Upgrading from classic workflows

Workflows built before the canvas were converted automatically. They keep accepting submissions, their links keep working, and the people who receive emails receive them as before. This article lists what changed and what was carried over, and what is worth checking.

What was carried over

• Your steps. The chain of forms became the same chain of form steps on the canvas, in the same order, with every step setting intact: combining data, display of previous data, links to the previous PDF and form, automatic filling, uploaded files and the signature certificate.
• Your notifications. In classic workflows, a form’s own notification email carried the link to the next step. That email now lives on the step it reaches: open the step and look at its Notification tab, and you will find the same recipients, subject, body, team-member email and reminders. The last form’s notification became the workflow’s completion notification, and the old “email the person who started” option was folded into it.
• Reusing a link. A classic next-step link could be opened again after submitting, and some workflows relied on it to submit the same form several times for one run. Where that actually happened, the step now has The same link can be used to submit again switched on, so nothing changes for those workflows. Everywhere else the link closes after one submission, and you can switch the option on at any time under the step’s Rules tab.
• Old links. Links in emails that were sent before the upgrade, and embedded pages, keep opening the right form.
• Sharing, invitations, embedding, the submissions page and the API routes you already use are unchanged.

What changed

• The designer is a canvas with a property panel instead of a row of cards. Approvals, branches, parallel paths and end steps are new kinds of step; see Build a workflow.
• Editing a live workflow no longer requires a clone: click Stop, edit, and Publish again. Runs already started carry on. Clone is still there for trying a different version.
• A form’s own notification is not sent for workflow submissions. The workflow’s step notifications and completion notification are the only emails, so nobody is told twice. Submissions made through the form’s own link, outside the workflow, still send the form’s notification.
• The person who started. Decisions, send-backs and the completion email need to know who submitted the start form. Classic workflows guessed an address from the answers; the canvas asks you to choose the field under Who hears back on the start step, or to start runs by invitation. The checklist tells you when it matters.
• The tracker is the place to watch runs. It lists runs that have had any activity since the upgrade, including chains that were in progress and received their next submission. Runs that were already finished before the upgrade stay where they were, on the Submissions page.
• The approval record page is on for every workflow, but only a run with an approval decision gets one, so a classic workflow without approvals is unaffected until you add one.
• Task links identify the person they were emailed to, whatever account is signed in. Team members no longer have to sign in to fill in their step.

What to check

1. Open each workflow. The checklist on the workflow panel lists anything that needs attention; a converted chain of published forms normally reads Ready to publish.
2. If you plan to add approvals, set Who hears back on the start step, or the person who started will not receive decisions.
3. If a step used to be filled in several times per run, confirm The same link can be used to submit again is on for it.
4. Look at Who is told when a run completes on the workflow panel: it holds what the last form’s notification used to do.