select [Completed] without sending it back

According to the workflow diagram, the next task is “3. Confirmation of Completion”, and the token should be sent to the requester. Switch to your account, the requester.

Complete the Process and See the Results!

Did the task reach the requester successfully? If so, process it as before.

On the task processing screen, there are two options, [Re-request] and [Completed], but since you should now be familiar with how to proceed through the process, select [Completed].

The token has progressed to the end event, so this process is over! Let’s check from your account that started the process to see if the process is really complete.

Open [ Started Processes] in the left menu. The process you just processed is in the list. If you look at the contents with the [Details] button, you can see that the token in the workflow diagram has properly reached the end event, and the process has ended.

This concludes the tutorial on how to use existing apps. Next, let’s create your own workflow app.

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