Understand workflows

A Workflow comprises of a set of actions executed at specific instances to automate routines in an application. When you trigger the workflow, it executes the set of associated actions.

Assume an order management application that follows the below steps.

1. Customer chooses the product
2. Order details sent to warehouse
3. Check for quality assurance
4. Send shipment and delivery notification
5. Update the inventory

In the above example, workflows let you automate and map different activities, data, and people involved in the business process such as calculating the total order value, sending order details to the warehouse, notifying the shipment and delivery status to the customer, and updating the available stock.

You can create workflows and add actions to automate routine tasks in your application. On triggering the workflow, it executes the set of associated actions.  

1. You can create and add actions to your workflow such as, 
2. Setting the default value for the quantity field in an Order form
3. Disabling student registration number in an exam application form
4. Hiding experience field for a fresher in a New Joinee form
5. Redirecting a user to the thank you webpage on record submission
6. Sending event confirmation email to attendees
7. Sending appointment reminder SMS to patients
8. Adding product subscribers to CRM systems such as Zoho CRM, Salesforce CRM, etc
9. Assigning customer requests to available support reps
10. Checking an employee's leave availability on a vacation request  

Perform actions in instances

You can trigger a workflow within your application in any of the below scenarios. They are:

• While using the form

  Create and execute actions in the workflow when a new record is created or when an existing record is modified or deleted. Learn more.

• On a scheduled date

  Create and execute actions on a scheduled date and time without any user input. These timed actions can be executed periodically based on the date and time values present in your form or on fixed date and time. Learn more

• In approval process

  Create and execute actions in the approve/reject processes on record addition. Learn more.

Actions in a workflow

Actions are the tasks that you can add and trigger in a workflow. You add and configure multiple actions in a workflow. The list of actions that you can execute in a workflow is given below.  

• Send Email

  You can send email notifications to your application users while adding a new record or while editing or deleting an existing record in the form. Learn more.

• Send SMS

  You can send SMS notifications to your application users while adding a new record or while editing or deleting an existing record in the form. Learn more.

• Show success message

  This action allows you to display a custom confirmation message to users on form submission. Learn more.

• Redirect to a URL

  This action allows you to redirect the form to another web page, post form submission. Learn more.

• Hide fields

  This action allows you to hide a field in the form based on the value specified in another field. Learn more.

• Show fields

  You can show a field(if previously hidden) in the form based on the value specified in another field. Learn more

• Disable fields

  You can disable a field in the form based on the value specified in another field. Learn more.

• Enable fields

  You can enable a field(if previously disabled) in the form based on the value specified in another field. Learn more.

• Set field value

  This action allows you to assign a default value to a form field. Learn more.

• Integrate with Zoho and third-party services

  You can perform actions like create, fetch, search and update records from/to other Zoho applications or third-party applications like Salesforce, Quickbooks, etc. Also, you can add and configure the third-party SMS service providers to send SMS notifications. Learn more

• Define a custom action

  This action lets you define a custom process to automate your unique business processes using the drag and drop interface. Learn more.