Share via

Adding and Modifying States in a Workflow

  • Article

This content is no longer actively maintained. It is provided as is, for anyone who may still be using these technologies, with no warranties or claims of accuracy with regard to the most recent product version or service release.

After you have created a workflow process, you might want to add additional states for steps that were not part of the typical workflow but are necessary for complete tracking of an item.

For example, the typical workflow for an issue is from Activated to Resolved to Closed. However, some issues may require special handling. You can add a state, Escalated, for issues that require priority handling or special attention.

Note   If your workflow is based on an existing column in your database, when you add a state, a row with the new state's information is added the table containing this column.

Additional State Outside the Typical Process for an Issue

For each step that an item must go through in your process, you can add a state to your workflow.

The workflow diagram can be used to do the following:

Adding a State

To add a workflow state

  1. Open your team solution in the Access Workflow Designer. For details, see Accessing Access Workflow Designer Tools.

  2. In the Object List, expand Workflow Processes by clicking the plus (+) sign.

  3. Select a workflow process from the list to display the workflow diagram.

  4. Right-click the diagram background, and from the shortcut menu, select Add State.

  5. Enter the New State name, and click OK.

  6. The designated state is added to your diagram. If you do not see it, right-click the diagram and select Zoom to fit.

  7. To connect this new state with existing states, you must create a new workflow action. For more information, see Adding and Modifying Actions.

Renaming a State

During development, you might find the original names for states do not reflect the intended meaning. For example, the users may not understand a state named Review, because the word can imply an action as well. However, the users can understand what In Review means.

Renaming a state does not impact existing rows that are in that state, because you are changing the descriptive, "friendly" name in the lookup table and not the integer value used in the foreign key column of the table.

To rename a state

  1. On the workflow diagram, right-click the state, and choose Rename.

  2. At the prompt, enter a new name, and then click OK.

Deleting a State

If you find you no longer require a state in the process, you can remove it.

To delete a state

  1. Make sure none of the existing rows are in the state you want to delete. If existing rows do use the state, you must move them to another state.

    **Caution   **If you delete without changing existing rows to a different state, those rows can no longer be modified. Before removing a state, change the rows to a state value that is represented on the diagram.

  2. Make sure the state following the one you want to delete has another action entering it. If it does not, add another state or action to connect that state to the diagram.

    **Note   **You cannot delete the only connection another state has to the diagram.

  3. On the workflow diagram, right-click the state, and choose Delete.

    The state and all of its associated actions are removed from the diagram and deleted from the workflow.