Designer
Last updated
Last updated
Designer provides you with tools to create a workflow using a visual interface. A workflow is a set of instructions and actions that includes the ordering, timing and decisions needed to achieve a specific goal. Create a workflow using a visual programming approach by constructing a logic tree diagram.
Before making any changes to an existing, active workflow design, always disable the workflow first. This prevents the loss of your changes if the changes render the workflow design to be invalid.
To access the Designer interface:
Select Workflows from the main menu, and select Manage workflows from the navigation panel.
Select a relevant workflow name and then click the Versions tab.
Hover over the existing workflow version to reveal an action menu on the right side of the table.
Click on the action menu and select Edit to edit the the workflow logic.
The interface contains five main elements.
Tabs: Switch between the Designer and NEAL tabs to refine your workflow. The system prompts you to save your changes every time you switch to the other tab. Refer to the NEAL documentation for more information about NEAL scripting capabilities.
Canvas: Use the canvas space to connect thinklets and flow controls into a logic tree diagram. Drag-and-drop elements from the toolbar onto the existing code blocks. Each workflow begins with a Start block and ends with the End state. Since you can have multiple branches in your workflow, you may end up with multiple End states.
Toolbar: Use the toolbar to add and define the building blocks of your workflow with thinklets and flow controls, and set workflow parameters. Refer to the Adding and removing Thinklets section for more information.
Workflow map: Zoom in and out, and frame the entire workflow using the workflow map controls.
Save workflow or Close: Click the Save workflow button to commit the changes, or Close the Designer space without saving the changes.
Click on the Toolbox tab of the toolbar to add thinklets and flow controls to the canvas.
To create your workflow, drag elements and then drop them onto the canvas. Once you move an element over the canvas, a parking space appears. Touch the parking space with the thinklet and drop to confirm.
To remove an element from the canvas, click on the trash icon.
Dropping a thinklet anywhere outside of the design, cancels the action and leaves the design unaltered.
To add thinklets, drag the thinklet from the toolbox to the existing connection path. If the thinklet is in the correct position, a horizontal line appears, indicating that you can add the thinklet.
Drop the thinklet onto the connection path.
It may be necessary to skip certain steps in a workflow and then rejoin the flow later—for example, if a condition to check whether the software installed on a device is already in the workflow. In this case, you may want to skip the steps of installing the software and continue with the rest of the configuration.
Hover over the last thinklet or flow control in a path that has no connection. A pulsing dot appears at the bottom of the thinklet.
Click and drag from the dot to draw a line. Dots appear on the top of all thinklets and flow controls that are valid targets for connection.
Attach the dotted line to the relevant thinklet or flow control by attaching the dotted line to the pulsing dot on the thinklet.
When a thinklet or flow control has more than one path leading to it, you can remove one of the connection paths. To delete a path:
Click on the relevant connection path, and the line appears in bold.
Press Backspace/Delete.
The method of connecting branches and deleting unwanted paths can also be used to switch large sections of workflows between condition branches.
The system displays any issues with the workflow design that prevent it from being valid and activated, in the error section of the toolbar when you click Save workflow.
Review the list and correct any of the issues identified to ensure you have a valid workflow design.
The list of validation issues may contain further problems after existing issues have been addressed. This is due to some issues blocking further validation of other elements of the design.
Validation messages are not available in the NEAL editor. Instead, save and switch back to Designer to review the list.
Once you add an element from the toolbar, click on it to reveal its properties.
Configure thinklets to execute remote actions, launch campaigns or integrate with Service/APIs.
Refer to the Configuring thinklets documentation for more information on configuring thinklets.
The Condition flow control block allows the branching of workflows based on values that have been collected by the workflow or Nexthink data. The system evaluates a condition only once, at the point the workflow execution reaches it.
Conditions accept only one exit point, parallel processing is not supported by Workflows.
In the event that a condition has no valid exit point, the workflow will stop running.
The values that the conditions can evaluate are:
Thinklet outputs
Remote action outputs
Campaign responses
Service/API outputs
Workflow parameters
Database objects
device
user
Custom values
Conditions compare values using the following operators:
Is
Is not
Greater than
Less than
Greater than or equal to
Less than or equal to
Contains
Does not contain
Is empty
Is not empty
The system does not filter the list of available operators based on what is allowed to be used for a given data type. Ensure that you can use a given operator on the type of data you are comparing.
Name: Enter a unique name for the condition flow control.
ID: The system generates the ID automatically based on the name.
