Creating workflows

Create a new workflow in two ways:

Select Workflows from the main menu, and click New at the top of the navigation panel.
Select Workflows from the main menu, choose Manage workflows from the navigation panel, and click New workflow in the top-right corner of the Workflows administration page.

General

When editing an existing workflow, view the following elements at the top of the page:

Click Enable workflow or Disable workflow to enable or disable the workflow.
Click Workflow overview to see the execution details of the workflow. Refer to the Getting started with Workflows documentation for more information.
Click Delete to remove the workflow from the system.

The General tab of the workflow configuration page contains the following fields:

Name: A meaningful name for the workflow. This name appears on the administration page and in any NQL queries you run in the Nexthink web interface.
NQL ID: A unique identifier for the workflow used when referencing the workflow in NQL queries. You can initially modify the suggested NQL ID, but once you save the workflow, you cannot change the NQL ID.
Description: A short description of the purpose and behavior of the workflow.

Triggering workflows

Select the triggering mechanisms for the workflow:

Manual: Enable the workflow for manual execution in the Nexthink user interface
- The workflow can be triggered against multiple targets at the same time: This additional setting is available to allow execution on multiple selected targets. By default, only one selection is allowed at any one time.
API: Enable the workflow for execution with the Nexthink API. Refer to the Workflows API documentation for more information.
Schedule: Enable the workflow to execute at a certain time, based on conditions defined within the NQL query
Events: Enables you to execute a real-time event workflow defined by the NQL query.

Click the Save workflow button at the bottom of the page before you continue.

Targeting workflows

This option has an impact on the visibility of Workflows when triggering workflows manually. Select objects that can be targeted with the given workflows:

Devices: Enable workflow as an available action when listing Devices, including Device View and Amplify.
Users: Enable workflow as an action when listing Users in Investigations.
Sessions: Enable workflow to be triggered on VDI sessions. Refer to Using session view documentation for more information. When targeting a VDI session choose from:
- Client: Targets the physical client devices used to initiate the session. Client devices can only be targeted if they are managed by Nexthink.
- VDI: Targets VMs in the virtual infrastructure. When selecting VDI, the user is choosing a VM in the VDI session to which the client devices connect.
Allow User Override Selection: allows users to manually change the target when executing a workflow in VDI session dashboard.

Versions

A workflow version is a container of the logical elements, or thinklets, that make up the automation within a workflow. Each workflow is limited to one version that you can activate or deactivate as needed.

The system applies the following rules to active versions:

A workflow version must be active for the system to trigger the workflow.

To access workflow version:

Select the the Versions tab.
Click Create new workflow version to start designing your workflow.

If you are editing an existing workflow, the page lists all the versions of the workflow in a table.

Hover over the existing version of the workflow to reveal the action menu on the right side of the table.
Click on the action menu and select:
- Activate the workflow version.
- Edit the logic of the workflow.
- Delete the version from the system.

Currently, only one workflow version can be active at any one time

Click Save workflow at the bottom of the page before you continue.

Refer to the Designer documentation for more information on how to design a workflow.

Designer and NEAL

Design your workflows in Designer view, to get a visual representation of the thinklets you are using, or use Nexthink Experience Automation Language (NEAL) as a scripting language that works as the underlying code behind the workflows. The code is automatically generated as you construct the logic in the designer. You can write the NEAL code directly, however, Nexthink recommends using the visual approach.

Refer to the Designer documentation for more information.