Templates for advanced submissions

About templates for advanced submissions

A template for advanced submissions consists of a series of process steps that indicate actions which one or more WorkZone users must complete in order to complete the advanced submission the template is applied to.

Applying a templates to a advanced submissions adds a larger degree of flexibility in defining and completing the actions required of the submission.

Process steps

The template's process steps can be defined as either sequential or parallel steps.

Sequential steps must be completed in strict order, one after the other, while parallel process steps can be completed independently of all other process steps, including sequential process steps.

The order of the sequential process steps is determined by the placement of each step in the Process steps detail tab of the template detail page. Process steps can be re-ordered by dragging them to a higher or lower position in the list in the Process steps detail tab.

Read/Write access

You can restrict other users access to a template by defining access codes for Read and Write access to the template and its steps. Users not assigned the same Read access codes as the template will not be able to open and view the template and its steps in the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab.

Similarly, users not assigned the same Write access codes as the template will not be able to make changes to the template and its steps.

Starting the process

If you want another user to be able to start an advanced submission process, you must assign the user Read access to the template. Users that do not have Read access will not be able to start the process.

Updating and deleting templates for advanced submissions

There is no inheritance between the template and any processes the template has been applied to. When you update or delete a template, only the template itself is updated or deleted. Any processes the template is assigned to are unaffected by the update or deletion and will continue to contain the original values of the template from before the update or deletion.

Relative deadlines

Each template and process step can contain a relative deadline, defined as a number of days, hours and minutes.

When a template is assigned to a process, the relative deadline values are applied to the current date and time to determine each individual process step deadlines as well as the entire process deadline.

Example: If a template contains three steps, each with a defined relative deadline of 1 day, 1 hour, 0 minutes and you apply the template to a process on 11:00:00, March 13th , 2021, then all three steps will have the same deadline (12:00:00, March 14th, 2021), regardless of whether the steps are to be executed sequentially or in parallel.

You must therefore make sure to define all relative deadlines in the template to be logical, consistent and achievable.

Create a template for advanced submissions and process steps

You can create a template and the attached process steps or you can create the template first and then edit the template and add steps later.

To create a template for advanced submissions and process steps

  1. Open your user profile page.
  2. If the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab is not displayed, edit the detail tab of your user detail page to display the tab.
  3. In the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab, click Add to open the New template tab.
  4. In the New template tab:
    • In the Name field, enter the name of the template. The name must be 64 characters or less.
    • In the Relative process deadline group, define the relative deadline for the template, measured as the number of days, hours and minutes since the process the template has been applied to, was started. If you do not enter any deadline values, the process deadline will not have any deadline.
    • In the Description field, enter an optional template description.
    • In the Read access field, select the WorkZone users who may read/open the template information.
    • In the Write access field, select the WorkZone users who may update the template.
  5. In the ribbon, click Save to save your changes and display the Process steps detail tab. If you do not want to add process steps now, you can close the template detail page.
  6. In the Process steps detail tab, click Add to open the Add process step form.
  7. In the Add process step form:
    • In the Name field, enter the name of the process step. The name must be 64 characters or less.
    • In the Description field, enter an optional process step description.
    • In the Actor sequence, select an actor sequence to apply to the process step.
    • In the Relative step deadline group, define the relative deadline of the process step, measured as the number of days, hours and minutes since the step was started. If you do not enter any deadline values, the step will not have any deadline.
  8. Click Save to save your changes and close the form.
  9. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for each process step you want to add to the template.

The placement of the steps define their sequential order but you can re-define the sequential order by dragging a step to a higher or lower position in the list. Re-arrange all existing steps to adjust the step to the desired order.

Tip: Click Refresh in the ribbon or your user profile page or in the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab to refresh the page and display any new changes.

View a template's steps or a process step's actors.

You can view a list of the process steps defined for a template in the Preview pane. You can also view a list of the actors in the actor sequence applied to a process step.

To display a list of the template's steps

  1. Open your user profile page.
    If the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab is not displayed, edit the detail tab of your user detail page to display the tab.
  2. In the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab, click Preview to open Preview pane. You can also right-click the template and select Preview.
  3. Click Close to close the Preview pane.

The preview pane will display a list of the steps in the order they have been defined.

To display a list of actors in a process step

  1. Open your user profile page.
    If the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab is not displayed, edit the detail tab of your user detail page to display the tab.
  2. In the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab, double-click the template you want to edit to open the template detail page. The template detail page is displayed with the template name and prefixed with the template's unique identification number.
  3. In the Process steps detail tab, select the process step you want to display a list of actors for and click Preview to open Preview pane. You can also right-click the step and select Preview.
  4. Click Close to close the Preview pane.

Edit a template or step

You can edit an existing template, changing the field values as well as adding, removing or editing the process steps of the template.

To edit a template for advanced submissions

  1. Open your user profile page.
    If the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab is not displayed, edit the detail tab of your user detail page to display the tab.
  2. In the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab, double-click the template you want to edit to open the template detail page. The template detail page is displayed with the template name and prefixed with the template's unique identification number.
  3. Update the values in the required fields and click Save to save your changes.

If you want to add process steps to the template:

  1. In the Process steps detail tab of the template detail page, click Add to open the Add process step form.
  2. In the Add process step form:
    • In the Name field, enter the name of the process step. The name must be 64 characters or less.
    • In the Description field, enter an optional process step description.
    • In the Actor sequence, select an actor sequence to apply to the process step.
    • In the Relative step deadline group, define the relative deadline of the process step, measured as the number of days, hours and minutes from when the step was started. If you do not enter any deadline values, the step will not have any deadline.
  3. Click Save to save your changes and close the form.
  4. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for each process step you want to add to the template.

The placement of the steps define their sequential order but you can re-define the sequential order by dragging a step to a higher or lower position in the list. Re-arrange all existing steps to adjust the step to the desired order.

To edit a process step of a template

  1. Open your user profile page.
    If the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab is not displayed, edit the detail tab of your user detail page to display the tab.
  2. In the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab, double-click the template you want to edit to open the detail page. The detail page is displayed with the template name and prefixed with the template's unique identification number.
  3. In the Process steps detail tab, select the process step you want to edit and click Edit to open the Edit process step form. You can also double-click the step or right-click the step and select Edit.
  4. In the Edit process step form, update the values in the required fields and click Save to save your changes.

Delete a template or a process step

You can delete a template and in the same action, delete all process steps defined for the template. You can also open the template detail page and delete a process step only.

To delete a template

  1. Open your user profile page.
    If the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab is not displayed, edit the detail tab of your user detail page to display the tab.
  2. In the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab, select the template you want to delete and click Remove to open the Confirm dialog. You can also right-click the template and select Remove.
  3. Click Yes to delete the selected template and refresh the page.

To delete a process step

  1. Open your user profile page.
    If the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab is not displayed, edit the detail tab of your user detail page to display the tab.
  2. In the Templates for advanced submissions detail tab, double-click the template that contains the step you want to delete to open the template detail page. The template detail page is displayed with the template name and prefixed with the template's unique identification number.
  3. In the template detail page > Process steps detail tab, select the steps you want to delete and click Delete to open the Confirm dialog. You can also right-click the step and select Delete.
  4. Click Yes to delete the selected steps and refresh the page.

See Also

Start an advanced submission

Open your user profile page

Manage tabs

Work with actor sequences