Axon Ivy Express

So far, this document familiarized you with the Axon Ivy Portal and explained how you can use processes provided to you by your IT department. The following chapter takes you to the next level.

Axon Ivy Express is a module of the Axon Ivy Portal. It enables you – as a business user – to create your own process applications and share them with your colleagues. These capabilities are also known as No-Code Application Platforms or Citizen Developer Platforms. Therefore, it is the perfect tool for you to digitize your processes and create standardization, reliability and traceability. Some of the key features of Axon Ivy Express are:

  • It is a No Coding Toolset, allowing business users without an IT background to create processes.

  • The Axon Ivy Portal Integration, allows business users to implement processes without IT department involvement.

  • The Seamless Integration into Axon Ivy allows you to make use of standard features like email notifications, task delegation, etc.

  • The Powerful Toolset allows you to create processes, define different task types, set responsibilities and due dates and define user dialogs for each task.

You can reach Axon Ivy Express by using the link Processes in the Axon Ivy Portal menu.

navigate-to-axon-ivy-express

Below the heading Processes, you see the link Create Express Workflow. Below, you find the process category Express Workflows with a list of predefined processes.

start-link-for-axon-ivy-express

HowTo: Create an Express Workflow

  1. Click on Create Express Workflow.

  2. The Express Workflow editor is opened.

  3. Define the Type of process:

    • Use the option One time if you want to execute the process only once.

    • Use the option Repeatable if you want to save the process for repetitive use. The process will automatically be deployed and added to the Full Process List page.

  4. Define your User Interface :

    • With the option Create own you can create your own user dialog for each process step

    • With the option Use default, the user dialogs will automatically be generated by Axon Ivy Express

  5. Provide a descriptive name under Process name

  6. You may add a description under Process description. We strongly encourage you to use the description to provide details about your process.

  7. Click on the link Change beside Icon to select the icon best suited for your process.

    express-workflow-process-properties

  8. The first process step is already available for configuration.

  9. You may add further process steps using the button Add process step

  10. You may delete unnecessary process steps using the button Remove process step

  11. For each process step,

    1. select the Task Type (see Express Workflow task types).

    2. provide a descriptive name in Task Name

    3. provide an optional description in Task description.

  12. For One time process type, the first process step defines the users or roles under Able to start who can start the process

    express-able-to-start

  13. For all other process steps define the user or roles who are responsible to execute the task in Responsible .

    express-task-responsible

  14. For each process step except the first define the time before the task expires in Expiry in days

  15. End the configuration of each process step by pressing Next

    define-express-workflow-process-steps

    Express Workflow task types

    Task type

    Description

    User Task

    For this task the user can define a UI

    User Task with Email

    In addition to the normal User Task, the user can send an Email directly from the Axon Ivy Portal, without the need to change to another system

    Information Email

    This email can be defined by the creator of the Express Workflow and will be sent automatically without user action

    Approval

    This task type creates a approval task

  16. Depending on the task type of the first process step, a different editor is opened. For both user task and task with email, the dialog editor is opened.

  17. For each data item you need in your process, select an input element

  18. Provide a descriptive name for the input in Label

  19. Select the input type in Input type

  20. Select if the input of this data item is required or not

  21. Use the button add-icon Create to create the input element

  22. The created element appears in the list Available form elements

  23. To delete input elements you don’t need, klick its trash-icon button.

  24. Drag and Drop the input elements into one of the areas of the dialog editor

  25. To remove an input element from the dialog, use the trash-icon Delete button

  26. To preview your dialog, press the search-icon Preview button

  27. To define an additional process step, klick the button arrow-right-icon Next

    express-workflow-dialog-editor

    Hint

    The results of all previous tasks are included in follow-on tasks in a read-only view, so that the user sees the whole history.

    Express Workflow input elements

    Input element

    Description and options

    Input field

    Input field for text, numbers or dates

    • Text field

    • Number field

    • Date picker

    Input area

    Text input field between 1 and 10 rows

    Checkbox

    List of elements which allows the user a multiple selection

    Radio button

    List of elements which allows the user a single selection

    File Upload

    Provides a file upload dialog to the user. You may define:

    • Allowed file types

    • Number of allowed attachments

  28. For process steps with the task type user task with email / information email, the email editor is opened.

  29. Specify the addresses of the email recipients. Separate them by commas.

  30. The response email email address is optional.

  31. Specify the subject of the email.

  32. Specify the email text.

  33. Optionally, include attachments.

  34. Use the button arrow-right-icon Next to define the next process step

Define an Information Email

For the information email, you see an email client UI where you can add information related to the process. You need to define a comma-separated list of addresses. Optionally, you can define a “response to” address.

express-workflow-email-editor

Express Business Summary

After you have completed an Express workflow, you can check its summary data by accessing its Business Details page.

express-business-summary

HowTo: Show Business Summary

  1. Go to the Case List page and open the link Actions , Business details.

    express-case

  2. Then the Express form is shown in read-only mode.

    express-business-summary

Note

If your process is running, you will only see the data of the current Express task on the Summary page

Axon Express Management

With Axon Express Management, an administrator can import/export Express workflows in JSON format. You find this feature in the Admin Settings <settings-admin-settings>.

express-management-tab

Note

To access this feature, you need to be granted the role AXONIVY_PORTAL_ADMIN.

HowTo: Export an Express Process

Select the workflows you want to export in Express workflows table. The selected workflows will be exported to a JSON file.

express-export-tab

  1. You can select multiple workflows by clicking the checkbox ALL.

  2. After you selected some workflows, click the Export Express button.

The Export dialog will display and show the workflows selected for export.

export-list-summary

Review your selection, then press the Download button to download the selected workflows.

Important

The export file is a JSON file. It contains a version of Axon Ivy Express and Express process data. Don’t edit this file manually.

HowTo: Import an Express Process

The Import Express Process function allows the Administrator to import Express processes into the Portal from a backup file.

Press the Import Express button, Import Express dialog will display. Once the Import Express dialog is open, press the Select button and choose the Express JSON file that contains the workflows you want to import.

import-selection

Then, press the Deploy button and wait for the deployment process.

import-deployment

After the deployment process is completed, an output log panel will be displayed. You can see all the information collected during the deployment process.

Now, if the deployment process is successful, your workflows are imported and an administrator can check and/or edit them before they are ready to use.

deployment-result

Ad Hoc Process

Axon Ivy Express also provides an ad hoc process feature. Onc Express is deployed, you can start an ad hoc process from any task. Ad hoc processes allow you to define more process steps and will be executed before the current task.

Start an ad hoc process by clicking on the menu icon at the top right in your task, then click on Start Adhoc

adhoc-start

Important

Save the data of your current task before you start the ad hoc process.

Then, define your ad hoc process.

adhoc-define

After starting the process, ad hoc tasks will be executed before your current task.

adhoc-first-task

Finish all created ad hoc tasks to return to the original task

adhoc-finish

When you start your original task, you will see a summary of the ad hoc process in your task.

adhoc-process-history

You can view the history again by clicking the menu icon, then click on Adhoc history.

adhoc-show-history