Relay Lite enables you to automate many simple business workflows centered around content. Leveraging a no-code builder, anyone can build, manage, and track their business processes directly in Box. With a simple design interface, you can automate sequential processes and assign tasks to anyone, including people outside your organization.
Creating a workflow encompasses four procedures:
- Establishing and naming your workflow
- Selecting the triggering event
- Specifying the outcome
- Saving or activating the workflow
Note
Would you like some help identifying how you might apply Relay Lite to automate some of your more common content-based processes? Please review Envisioning a Workflow in Relay, in our full Box Relay support section.
Establishing and naming your workflow
To create and name your workflow and your first flow
- In the lefthand navigation, click Relay. The Workflows page displays.
- In the top-right portion of the screen, click New Workflow.
- The Workflow Builder page displays. Now name and describe your workflow. To do this:
- In the upper-left portion of the screen select Untitled Workflow. Overwrite with the name you want.
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- Tab or click into the Add a description field and type in a description. Be specific.
- Name this specific flow. To do this:
- Toward the top of the Workflow Builder page, click Flow 1. The Flow 1 box displays.
- Type in a specific name for this flow. Then click anywhere outside the Flow box.
You can only create workflows that involve folders you own, co-own, or edit. If you specify a folder you do not own, co-own, or edit, Relay displays the following message:
You do not have sufficient permissions on a file or folder in this workflow.
Be specific in your workflow description. As you continue to use Relay Lite and the number of workflows proliferates, it may become difficult to distinguish them unless your description provides an at-a-glance summary of workflow context and intent. You can easily view whether you have included a description with your workflow; in the Workflows screen, workflows with descriptions display with an i symbol.
Establishing the triggering event
To establish the triggering event
- Under What starts this workflow? click the type of trigger event you want to begin the workflow.
- To trigger the workflow when there’s a file action, such as a file upload, share, or deletion, click A File Event.
- To trigger the workflow in which someone must review or approve a document, click A Task Event.
- To trigger the workflow when someone uploads a file or set of files via a Box File Request, click File Request.
For any task assigned as part of a workflow, the creator of the workflow is also the assigner of the task. Further, within Box, the only people who can re-assign or modify a task are the assigner and assignee.
- Your next step depends on which choice you make, above. For example:
- If you selected A File Event, now specify whether the trigger initiates with a file upload, move, or copy.
- If you selected a Task Event, now specify whether the trigger initiates with a completed, approved, or rejected task.
- If you selected A File Request, now specify the folder that will store all the content uploaded via the File Request.
If an exclamation point displays, click the exclamation point to view additional information.
- Under In what folder will this event occur? click the Select a folder box, and then click Select a folder from Box. The Select a Folder to act on window displays.
- To the right of the folder you want, click the button.
- To access any subfolders click the name of the folder you want.
- Click Select. The workflow screen redisplays.
Workflow actions involving folders affect only the individual folders you specify -- not any subfolders or parent folders.
In Relay, “workflow” and “flow” are similar but distinct terms. “Workflow” refers to the entire process, from activation through to completion. It is all-inclusive. A flow is one discrete set of events from trigger through outcome. A workflow consists of one or more flows.
Using File Request as a Triggering Event
If you want to start a discrete workflow automatically when people upload multiple files, you can use Box’s File Request feature.
File Request is a separate feature, available to every paid Box Business Plan account (or higher). You can review comprehensive information about File Request elsewhere. Basically, File Request enables you to create a Web form in seconds that anyone can use to upload content to Box. When you specify File Request as a workflow trigger, the workflow launches automatically each time someone completes your File Request form and uses it to submit content to the Box folder you’ve designated.
Here are instructions for using File Request to initiate a Relay workflow.
Specifying an Outcome
After you specify a triggering event, now you specify an outcome -- what you want to happen as a result of the event. For example, you may want to assign someone to review a file when it is uploaded.
To specify an outcome
- In the Outcome section, under What is the next action? click the action you want to result from the trigger.
- A file action gives you a similar range of choices as you had when specifying the trigger. Complete the rest of the section in the same way you completed the Trigger event.
- A task outcome prompts you to identify the individual to whom you want to assign a task and, optionally, set a deadline. Relay Lite notifies both the assignee and the assigner when a task is assigned.
- If you assign more than one person to a single task, every assignee must complete the task before Relay advances the workflow. If instead you want the workflow to move forward when just one assignee has completed the task, check Only one assignee is required to complete this task.
- To notify people automatically when an outcome has completed, click Send a Notification, then enter their email addresses, add a subject line, and provide a brief explanatory message. This enables you, for example, to alert stakeholders when a process has ended, or when a file has been rejected, and so on.
- Recipients receive both an automated email message and a notice in their Box Notification Center.
Saving and activating your workflow
When you have finished creating your workflow, you can save it and activate it (that is, turn it on) later, or you can activate it immediately. Regardless of which you choose, at any time you can return to this workflow and modify it.
To save or activate your workflow
- Do one of the following:
- To save this workflow without activating it, in the top-right portion of the screen, click Save Draft.
- To save and activate the workflow, in the top-right portion of the screen, click Activate.
- The Workflows page redisplays, listing your completed workflow.
Now, for any workflow you have activated the instant your triggering event occurs – for example, a file is uploaded to the folder you specified – Relay Lite launches the workflow.
Activated workflows display with an orange box to the left of the workflow name. Relay Lite lists their status as Active. Workflows that are saved but not yet activated display with a grey box to the left of the workflow name. Relay Lite lists their status as Inactive.
To monitor and manage your workflows, use the Workflows screen.
Identifying whether a folder has an active workflow running
You may wish to know in advance whether a folder is part of an active workflow. To find this out, use the Box Web app to view details of the folder. These details include the workflows associated with that folder.
To see if a folder is part of a workflow
- In Box, navigate to the folder you want, and open it.
- In the right-hand navigation, click Details.
- In the list of details that displays, scroll down to the Workflows section. All workflows with which this folder is associated display here.
To see the specific details any of these workflows (triggers, outcomes, and so on), click the workflow you want.