Workflow Editor: Versions

Workflows utilize an important feature: version controlling. Versions in Workflows allow changes to be made, safely, carefully, and get fully tested first before being rolled out to production. If any unexpected issues occur, a previously stable version can be rolled back. This document will explain how workflow versioning works and how to best manage edits across different versions.

This article will cover the following sections:

• Understanding Workflow Versions
• Saving Workflow Changes
• Setting a Workflow Version to Active
• Deleting Versions

Understanding Workflow Versions

Workflows, like Journeys, are version-controlled, allowing changes to be managed and tracked over the the course of the evolution of the Workflow. Each change that is saved to a Workflow is saved to a new version number, which increases sequentially each time. For example, if the Workflow has version 1, 2, and 3, the next time any changes are saved, version 4 would be created, regardless if the edits were being made to the most recent version or an older version.

When editing a Workflow, it is important to consider which version is being modified. Changes made to an older version do not incorporate any of the updates introduced to newer versions. For example, if versions 1, 2, and 3 exited, and changes were applied to and saved from version 2, none of the changes from version 3 would carry over into the new version, which would become version 4.

Each new version of a Workflow is linked to a specific parent version — the parent version is the version the edits were made on. A Workflow’s parent version can be viewed on the Workflow Versions page, by expanding the row for a particular version.

An expanded version row will display the following details:

Saving Workflow Changes

To ensure no changes are lost, all changes must to be saved to a new Workflow version. Workflow versions do not auto-save. If you leave the page before the changes are saved, all changes will be lost.

To save your changes:

1. After completing the desired changes to the Workflow, click the Save button in the upper-right.
2. In the Save New Version modal:
   1. Version Notes (optional): Fill out the Version Notes by adding a human-readable description to the changes applied to the Workflow.
   2. Changes from version: Review the summary of changes being saved from the version that was edited.
   3. Save to another Workflow version (optional): If these changes should be saved to a different Workflow, select the Workflow from the dropdown. The changes will be saved to the selected Workflow as a new, inactive version.
3. Click Save.

Once a new version is saved a confirmation will display briefly. Once the confirmation is dismissed, the Workflow will automatically refresh and redirect to the new version.

New Workflow versions are inactive by default - meaning they are not live in production. To set the new version as active, read further in the Setting a Workflow Version to Active section.

Setting a Workflow Version to Active

Once a Workflow version has been fully tested, reviewed, and approved to be pushed to production, it’s time to set it to active. There are two locations to setting a Workflow version to active:

• From the Workflow Version Page
• Within the Workflow Editor

Setting Workflow Version to Active From the Workflow Version Page

To set a Workflow version as active from the Workflow Versions page, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Workflow Versions page.
2. Locate the Workflow version that needs to be set as active.
3. In the Active column, check the box next to the Workflow version you wish to activate.
4. If this Workflow is not part of a Journey, a simple prompt will be shown to confirm the changes. Click the Set Active button to confirm the action.
5. If this Workflow is part of an active Journey version, a prompt will appear asking whether the change should be pushed to a new Journey version. By default, the system will set the new Journey version to active, though this setting can be adjusted if necessary before confirming the changes. Click the Confirm and Set Workflow Active button to confirm the action.

Setting Workflow Version to Active Within the Workflow Editor

To activate a Workflow version while viewing the specific version:

1. Click the desired Workflow version to open the Workflow editor for that version.
2. Click the ⋮ menu (”More Options” menu).
3. Select Set Active from the dropdown.
4. If this Workflow is not part of a Journey, a simple prompt will be shown to confirm the changes. Click the Set Active button to confirm the action.
5. If this Workflow is part of an active Journey version, a prompt will appear asking whether the change should be pushed to a new Journey version. By default, the system will set the new Journey version to active, though this setting can be adjusted if necessary before confirming the changes. Click the Confirm and Set Workflow Active button to confirm the action.

Deleting Versions

If a mistake was made on a version that should never be intended to be activated, it's a best practice to delete the version. This can prevent the problematic version from accidentally being used as a later parent version.

1. From the Workflow Versions page, click on the row of the problematic version. Clicking the row will expand additional meta details about the specific version
2. Click Delete.

Deleting Workflow Versions permanently removes it from the dashboard. Deleted version cannot be recovered nor can the Workflow editor be viewed to see the configuration of the version.