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Make a flow wait or ask for approval

Pause a flow with a Wait, a Wait for signal or an Ask for approval node, then let the run go on: by itself, with Resume now, or when someone decides.

Steps

Add the node and fill it in

In Add a step, Wait is under Decide & repeat; type Wait for signal or approval for the others. Open the node and fill in:

  • Wait: under Wait, For a while with How long and a Unit, or Until a date and time with the Moment.
  • Wait for signal: Wait at most with its Unit, and If nobody answers in time: Continue on the timeout port or Fail the run.
  • Ask for approval: Title, What you are asking, Details the approver sees and Options, each a button for the approver and a port out of the node. Then Ask for a comment, Who decides, Wait at most with its Unit, and If nobody answers in time.
The settings of the Ask for approval node Ask the sales lead: Title, What you are asking, Options Approve and Reject, and Who decides

Start a run and find it waiting

Click Test run, open the Runs tab and pick the run. Its header says what it waits on, when it asked and when the wait expires. On a Wait for signal node, it shows Resume now.

A run waiting on Wait for the payment, with Resume now in its header

Let the run go on

  • Wait for signal: click Resume now. Resume this run now? has a Payload (optional) box for the JSON the node hands on as its output. Click Resume the run: The run is on its way again.
  • Ask for approval: answer the request.
  • Wait: the run goes on by itself.
A resumed run: Wait for the payment went on along resumed, and its output holds the payload it was given
How it works

A Wait for signal node has two ports: resumed, whose output holds Resumed by, Payload and Waited (ms), and timeout, for when the time ran out. An Ask for approval node has one port per option, plus Timeout. A waiting run costs nothing.

Let a URL resume this wait, under Advanced, gives the run a URL an outside system calls to end the wait; the JSON it sends becomes the payload. Send the URL on from a node before the wait. Anyone holding it can resume the run: keep it inside your own systems.

Who decides names workspace members. For somebody outside, set May somebody outside the workspace decide? to Also the addresses below and add them under Addresses outside the workspace. On Test, nobody is e-mailed; see Answer an approval.

Your plan sets how long a run may wait: see Limits.

If it did not work

  • "Nobody is asked to decide — choose at least one person under Who decides, or allow an address outside the workspace". Pick at least one person under Who decides.
  • The run failed when the wait expired. If nobody answers in time is Fail the run. Choose Continue on the timeout port, and add nodes on the timeout port.

Next

Answer an approval

Decide on a request, in Flowmage or by e-mail.

Reading a run

See what each step did while the run waited.