Workflows Overview

Workflow overview

Workflows are the logic construct behind your devices, data and overall solution. Through the workflow you can connect to any device or system, ingest data from various sources, implement business logic, create alerts and notifications, push data to a wide range of visualizations or even to other systems.

Our Workflow Business Logic Tool Kit is a drag-and-drop interface that enables you to easily create rules and connect systems, putting in place sophisticated business processes without writing a line of code. With it, you can combine different data sources, perform complex calculations, add AI, and visualize the results.

A quick introduction to workflows can be found between 3:30 - 4:24 in the below video 

Creating Workflows

To create your first workflow, click on the 'Create a Workflow' button. To create additional Workflows, click on the 'Add a new workflow' button on the top right. When you create a new Workflow, you will be redirected to the Flow Builder and will be prompted to enter a Workflow name and a description for the workflow.

Solutions require at least one Workflow and can contain as many Workflows as your project requires. Often it is helpful to split a Solution into different Workflows based on functionality.

To return to the Rayven Manager home screen, click on the Rayven logo in the top-left. To view the Flow Builder again, navigate to the 'Edit Workflow' button on the right hand side.

Workflow Description  

The description of the workflow can be created at any time. In the Workflows menu, click on the 'Add description' button in the Flow Description column. If a description has already been entered and you would like to edit the description, the button will display 'More Info'. Click this button to edit the description and then click 'Save'

Activating a Workflow

Once a workflow has been created, it must be activated. This ensures that data will flow from the input nodes and into the workflow. To activate the workflow, click on the 'Activate' button located on the top-right of the Flow Builder page. Remember to click the 'Save' button when making changes to connections between nodes. If you edit a node configuration and click 'Save', it will also save the workflow. 

 Designing your Workflow

The Rayven Flow Builder has 7 different types of nodes. These will be explained in detail throughout this section.

• Inputs - configure how to ingest data from a range of sources
• Functions - manipulate data using custom logic, formulas or JavaScript code
• Visualizations - push data into charts, tables, maps and more
• Controls - turn the dashboard interactive using buttons, dropdown menus and text fields
• Outputs - push data into a 3rd party system
• Tools - use debug nodes to query the data and any stage of the workflow
• Machine Learning - create a repository and send data to the Rayven ML workbench

Adding and Deleting Connections

Every node has at least one connector, shown by the white dot at either end of the node. A connector on the left side means the node is expecting an input and a connector on the right side means the node is returning an output. Some nodes have connectors on both sides and are able to receive and input, perform an action and then output the data again.

You can connect two nodes by clicking on an output connector and dragging to an input connector. To delete a connection, select the connection line and (in Windows) press the delete key or (in Mac OS) press function and delete. A popup will ask for confirmation before deleting the connection.

Injecting Test Data in a Workflow

It is useful to send a test payload into the workflow to check that is functioning correctly. To do this you will need to use Postman (https://www.postman.com/).

Select an HTTP node from the Inputs menu located on the left side of the Flow Builder. Double click the HTTP node and copy the URL link and paste it in the URL bar in Postman. Ensure that in Postman, "POST" is selected in the drop down menu. Under "Body", select "raw" and change the drop down menu on the right to "JSON". In the body, enter the JSON payload that you want to send into the workflow. The "[[device_id]]" in the URL should be replaced by the device ID that is set in device management.

Info Window

Clicking a node once will open a number of details in the window on the right, such as Workflow ID, Node ID and in some cases an explanation of the node's configuration options.

Workflow Versions

Click on this button to save a new version of the workflow. You can view previous versions at any time.

Sharing Workflows

Workflows from different solutions can be shared throughout the same account. This allows you to create multiple workflows without needed to build each one manually. For further information, refer to the next section (Sharing and Copying Workflows).