Call Workflow

At times you may have the need to divide a large and complex flow into a number of simple flows or you may have a use case that requires multiple flows to operate in combination leading to the need for calling a flow within a service from another flow within the same service.

As a quick example, assume you want to set up a simple self-service flow across various channels that allows customers to message in BALANCE keyword along with their account number to get their account balance in response. This would typically involve configuring one flow for each of the channels where you want to launch this experience. In most cases, a flow like this would involve customer identity verification by sending an OTP. While you can configure the node sequence for OTP generation and validation within each of the channel-specific flows, a more effective way to handle it would be to configure separate flow(s) for OTP generation and validation and invoke it from other flows wherever needed.

The Call Workflow node enables you to achieve this by allowing you to call one flow within a service from another flow within the same service. When called, the full context of the current flow along with the session data is passed to the newly invoked flow.

This process allows the modular design of flows where changes to specific parts of a large workflow can be managed locally within smaller modules.

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Variable Management for Context Transfer across Flows

You can use custom variables to pass values of required variables from the calling flow (i.e., parent flow) to the called flow (i.e., child flow).

When you double-click the Call Workflow node, the Call Workflow screen appears with two tabs: Configuration and Transition Actions. The Configuration tab enables you to configure the workflow that you wish to call. The Transitions tab allows you to configure node on-enter/on-leave operations.

Here is the node image:

Call Workflow Node Configuration

1. Double click the Call Workflow node.
   The Call workflow screen appears.

2. On the Call workflow screen, click the Configuration tab if it is already not opened by default.
   The workflow configuration fields appear.

3. On the Configuration tab:

• In the Workflow Name drop-down box, select the workflow, which you wish to call.
• From the Node Type drop-down box, select the node type.
• From the Node Name drop-down box, select the node name.
• Click the Save button at the bottom.

Optionally configure Transition Actions

As part of configuring transition actions, you can configure on-enter/on-leave operations. However, configuring these are optional.

Here are the steps:

1. Click the Transition Actions tab.
2. On the Transition Actions tab, click Add Action.
   The Transition Actions area appears.
3. On the Transition Actions area:

• From the Time drop-down box, select On-enter or On-leave. For example, On-enter.

• From the Acton drop-down box, select an action choosing from the pre-built options.

• Finally, click the Save button at the bottom.
  The transition actions are configured.

Here is the description for interface elements:

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Page Connector vs Call Workflow - When to use which node

Both page connector and call workflow nodes help you modularize your flows to avoid repetitive configuration. However, there are some small differences that make them better suited for one situation over another. Here are a few such examples:

• Typically Page Connector is the preferred approach want you to want to repeat a node sequence multiple times within the same flow. Call Workflow is the preferred option when you want to repeat a node sequence/logical flow construct across various flows within the same service.

• If you modularize a flow using Page Connector, any incremental edits on any of the pages would require you to edit the flow as a whole. On the contrary, if you modularize a flow into various flows then incremental edits in a specific flow can mostly be done without impacting the other flow. If you see a more frequent need to iterate parts of a large flow it may be better to carve them out as a separate flow and invoke them from the main flow using the Call Workflow node.

• Flow analytics for a flow spread across various pages are available as a whole in Sankey Chart mode. If you have the flow analytics add-on enabled, and not having the details of flow traffic across various nodes of each of the modularized flow impacts your ability to analyze the customer journey as a whole, you would want to prefer the Page Connector(s) approach.

• Since Page Connector is just visual segregation of a large flow across pages, all the variables are reference-able across pages. On the contrary, only Custom Variables from parent flow are reference-able in the child flow.

Overall, both Page Connector and Call Workflow Nodes provide you with the flexibility to modularize your flows and handled them more effectively. There are times when you would want to use both of these capabilities at the same time in combination.

Please note that the flow loading speed varies depending on the size and complexity of a flow. We recommend that you modularize your flows using Call Workflow nodes when you have more than 150 nodes within the same flow.

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Publishing a flow with Call Workflow Nodes

When a calling flow (i.e., parent flow) doesn't have any channel related nodes (and hence doesn't have any channel asset mapped) but invokes another flow (i.e., the child flow) that has some channel related nodes, you may come across 'Channel Bean is null' error once you reach the Send/Receive nodes during execution. To address this, you can add a placeholder Send Node in the parent flow and map it with the relevant channel asset during publishing of the parent flow.