How to set up your Collaboration Workflows?

Create workflows

1. Go to Workflows, then Settings.
2. Click on Create workflow, then give a descriptive label and a code to your workflow.

To duplicate a workflow, hover over its name and click on the Duplicate workflow icon or click on the three dots, then select Duplicate workflow.

When you duplicate a workflow, it will replicate all the settings criteria from the original workflow. To differentiate it from the original workflow, you can add a new label and unique code. The duplicated workflow will be disabled by default so that you can make changes to the product selection, step settings, or labels' translations to make it more specific. 

Workflow entry: define the product triggers per workflow type

From the Workflow entry tab, select one of the workflow types:

• One-time initialization workflow for product setups. Products flow through the workflow only once. Enabling this type of workflow will start and share the tasks to the assignees, and make all matching products enter the workflow. 
• Continuous workflow for ongoing product data updates. Products flow through the workflow whenever relevant changes are triggered based on specific criteria. Enabling this type of workflow will make all matching products enter the workflow later, on the defined update event, and start and share the corresponding tasks to the assignees.

When you want to set up a Continuous workflow,  you can choose on which updates products will enter and re-enter the workflow automatically:

• On any product update, aka on the product save, including any attribute's change, an update on the product categorization or association, or asset collection, but also any rule execution or import.
• When a specific attribute, selected from the drop-down list, is updated or deleted, the product will automatically enter or re-enter the workflow.

A product can only re-enter the same workflow after it has completed the current sequence of steps and is no longer associated with any pending task. No memory or queue tracks products still progressing through the workflow. If a product receives an update that would otherwise cause it to re-enter the workflow, it won't do so until it has fully completed the current sequence and receives a subsequent update.

If you want to learn more about Workflow types and discover some examples of concrete workflows use cases, please take a look at the What are Collaboration Workflows? article.

Product Selection: define the subset of products to include

From the Product Selection tab, select the attributes and system fields to filter products to include in your workflow. Products move through each workflow step and are assigned to users to complete specific tasks. Keep in mind it’s a ‘and’ condition.

As you add new filters, a counter displays the number of Simple Products, Variants, and Product Models (parent level) that meet your criteria. 

You can review the corresponding list by clicking the View selection button and then Save.

Once you enable the workflow, it will automatically add the corresponding pending tasks to the assignee's task lists and workflow dashboards. 

Product Grid: add a subset of products to a workflow in mass

From the product grid, you can assign a specific set of products to a workflow using the Add to workflow bulk action. This allows you to trigger targeted enrichment or validation actions based on filters or a saved view. Make sure you have the necessary Manage Workflow Settings permission to perform this action.

This will add this specific set of products to the selected workflow (with Product Selection criteria unchanged), enabling assigned contributors to work on both sets within the same workflow tasks. 

Otherwise, to create a workflow that only includes manually added products, configure the workflow's Product Selection criteria to accommodate this (e.g., "Status = Enabled" & "Status is Disabled") and ensure no products are automatically counted.

Step settings: configure the workflow's steps 

It is important to outline your data enrichment process steps before you set it in Akeneo PIM. Steps can be based on user expertise, department, specific areas of responsibility, or localization.

From the Step settings tab, you can create your workflow steps.

1. Click on Create step.
2. Add a descriptive label and a code.
3. Chose the step Type: Enrichment or Review

If you want to learn more about Step types and discover some examples of workflows that include at least one Review step, please take a look at the What are Collaboration Workflows? article.

To define the step's details:

1. Add a short description to share instructions with the assignee.
2. Add an allotted time in days for the assignee to complete this step for each product task.

To define the assignees:

1. Choose the User group,
2. Select one or more assigned Users from the User group.

To define a scope:

1. Choose at least one Channel,
2. Choose at least one enabled Locale.

To define attributes to enrich:

1. Choose an Attribute Group.
2. Select one or more Attributes from the Attribute group.
3. If you want to assign required attributes, select All required attributes option (you can of course also assign optional attributes, selecting them in the Attributes selector)

Once you set up your first step, you can continue creating the next ones by clicking the Back to step settings button. Each new step is added automatically following the previous step, and each step depends on the completion of the previous one. 

To copy a step’s settings, hover over the step name and click the Duplicate a step icon, or click the three dots menu and select Duplicate step. Duplicating a step will copy all configuration settings from the original. To distinguish it, you can create a new label and a unique code. You can also change the step type, for example, switch from Enrichment to Review, or vice versa. The duplicated step will be automatically added to the end of the workflow. You can reorder steps using drag-and-drop. Steps can only be duplicated when the workflow is disabled.

To reorder the steps in your workflow, drag and drop any step to its new position. This will not affect any of the step settings, criteria, or assignments. However, please note that you can only reorder steps when the workflow is disabled.

To delete a step, hover over it and click on the Delete step icon, only possible while the workflow is disabled.

To delete a workflow, either hover over and click on the Delete workflow icon or edit the workflow and click on the three dots, then select Delete workflow. Deleting a workflow will remove all steps and tasks from the assignees' dashboards.

Enable a workflow

Once you have configured all necessary steps, you are ready to activate your workflow. To do so, click on the Enable Workflow button.

Once the workflow is enabled, any product that meets the selection criteria will automatically begin at the first step and be assigned to the relevant assignee, visible in the user's My Workflows dashboard. Displaying the product information to the assignees may require a brief moment, especially when it comes to product variants.

After enabling the workflow:

• You can modify the product selection criteria. However, the updated filters will only apply to newly created or updated products. Existing products in your catalog that meet the new criteria will not automatically enter the workflow unless they are updated or newly created. Also, the original products already included in the workflow will remain unaffected by these changes.
• You can modify the details of existing steps, but you cannot add, delete, or reorder them. Updates to step settings, such as labels, descriptions, allotted time, assigned channels, locales, or attribute groups, will take effect immediately for assigned users. Any newly assigned users will also see these changes right away.

How to monitor email notifications?

Pending tasks automatically trigger email notifications:

• Weekly email notification recap: Every Monday, all assignees receive an email summarizing their assigned pending tasks for active workflows.
• Daily rejection email reminder: Every day, all assignees with rejected tasks receive an email notification highlighting the actions required for ongoing workflows. 

To Unsubscribe from Email Notifications:

• From the email footer, clieck on the unsubscribe link. 
• Via the User Interface, click on your user icon in the top-right corner of the screen, navigate to My Account > Notifications and set the option "Weekly email notification on workflow pending tasks" or “Daily e-mail notification on workflow rejected tasks” to "No". 

To monitor user accounts, you need the appropriate user roles' permissions to System > Edit users.

Customizing Notifications with the REST API and Event Platform

For teams looking for more advanced and real-time notification options, Akeneo PIM offers powerful tools to create fully tailored notification workflows. By leveraging the REST API and the Event Platform, you can design a notification system that perfectly fits your team's needs, either through a custom integration or by using an iPaaS solution.

Integrating with third-party apps with the REST API and Event Platform

For teams that need notifications or interactions with tasks managed in external systems, such as project management tools, ERPs, DAMs, design and artwork solutions, compliance tools, or BI/dashboards platforms, the Akeneo PIM REST API and Event Platform provide the necessary interfaces. These enable external applications to read and update workflow tasks, enabling seamless integrations and unlocking powerful automation use cases.

Altogether, here are the available integration and extensibility capacities:

• New REST API Endpoints:
  • GET Workflow
  • GET Workflow Steps' Assignees
  • Get list of workflow tasks
  • Complete a workflow task
• New Event Platform Events:
  • Workflow Task Created
  • Workflow Task Completed