Validate the current workflow definition or collection using the Validate tool

Before you save, transfer, or launch a workflow definition or collection, use the Validate function to inspect the workflow for errors that will prevent transfer to Process Engine. Validation checks for invalid expressions used in field values and route conditions (grammar errors), missing information such as the workflow name, invalid steps such as submap steps with no map specified, invalid routing with AND-joins, and so on. In addition, validation checks that any specified custom roster or event logs exist in the current region. See Create a valid map for more information.

NOTE  You can validate and transfer workflow definition or collections in both PEP format and XPDL 2.0 format. In the Action menu, you specify which workflow definitions are to be validated and transferred, or you can validate the entire workflow collection from the File menu.

To validate the current workflow definition

Click Validate Workflow from the Action menu.

To validate the workflow collection

Click Validate Workflow Collection from the File menu.

Any errors display in a Validation Results window. Select each item (usually a step) from the Name list to see a description of the error. See Validation results for additional information.

NOTES 

Validation does not report as an error a Tracker assignment or step where the participant is not assigned. A tracker can be assigned as part of the launch; a participant can be assigned to a workflow group specified to process a step, or a new user could be added to the system anytime before the step is executed.

Validation does not report as an error a data field that could contain invalid data at runtime since the validation cannot predict the runtime data. For example, a stringtotime funtion could be defined with a time mask (yyyy-mm-dd hh:tt:ss am), but receive the timestring "10/03/2005 1:00:00 am" at runtime , which would cause an error in the running workflow.

TIP For values that might need to be changed in a running workflow, you can use a data field to hold the literal value, rather than entering the literal directly. In the case of the stringtotime function—stringtotime(timestring, timemask) where the workflow author might expect different time formats at runtime, timemask should be a string field containing the literal value ("yyyy-mm-dd hh:tt:ss am"), rather than the literal entered directly into the function. If a problem occurs in the running workflow, the workflow administrator can change the value in the timemask string to match the date entered in the timestring parameter; a literal in the stringtotime function cannot be modified in a running workflow.

TIPS

  • If you launch the workflow from Process Designer, the validation runs automatically before the workflow launches unless you disable workflow validation in the Preferences dialog box (Settings menu).
  • If any step in the workflow definition references a step processor that does not exist on this system, you must open that step and select a step processor from the list. This situation can occur if the workflow definition was defined on a different system or if a step processor was deleted after it was referenced in the workflow definition.
  • If a Partner Link references an "interface-only" WSDL (a WSDL without a SOAP binding), you must update that Partner Link to reference a runtime WSDL for successful validation.