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Flows in Orchestrations
Each background and interactive step in an orchestration runs an associated flow. If the logic for controlling stage and step execution calls for more than 3 requirements, use an evaluation flow to create more complex criteria.
Required Editions
| View supported editions for Flow Orchestration. |
Background Steps
Each background step calls an autolaunched flow.
Interactive Steps
Each interactive step assigns a screen flow to a user, group, or queue.
When to Start the Step
Each step can call an evaluation flow to determine whether the step can be started. An evaluation flow is a flow with a process type of Evaluation Flow. It’s an autolaunched flow that contains a predefined Boolean output variable named isOrchestrationConditionMet. To indicate that the custom entry conditions are met, the output variable must be set to true.
When to Complete the Step
An interactive step can call an evaluation flow to determine whether the step can be considered complete. An evaluation flow is a flow with a process type of Evaluation Flow. It’s an autolaunched flow that contains a predefined Boolean output variable named isOrchestrationConditionMet. To indicate that the custom exit conditions are met, the output variable must be set to true.
When to Complete the Stage
An orchestration stage can call an evaluation flow to determine whether the stage can be completed. An evaluation flow is a flow with a process type of Evaluation Flow. It’s an autolaunched flow that contains a predefined Boolean output variable named isOrchestrationConditionMet. To indicate that the custom exit conditions are met, the output variable must be set to true.
Flow Usage
Orchestration versions use flows in 2 ways.
| Relationship | Description |
|---|---|
| Orchestration Step Action |
|
| Evaluation Flow | The active evaluation flow that the orchestration version uses to determine whether:
|
View the flows that an orchestration version uses in the Automation app. See Determine Flow Usage in an Orchestration Version.
Flow Variables
Flows can have internal-only, input, and output variables.
If the combined input values for a flow called by an orchestration step is more than 32,768 characters, the orchestration fails. This error can be caused by passing one or more records to a flow called by a step. To avoid this error, pass a record ID to the referenced flow, and use a Get Records element in the flow with the passed ID. Using a passed ID with a Get Records element also means that you always have the latest version of the record.
| Variable | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Internal-only | The variable is used inside the flow and isn’t available for input or output in an orchestration. | You can create your own internal variables, or you can let flow create them for you. Orchestrations can’t use these variables. |
| Input | The user-defined variable is marked Available for input. When the flow is called by an orchestration step, its input variables are inputs for the step. | Flows that can have input values from an orchestration for input variables are:
|
| Output | The user-defined variable is marked Available for output. Output variables are accessible as automatic outputs for the associated step and are available throughout the orchestration. | Orchestrations can access user-defined output variables from:
When you reference automatic output that contains a record or a record collection in an orchestration configured to run on API version 58.0 and later, records are refreshed with their latest values each time the orchestration run resumes. To add custom comments to the Orchestration Run Log, create a text output variable named Comments in a flow called by an orchestration step and assign it a value. |
- Evaluation Flows in Orchestrations
When you need more than 3 requirements to control stage and step execution, use an evaluation flow. Select the Evaluation Flow tile in the New Flow window to create an evaluation flow.
