Getting started with the Workflow service in the free Trial account (1/2)

The SAP Cloud Platform Workflow service is now available in the SAP Cloud Platform Trial environment. In this two-part blog series, I’ll show you how to configure the service and how to model and run your first workflow.

In the first part, we will configure the service and model our first workflow.

Enabling the Workflow service

Logon to your SAP Cloud Platform Cockpit and open the services tab.

Search for “Portal” and make sure the service is enabled in your account.

Then, search for “Workflow” and open the “Workflow” tile. Click on the blue “Enable” button in the service header:

After a few seconds, the status should switch to enabled:

If the enablement fails, try again – this could be a temporary problem.

User configuration

In order to use the service, you need assign the Workflow roles to your Trial user.

In the Workflow service tile, click on “Configure Service” (under Service Configuration at the bottom of the page):

Select “Roles” from the Menu on the left-hand side.

There are four standard roles for the Workflow service:

• WorkflowDeveloper – required for editing and deploying workflow models
• WorkflowAdmin – required for admistrating workflows and tasks
• WorkflowParticipant – required for processing task in the My Inbox
• WorkflowInitiator – required starting new workflow instances

Assign your user to each role. Select the role and then click on the “Assign” link in the “Individual Users” table:

Enter your user ID. If you are not sure, you can check your user ID in the header toolbar of the SAP Cloud Platform Cockpit:

Do not forget to repeat this assignment for all four Workflow roles.

Update: Log off and log on again for the changes to become active.

Create your first workflow

Open the SAP Web IDE (Multi-Cloud Version) – you can find the link on the Workflow service tile Note: Enable the SAP Web IDE Multi Cloud service first in the cockpit if you haven’t already done so.

To use the Workflow editor, you need to first activate the feature in Web IDE.

Open the “Tools – Preferences” menu and then select “Features”.

Find the “Workflow Editor” feature in the list and make sure it is switched on:

Now, create a new “Project from template”.

Change the category to “Business Process Management” and then select the “Workflow” template.

On the next page, enter a name for the new Workflow project, e.g. MyWorkflowProject.

On the following page, enter a name for the new workflow, e.g. MyFirstWorkflow, and a description (optional).

Hit “Finish”.

You should now see a project with a workflow file in your workspace:

Note: If there are layout issues with the editor window (can’t see the properties), simply refresh the Web IDE window (F5).

The workflow can now already be deployed (even though it won’t do much!).

Select the workflow file in the workspace, open the context menu and select Deploy – Deploy to SAP Cloud Platform Workflow.

You should see a success notification in the top right corner:

In part two, we will run this workflow and then enhance it with a user task, which will be shown in the My Inbox application.

To get more details on SAP Cloud Platform Workflow and all the new stuff we have delivered recently – just sign up for one the scheduled Webinars and get in touch with our experts.

Update: Part 2 is out – Read it here.