Creating a New Workflow

Before you build your first Workflow, you'll need to make sure you've configured App Groups and Global Events. If you've already done so, you're ready to go!

To build a Workflow in Localytics, head to the Workflows tab from within your Dashboard. Click the Create New button in your Workflows dashboard to get started.

Name Your Workflow

First up, you'll need to name your Workflow. Make sure to pick a clear, descriptive name so you can find the Workflow again in the future.

When you've chosen your name, click Continue to setup to head to the next step.

Select an App Group

Next, you'll need to select an App Group (who you'll be sending the message to) for your Workflow to target. An App Group is a collection of individual iOS and/or Android apps—which you should have set up following this guide.

Select an App Group from the drop-down menu.

Once you've chosen an App Group, select Confirm Audience.

Select Entry Event

Once you've selected your App Group, you'll next want to configure an Entry Event for your Workflow. The Entry Event is the event an end user needs to perform in order to qualify for the Workflow. Entry events are based on the Global Events you made during your setup process.

You may see a few events have an additional orange label associated with them. This is because these events are external events set up through the Events API. You could use the Events API event if you want to send a thank you after an in-store transaction.

Select your event, and click Create Workflow to start building your Workflow.

If you're not sure what kind of entry event will best suit your Workflows—or if you'd like to further configure your Entry Event (ie, by adding event criteria) you'll be able to do so from within the Workflows builder. We'll talk about that in the next section.

Further Configuring Entry

You can also add additional criteria to your Entry Event after you've set it (or any time during the building process, before you launch your Workflow).

To configure the Entry Event, click the Entry Event's name at the top of your Workflow builder. Like when you configured it during the building process, you'll see a few events that are labeled with an additional orange tag. These are external events and are pulled from our Events API.

Here you'll be able to change when a user enters the Workflow (if necessary), and add event criteria. You'll also be able to specify how often a user can enter the Workflow.

Let's dive into each of the different options.

Add Event Criteria

Event Criteria is a way to further specify what an end user must do in order to enter the Workflow. So if you want to specify that a user adds an item to their cart but only include users who added more than 3 items, you could do this with Event Criteria.

To add an Event Criteria, click the Workflow's Entry Event at the top of the Workflow builder. Under the section labeled When should a user enter this workflow? click Add event criteria.

Choose the additional criteria from the dropdown menu (What additional criteria should apply?), or type the criteria's name to search for it.

To remove event criteria, click the - symbol at the end of the line.

Adding Sets of Event Conditions

If you'd like end users to qualify for the Workflow by taking different actions (ie, adds an item to their cart OR views a certain type of clothing), you could Add Another Set of Conditions.

Once you've added your set of conditions, don't forget to hit the Update button to save your preferences.

The last thing you can do from this modal is to configure re-entry. Keep reading to learn more!

Configure Re-Entry

Changing the re-entry limit allows you to specify how many times a user can enter your Workflow.

At the top of the Workflows page, you'll see the entry event's name and any conditions added to it. Click the entry event to configure re-entry.

At the bottom of the modal, you'll see 3 options to configure How often can a user enter this workflow?

• Every time the entry criteria is met
• Only X time(s)
• Once every X hours/days

With X being an option you can customize. You can also choose between hours and days if you decide to customize how often a user can enter the Workflow. Don't forget to Update your settings when you've decided your re-entry limit.

For example, if you're building an Onboarding Workflow meant for new users, you would want to set the entry limit to Only 1 time. Alternatively, if you were building an abandoned cart Workflow, you would want select Every time the entry criteria is met so that users can qualify for the Workflow whenever they add an item to their cart.

Select Profile Filter

After you've configured your Entry Event, you'll have the option of adding Profile Filters to your Workflow. Click + Add Profile Filter at the top of the Workflow builder to add.

Profile filters allow you to further specify the pool of users who enter your Workflow. You can easily prevent certain users from entering, even if they qualify based on other actions. This is a great tool to help you build regional-specific or age-specific Workflows. It's also a useful tool if you want to only target users who've added certain customizations to their profiles—like favorite team or favorite musical act.

Select the Profile Condition you'd like to add to the Workflow. You can choose from the dropdown menu or begin typing to use the search bar.

Specify how you'd like to qualify the Profile Condition. This will change depending on the type of condition, but the most common options are:

• is equal to
• is not equal to
• is one of
• is none of
• is less than
• is greater than

And finally, fill in the specifics for the condition (ie, team name, age, etc). Again, choose from the dropdown menu or begin typing to search.

You can click Add another condition to add a profile condition that must be fulfilled in tandem with the first condition—as in Favorite team is both Tigers and Capitals.

Alternatively, you have the option to Add Another Set of Conditions to specify either/or Profile Condition.

