To create a workflow from any type (which means any tab, or any Form), you just click on the "Add Workflow" button:

 

Clicking the 'Add Workflow' button (or clicking Create New on the workflow list) will display a form where you can enter the name of the workflow.

Usually you can just click OK here without changing anything. But, if you prefer, you can change the name of the workflow. You can also change the type of workflow - whether it creates a new item in this list, or updates an existing item. Usually you start by creating workflow that creates new items.

You can also expand the "Other Settings", to set more advanced configuration on the workflow:  

The following fields can be entered:

Title

The name of the workflow, which is defaulted for you. You can override it to something more meaningful - for example, “Help Desk Ticket System”.

Workflow Type

Either 'Updates Existing Item' or 'Creates New Item'. This refers to how the workflow starts. 

 •  Updates Existing Item : The workflow can be started once a record has already been created. It will modify (update) the existing record as it goes.

 •  Creates New Item : The workflow can be started before a record has been created. The workflow creates a new record and then updates it as the stages progress.

Note : If you select 'Creates New Item', make sure that all of the mandatory fields in your type are present in the first stage of your workflow. If mandatory fields are missing, then the first stage of the workflow will fail with an error because it needs that field to be entered before it can create the record. 

Condition

This is an optional, simple condition that is evaluated to determine if the workflow start button should be visible. For example you could put 'Complete=False' here to ensure that the first workflow stage will only be visible if the Complete field is set to False. In the "Other Settings" section there are several additional configuration items: 

Show State

Indicates if the current workflow stage of the record should be visible to the user as a field. 

Create Report

Indicates if a workflow report should be produced. This will provide a list of all records in the workflow, grouped by their current stage. This report can be subscribed to so that it is automatically emailed to your inbox each day.

Email Notification

Indicates if a Notifications area will be added, letting users subscribe for email alerts when records reach specified workflow stages. The email will include a link to the workflow record so that further actions can be taken.

Audit Trail

Indicates if a history will be recorded of all changes made to the record, whether through workflow or by manual editing. An 'Audit Trail' drilldown will be added and the system will automatically create an entry in this list whenever a 
change is made to the record.

Show Buttons

By default all workflow stage actions are displayed as buttons above the record. If you prefer to just make them available in the What's Next list, and not as buttons, then set this to No.

This Tab Only

By default, for top-level tab workflow, the button to create the workflow will be visible on the same application tab where it is defined. If you want to be able to start the workflow from other tabs, then set this to No.

Disable Other Editing

By default, all other edit options (being able to manually edit records, delete them or create new records) is disabled so that the list is only controlled through workflow. To allow manual editing, set this to No.

Add Originator

Adds a special 'Originator' field that holds the name of the user that started the workflow.

Notify Originator

By default, all originators of workflow are notified when workflow items are completed. If you want to disable this (perhaps you want to handle it yourself through scripting) then set this to No.

Add Notification By Stage

Adds options to set up notifications (in the Configuration tab) for each stage of the workflow.

Add Notification By Role

Adds options to set up notifications (in the Configuration tab) for each role that is used in the workflow. For example, a Manager may be one role used in the workflow. This would allow you to be notified of anything happening in the workflow that is related to the Manager role.

Add Filters By Role

Adds a filter at the top of the list that lets you select a role to filter the list by. Filtering the list by a role will show only those workflow items relevant to a user of that role.

Add 'My Workflow Only' Role

Adds a security role similar to 'My Workflow Only' that, when added to a user, will make sure they can only see workflow items they created.

Add Messaging

When set to Yes will automatically add a 'Query' option at each stage, that allows the user to query the user of the previous stage in the workflow. That user can then respond and the workflow can continue.

Repeatable

For workflow that updates items, indicates if the workflow can run again after it has completed.

Note : Any number of workflows can be added to a field, and any number of workflows can be in progress at any time. Because they share access to the same record, workflows can also interact with one another, allowing you to model some very sophisticated business processes. 

Now the flowchart is displayed, the initial screen will just show the main workflow starting point: 

 

If you put your mouse cursor inside the workflow box, a number of toolbar options will appear: 

 

From left to right, the icon buttons are:

Edit

This commands takes you to the edit screen for this workflow stage (or the main workflow record). Here you can edit the workflow stage title, icon and other setting.

Select Input Fields

For a workflow stage that has user-input, this lets you select the fields that will appear in the form generated for that step in the workflow. This can consist of existing fields, or new fields you can specify as you create the stage. This will be covered in this section.

Edit Script

In addition to letting the user enter fields and allowing the user to make decisions, you can also add some ad-hoc scripting. The scripting will have complete control over what can be set in the stage and also provides the ability to easily start a secondary workflow. Details of the scripting language, DbfScript, are provided in DbfScript Reference

Add Option

This command takes you to the 'New Sub-Stage' form where you can enter the details of a new stage that will go under this stage. We'll be covering this next.