Pause workflow for user approval of the output

[sdoscher]

Does anyone know if there is there is a way to have a workflow that:

1. Publishes an output file (email it or post it for a user to review).

2. Pauses the workflow while the user reviews the output, and THEN

3. If user approves the file the workflow continues.

Of course, I know that steps 1 and 2 are possible, but does anyone have any experience with having the workflow RESUME based on a user providing some sort of indication that they approve the output.  My concern is that while I want to maximize automation, I don't want to automate the posting of a file that has not been approved.

Thank you!

Scott

[MarqueeCrew · Accepted solution]

A "Keep It Simple" approach to this would be to create a second workflow that loads the data after producing a staging result.  In coming releases of Alteryx, there will be a cache feature that you could use to resume a workflow.  Without approval you could stop.  With an approval you could continue.

If you are running the workflow on a server (Today) or if you have automation on your desktop designer (Today).  You could run a job every N minutes looking for a STAGING file and an APPROVAL file/record.  The staging file could then be loaded once an approval for that filename is found.

These are a couple of Sunday thoughts for you.

Cheers,

Mark

[sdoscher]

Hi Mark.  Very cool idea.  I will see if I can make that work.  REALLY appreciate your thoughts and feedback.  Scott

[yunpeng]

@MarqueeCrew Realize it's an old thread, but happen to have a very similar use case to the post here. 

1. Extract client email

2. Send email to another internal team for approval

3. Once approved, upload the info onto Sharepoint. 

Currently it's entirely done in manual way. Back-and-forth email approval flow is just not very efficient I feel, so trying to think of an automation solution. Any idea? Thanks very much.

Oh and a limitation - Alteryx will be run on server, which won't have access to individual mailbox (i.e. can't read or download email. I had to write a vbs for users to execute on their local desktop). However, email sending SMTP is enabled so we are still good to send emails on server.