This tutorial is intended to help you understand how hanging path triggers work, and the difference between the triggers. Generally, the Workflow designer canvas expects lines to be drawn from path-output-based components to another component, and it also normally expects a line to be drawn INTO a component that isn't a trigger or the Start component. This can be seen anytime a non-trigger component is dropped onto the canvas (and not onto an existing line). The hanging path concept does not work on components that do not have named outcomes, such as a Get Current Date component.
A Hanging Path Trigger can be leveraged to handle the absence of lines from one component to another. Further reading on keeping a tidy Workflow canvas can be found here.
The triggers covered here are:
- Hanging Path Trigger
- Hanging Path Trigger By Components
- Hanging Path Trigger By Path
If a single component in your workflow matches the conditions of all 3 hanging path trigger component types, the types take precedence in this order:
- Hanging Path Trigger By Components
- Hanging Path Trigger By Path
- Hanging Path Trigger
A hanging path trigger outputs the details of the caught path (buttons in the case of a Form Builder component), as well as the component from which the hanging path was triggered. Hanging Path Trigger component outputs:
- ComponentPath
- This is the name of the path (generally speaking, the button outcome path name for form builders, or the path name of multi-path components) from which the hanging path was triggered.
- e.g. "Save" or "Continue"
- HangingPathComponentID
- This is the unique GUID of the component from which the hanging path was routed.
- e.g. 38533cd2-0c2d-11e8-96d6-000c29aca9b1
- HangingPathComponentName
- This is the name of the component from which the hanging path was routed.
- e.g. "Form Builder"
Attached is a demonstration of how the hanging paths are triggered and handled.
To illustrate:
A bit about each notable component on the page:
- The Initialize Data component is being used to declare (and give initial value to (if desired) declared) variables. In this case, only the FormCSS variable is being declared.
- The "Form CSS" component is a Merge Text component, and is being used to compile the style sheet for the forms, as well as import the Google fonts used here.
- The "Hanging Paths" form is simply the interface for navigating the hanging path trigger types. This is a Form Builder component, renamed for purpose.
- The "Diverge" component is a Multi Path Demo component - a dummy component used to split the path of the process flow. In this case, it is being used to illustrate the effect of the Hanging Path Trigger By Components component, and that the outcome path doesn't matter with this hanging path type. This component is statically set to output via the "Path Two" path.
- All Hanging Path Trigger components are described above.
- The "Vars" components are Variables Exist components, and are all used to pick up variables that do not exist along stream lines. When a trigger occurs, most stream variables are not available. This component fetches the targeted variables and makes them available downstream of the trigger component. In this case, we are fetching the FormCSS variable to use on the result and description forms following each hanging path trigger.
- The "General", "Path", and "Components" forms are renamed Form Builder components used to display not only the simple results of the hanging path components, but also a detailed description of each type of hanging path trigger component.
On to the demo project itself! This should help illustrate how the Hanging Path concept works in a live Workflow process.
A notable tip on hanging paths: By using a generic Hanging Path Trigger, you do not need to have an output button on a form builder. This can be helpful for forms such as self-refreshing dashboards and iframe forms that do not need to lead anywhere.
As always, post questions or comments below and I'll clarify anything that needs it.
Happy pathing!