Collector Step

In this article, we'll cover:

• Overview
• Where to Find This
• Configuring a Collector Step
• Ensuring That All Steps Can Complete
• Example

Overview

A Collector step joins several workflow paths and waits for all of them to complete. A Collector step starts as soon as any one of its preceding steps completes, and it completes only once every step that feeds into it has completed.

Collector steps can’t be used as the starting step of a workflow, and at least one next step must be specified.

Individuals with the “The user will always be able to approve/reject/skip ticket workflow steps” permission in the associated ticketing application can manually force completion of a Collector step through a Skip action.

For a complete guide to creating, configuring, and activating ticket workflows, see Configuring Ticket Workflows.

In the workflow above, three parallel Task steps all feed into the "Collector Step - wait for tasks 1-3 to be completed" Collector, which waits until all three are completed before proceeding to the next step.

Where to Find This

The Collector step is configured in the Ticketing application admin interface, and can be viewed on a ticket with the workflow applied in Work Management and the Client Portal.

Configure the step from the Workflow Builder in the Ticketing app admin UI following these paths:

• Ticketing Application Admins: Work Management > View Applications > [name of the Ticketing application]  > gear icon > Admin > Workflows > [Workflow name] > View Builder 
• Global Admins: TDAdmin > Applications > [name of the Ticketing application]  > Workflows > [Workflow name] > View Builder

Access an active workflow:

• In Work Management > View Applications > [name of the Ticketing application]  > find the ticket with the workflow applied and review the step
• In the Client Portal > Ticket Requests > open the request and review the workflow steps

Configuring a Collector Step

To configure a Collector step:

1. In the Ticketing application admin UI, click Workflows in the left navigation.
2. On the Ticket Workflows list, click the Name of the desired workflow.
3. Click the View Builder button.
4. In the Workflow Builder, click File in the toolbar.
5. Select Check Out from the dropdown.
6. Click the New Step button in the toolbar.
7. In the New Workflow Step window, enter a Name that indicates what the step will do.
8. Select Collector Step from the Type dropdown.
9. If Stages have been configured for the workflow, optionally select one from the Stage dropdown.
10. Optionally provide a Description for the Collector step.
11. Click Save, then close the window showing the Collector step details.
12. Locate the new Collector step in the Workflow Builder. It should be on the far left side, often on top of the Start step.
13. Click the directional arrows in the corner of the Collector step and drag it to the desired point in the workflow.
14. For each of the previous steps from the branches leading into the Collector step, click and drag from the step option to create connectors to the Collector step.

Learn more about adding, connecting, and validating steps in Configuring Ticket Workflows.

Ensuring That All Steps Can Complete

When planning the steps that precede a collector step, remember that the collector step will wait for all steps that feed into it to complete. If your workflow has conditional logic that feeds directly or indirectly into a collector step, that Collector step may never successfully complete.

The Approval step's Approve option feeds directly into the Planning and Scheduling Complete Collector, while its Reject option routes through the Privacy Review task before also feeding into the Collector.

In this example, the Planning and Scheduling Complete Collector will never automatically complete. It sees three steps feeding into it — Schedule Rollout, the Approve option, and the Privacy Review task — and expects all three to be completed. But due to the conditional logic of the Privacy Review Exemption step, only one of the Approve or Privacy Review paths can ever complete on a given ticket, so at most two of the three expected inputs are ever satisfied.

To avoid this, you can use a Branch step to consolidate the conditional options before they reach the Collector step.

In the image above, both the Approve path and the Privacy Review task's Complete feed into a Branch step, "Privacy Review Completed/Exempt," instead of going directly to the Collector.

Here, the Branch step is always reached, whether by approving the Privacy Review Exemption step or by completing the Privacy Review task. Because the Planning and Scheduling Complete Collector now sees only two inputs — Schedule Rollout and the Branch step's Always option — both of which will always complete, the workflow proceeds as normal.

Example

In the workflow below, two Collector steps consolidate parallel paths in a New Hire Request workflow. The smaller Collector, "Network Connection," merges the two outcomes of the "Network connection exists" Condition step — the Condition Met path and the Setup Network Connection task reached via the Condition Not Met path— into a single point. Its Complete option then becomes one of several inputs feeding the larger Collector, "Wait for all tasks to be completed," which waits on every parallel path fanned out by the Branch step — including the computer and mobile device tasks, the iPaaS account setup, and the phone/network setup path — before the workflow proceeds to the final confirmation Approval step.

Click to open the PDF and view the workflow details.