WorkflowFirst lets you create any number of business applications

 For this video, we'll use a sample form to create a Purchase Request application.

We'll begin by clicking the Create Application button and enter a name for the application (the above example is called Purchase Req).

Once you click the OK button, it'll take you to the application configuration page.

Next, we'll install a sample form by clicking the Install Sample Form button and select Purchase Request from the dropdown list. As you can see, there are plenty of other sample forms you can try.

Your new form, Purchase Request, is added under the Application Tabs list. Forms added here will be displayed as tabs along the top of your published application.

Select the new form, Purchase Request, from the list to see its configuration such as the fields in the form. You can change or add new fields here.

Right now, your application is just going to be a database of purchase requests. Let's click the Quick Publish button to publish the application now. You can publish your application at any time.

The blue information bar will show you the link to your application once it's done compiling. Changes to your application configuration won't take affect until you click the Publish button.

Your basic application does not have a workflow, it's just a simple database and would look like the example below.

Reference 1

Without a workflow, we will click the Create New ( + ) button to add new entries, which will appear in a pop-up window.

You can customize this form however you wish by modifying it through the WorkflowFirst Designer.

You can cancel the entries by clicking the X in the top right corner of the popup form, or clicking Cancel. Instead of entering any data right now, we'll add a workflow to our application.

Note : Changes to your application are made through WorkflowFirst Designer and can be modified at any time. Also, backup your work if you have data in your application. 

 Go back to the WorkflowFirst Designer and select the application Purchase Req from the applications list. Next, we'll select PurchaseRequest from the Applications Tabs list.

The sample form will appear as an Application Tab in the published application (see Reference 1). From the WorkflowFirst Designer, we'll click the Add Workflow button to add a workflow, and this will take us to the flowchart page.

Normally, we would click + Add Entry Button to add the initial stage and add the fields for that stage as Input Fields

As we already have a sample form, we'll click Add All Fields to Initial Stage to add the Entry Button for us. We can also change the button label that the user clicks to start the workflow.

You can select the hamburger icon (Select Input Fields) to see or change the fields in this workflow stage.

Go back to get to the flowchart and select + Add Choice to extend the flowchart.

The next step will be to add a choice to Approve the request. So Stage Title will be "Approve", and we'll create a Role called "Manager" to do the approving. Once those are entered, click the OK button.

We will also need a choice to Reject the request, so follow the same step as above, but the Manager role is selected automatically.

Next, we'll add a new field for the Manager to explain the reason for the rejection. This will be displayed as a form for the Manager to fill out once they Reject the request.

Click the + Input Field and add "Rejection Reason" under the New Field Title. Under New Field Type, select Text (Paragraphs) to make it a larger input field. You can add other fields if necessary by clicking +Input Field.

Select OK once you're finished entering the your fields, and see your simple flowchart.

Publish your application. You can either click on the link in the blue information bar or return to your application and refresh that page to see the changes.

You will see the Enter Purchase Request button that will start the workflow.

The form layout is based on the order of the fields. Also, we'll show you how to turn some of these fields into dropdowns in another video.

Included in the form is a line-items subform. Notice, in the video, how it calculates totals automatically because of calculated fields

Next, we'll click OK to submit the request. You'll see the new entry in the list of requests. The PR Number gets assigned automatically - it's a Counter field.

Under the Originator, the request was entered by the admin because the admin is the default user until a user is defined in the application.

So the next step is to add a user - an Approver. Click on the New User button and add a manager who can approve the request. We'll also select the Manager role that was created in the flowchart and set Receive Role-Based Emails to Yes.

An email will be sent to the user's email address with a temporary password so they can login and set up their own password.

Note : The EMail Server has to be setup first in the Configuration for the downloaded version of WorkflowFirst. 

 
For now, we'll set their password and log in as them in this tutorial.

Lets switch users by clicking Sign Out in the top left corner and log in as the new manager user.

Notice how items assigned to a specific user are highlighted in red including a count of assigned items at the top. Select the assigned record to review and see its options. The line items, or any subforms, are shown underneath the record.

Lets approve it. Now the status of the request changes to Approve and the originator is emailed to let them know the outcome of their request.

The Dashboard tab allows every user to see all their assigned items.

This is a basic example of how to create a purchase requisition workflow.