Viima's workflow automation feature is a powerful business rules engine that allows you to set up automated workflows, enforce processes, and automate recurring or repetitive tasks based on your unique needs.
Each workflow consists of a trigger with optional search criteria that determines when the workflow should be executed, and one or more actions that are to be performed when it is executed. For a more detailed look into how the feature works, please refer to this guide.
This article, however, focuses on the actions available for use with our workflows, and explains how each of them works.
Set idea responsible
Fields available: Responsible choice, option to replace current idea responsibles
Responsible choices
This field shows the options you have for setting the idea responsible. These are explained below in more detail:
Specific people. This option allows you to search for a specific user from your board and assign them to be responsible for the idea. If you'd like to add multiple people with this method, you can simply add multiple of these actions to the same workflow.
Idea creator. This option assigns the creator(s) of the idea to be responsible for it.
Category owners. This option assigns the owners of the idea's current category to be explicitly responsible for the idea. Please note that the category owners must be active users on the board for them to be eligible to be assigned. Please see this article for more information on category owners.
Board facilitators. This option assigns all active board facilitators to be responsible for the idea. For more information on how to assign users to be facilitators, please read this article.
Board admins. This option assigns all active board admins to be responsible for the idea. Please note that this does not include organization admins. For more information on these roles, please read this article.
Replace current idea responsible
If checked, this action will remove all current idea responsibles from the idea and replace them with the choice you've made above. If left unchecked, the action will simply add the selected responsibles to those the idea may already have in place.
Troubleshooting errors
The most likely problem with this action is that you have defined a user to be added as a responsible that has since been deactivated or removed from the board. If this is the case, please replace or remove that person. And as with every other workflow problem, please view the log of the workflow for more details.
Move to status
Fields available: Status to move idea to
This action is pretty self-explanatory. It chooses the idea(s) matching the trigger criteria, and moves those to the status of your choosing. Please note that depending on your trigger criteria, this could move many ideas as soon as you trigger it, so please make sure they work as intended.
Please note: This action is performed, even if moving the idea to this status would not be possible on the board due to e.g. a missing mandatory custom field value.
Troubleshooting errors
The most likely problems with this action are that you have disabled statuses on the board, or removed the target status altogether. Make sure you have statuses enabled, and that the target status still exists. And as with every other workflow problem, please view the log of the workflow for more details.
Move to category
Fields available: Category to move idea to
This is a pretty self-explanatory action. It chooses the idea(s) matching the trigger criteria, and moves those to the category of your choosing. Please note that depending on your trigger criteria, this could move many ideas as soon as you trigger it, so please make sure they work as intended.
Troubleshooting errors
The most likely problems with this action are that you have disabled categories on the board, or removed the target category altogether. Make sure you have categories enabled, and that the target category still exists. And as with every other workflow problem, please view the log of the workflow for more details.
Send email notification
Fields available: Notification recipients, Subject, Message
Notification recipient choices
This field shows the options you have for the recipient of the message. These are explained below in more detail:
Choose manually. List of email addresses separated by comma or semicolon. These have to be valid emails, but do not have to belong to users that have access to the board.
Board facilitators. All active users of this board with the user role of a board facilitator.
Board admins. All active users of this board with the user role of a board admin. Please note that this doesn't include organization admins or board facilitators.
Idea responsibles. People that have been selected to be responsible for an idea.
Idea creators. The person (or people) that are the creator(s) of the idea.
Category owners. Sends an email to the people who have been selected to be "category owners/admins" for the category this idea belongs to. These people need a valid email address, but don't need to have an active account on the board.
Available variables for subject and message
You can customise the subject and message of the email freely. You can also use a number of variables in either of these fields to personalise the content based on context of the current idea:
{{IDEA_NAME}} – Name of the idea
{{IDEA_URL}} – Hyperlink to the idea
{{IDEA_STATUS}} – Name of the status the idea is currently in on the Viima board
{{IDEA_CATEGORY}} – Name of the category the idea is currently in on the Viima board
{{IDEA_CREATOR}} – The name of the creator(s) of the idea
{{IDEA_RESPONSIBLES}} – List of names of people responsible for the idea
Troubleshooting errors
There are a few relatively common challenges you may come across with this action, all of which typically revolve around the intended recipient not receiving their email. Please check the following:
Review logs to see if the email was sent correctly
The email address of the recipient is correct and valid
The user hasn't disabled email notifications from their profile
The email hasn't ended up in the user's junk folder
Move to board
Fields available: Target board, keep evaluations, keep votes, keep comments
This action copies the idea(s) matching the trigger criteria to a new Viima board of your choosing. This keeps the original idea on your current board to minimise the risk of unintended data loss.
If you select one of the options for "keep evaluations", "keep likes", "keep comments", the respective information will also be copied over to the target board alongside the idea itself.
Please note that category, status, and other information like tags must be set manually on the target board! If you want to, you can create another workflow to help with this.
Troubleshooting errors
Here the most likely errors lead to incorrect access rights, or the board being deleted or archived. If your desired board doesn't appear on the list, please make sure you have access to that board with the appropriate permission to submit ideas. Also make sure the target board hasn't been deleted or archived. And as with every other workflow problem, please view the log of the workflow for more details.