Description (optional): Describe the purpose of the condition and what it does. This information is useful for other users of the workflow who may not be familiar with it.
Add condition: Add a condition to the condition flow control.
Enter a unique name. This name appears on the canvas and in the NEAL script.
Select the source and value for the condition.
Select the operator.
Select the source and value to be tested against.
Add as many conditions as you need.
Click Done to commit the changes.
Once branches appear on the canvas, thinklets and other flow control blocks can now be added underneath them.
When deleting a condition from the workflow design, any design elements underneath the condition will also be lost.
The Wait flow control lets you pause a workflow and wait for either a period of time or an API call from an external system. This is helpful when the system has to wait for something that it does not have control over.
There are two types of Wait:
Time delay
API listener
When time delay is selected and configured, the workflow will pause and wait for the specified time and then automatically continue once the time has elapsed.
Name: Enter a unique name for the Wait flow control.
ID: The system generates the ID automatically based on the name.
Description (optional): Describe the purpose of the Wait and what it does. This information is useful for other users of the workflow who may not be familiar with it.
Type: Select the type of Wait required.
Value: Set the delay time in minutes or hours. The workflow will pause for this amount of time before it continues to the next step.
When you select API listener, the workflow pauses and listens for an API call being made to the Trigger WaitFor Event workflow endpoint. Refer to the Workflow API documentation for more information.
Configure up to five outputs to capture data from the external system making the call to Nexthink. Use these outputs to either make a branching decision with a condition in the workflow or to provide input information into subsequent thinklets.
Name: Enter a unique name for the Wait flow control.
ID: The system generates the ID automatically based on the name.
Description (optional): Describe the purpose of the Wait and what it does. This information is useful for other users of the workflow who may not be familiar with it.
Type: Select the type of Wait required.
Timeout: Set the timeout in minutes or hours. This dictates how long the workflow waits for the desired API call. When the timeout limit is reached, the workflow enters a failed state and stops processing.
Outputs: Configure up to 5 outputs which are collected from the API call being listened for. The ID of the output will be used for the parameters in the body of the call made to the Trigger WaitFor Event workflow endpoint.
To use the Wait - API listener, ensure the external system knows about the execution and workflow it will interact with.
Send this information using the {{sys.workflow.executionId}} and {{sys.workflow.workflowId}} variables through a Service\API thinklet. The 3rd party system will then record this information to interact with the workflow. See the format system value example of how to use these values here.
The End block flow control specifies the end of the workflow. Place End blocks at the end of each branch.
The End block is also the place where you can define workflow outcomes. When the system executes the workflow logic and it reaches the End block, the outcome and outcome details are stored and available to query with NQL.
Use the Outcome and Outcome details fields to retrieve detailed information about workflow executions and display them as KPIs in dashboards.
Name: Enter a unique name for the End block.
ID: The system generates the ID automatically based on the name.
Description (optional): Describe the expected outcome of the workflow at this point in the logic tree. This information is useful for other users of the workflow who may not be familiar with it.
Outcome: Select from a fixed list of outcomes that best describes what happens at this point:
Action taken
No action taken
Failure
Other
Outcome details (optional): Describe what happens when the workflow reaches the End block. The character limit for this field is 64 characters. Nexthink recommends keeping this description concise in case the information is used in dashboards.
The Connector uses a set of configurations to set up integration events to 3rd party APIs quickly. Nexthink supports the configuration of Connectors with the following third-party applications: Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Outlook, ChatGPT and ServiceNow.
Refer to the Configuring Connector thinklet documentation for more information on how to configure Connector thinklets.
Workflows use global variables to:
Accept inputs at the point of execution.
Define static parameters that the system can:
Pass over to thinklets as inputs.
Evaluate as part of a condition.
Under DNS Address:
Enter the Name of the workflow parameter.
Enter the Value of the workflow parameter.
Select Allow custom value to allow inputs for the various triggers.
Use the Workflow details section of the toolbar to add a description to the workflow. Describe the intent of the workflow design and any additional information that other users should be aware of when reviewing and editing it.
The system displays any problems with the workflow design that prevent it from being valid and activated, in the error section of the toolbar when you click Save workflow.
Review the list and correct any of the issues identified to ensure you have a valid workflow design.
The list of validation issues may contain further problems after existing issues have been addressed. This is due to some issues blocking further validation of other elements of the design.
Validation messages are not available in the NEAL editor. Instead, save and switch back to Designer to review the list.
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