When you've finished adding your Profile Conditions don't forget to hit Update to save your settings.

Build a Workflow

Now that you've finished configuring your Workflow, it's time to build it!

Add Actions to Your Workflow

Add any action to your Workflow by clicking the + button.

After a user qualifies for your Workflow (ie, triggers your entry event), you can trigger one of three events:

• Event listener
• Wait timer
• Push message

Event Listener

An Event Listener allows you to put users on a different path based on their interaction (or lack thereof) with your app during a certain period of time. Say you wanted to send a push message to a group of users who haven't yet performed checkout. You could use an event listener to check to see if the user had successfully checked out before messaging them.

Add an Event Listener to your Workflow by clicking the + button.

Select Add event listener from the pop-up modal.

If a user doesn't perform the event within the selected time period, they'll be sent down the Did Not path for the Workflow. If they do perform the event, they'll be sent down the Did path.

Select the event you'd like to listen for from the drop-down menu.

Then, choose the amount of time you'd like to listen for the event. You'll be able to choose hours or days for your unit of time (from the drop-down menu), and fill in a number on the left.

When you've finished setting up the Event Listener, click Add to add it to your Workflow.

Adding Event Criteria

In addition to adding events to your Workflow, you can also specify additional event criteria to these Event Listeners. Add additional criteria by selecting the Add event criteria option.

You can also choose the Add another set of conditions option to specify another event the end user can perform in order to split the path. This would mean that the user would perform either of the actions you specify (ie, Add to Cart OR View Product) in order to go down the path for "Did."

Don't forget to hit the Add button to make sure you add the Event Listener to the Workflow.

Wait Timer

A Wait Timer allows you to put users in a holding pattern for a defined period of time. For example, you could add a wait timer as soon as the user qualifies for the Workflow, to avoid over-messaging them.

A Wait Timer will begin after the previous step completes. Those steps might be:

• Another Wait Timer completes
• The user qualifies for a Workflow
• The user performs an event within a listening window
• The user fails to perform an event within the listening window

Add a Wait Timer to your Workflow by clicking the + button.

Select Add wait timer from the modal.

Fill in the number on the left, and select the unit (hours, days) from the drop-down menu. When you've finished, click Add to add it to your Workflow.

Push Message

A Push Message allows you to build a push using the typical message functions like title, deep link, key/value pairs, and creatives. 

To add a push message to your Workflow, click the + button.

Select Send push message from the pop-up modal.

Here's more detail on how to build a push message. 

Activate, Deactivate, or Disable Your Workflow

As you build your Workflow, it will remain in Draft mode (we'll talk more about versions in the next section). No users can enter the Workflow in Draft mode.

After you've built your Workflow (and reviewed it), you'll want to activate to begin funneling users through it. To activate, hover over the Draft button (next to your Workflow name) at the top of the page—you'll see it become an Activate? button instead.

Confirm that you're ready to launch the Workflow, and immediately begin qualifying users, and click Yes, I'm sure.

When the Workflow is active, you'll see the button at the top stay in the Active state.

To deactivate a Workflow, click the Active button at the top of the page (it will turn into a Deactivate button on hover).

Clicking Yes, Deactivate will prevent additional users from entering your Workflow. Users who have already entered will continue to move through the Workflow until they exit naturally.

If you need to end the Workflow entirely, you can choose to Disable to remove all users and stop all actions immediately.

Workflow Statuses and Versions

Active, deactivated, disabled, and draft are all Workflow statuses. When you create a new Workflow version, it will be in Draft mode. While in Draft mode, you can create multiple drafts of your Workflow.

After you activate it, it will become Active and you can no longer change the version. Deactivating a Workflow gives you two options: deactivate or disable. Disabled Workflows will remove all users from the Workflow immediately, while deactivated Workflows will let the users finish the Workflow while no longer enrolling new ones. Here's a handy chart to clarify:

You can also filter your Workflows on the Workflows Dashboard by their status.

At times, you may want to change a Workflow without interrupting the active flow of users. That's where Workflow versions come in. Versions allow you to create different variations without having to deactivate a Workflow.

To create a new version, click Draft 1 at the top of your page to access all drafts. You'll see an option for New Draft in the drop-down menu. Click New Draft to create a new version.

Keep in mind, a Workflow can only have 1 active version at a time, and a user can only flow through 1 version of the Workflow at a time.

If you're iterating on your Workflow by building multiple versions, a user will need to exit an active (or deactivated) Workflow naturally before being re-enrolled in a new version. A disabled Workflow will automatically remove everyone immediately.

Use Cases

If you're looking for more information on use cases—like a full walkthrough of setting up an Abandoned Cart Workflow—check out this article.

If you'd like to learn more about Workflows, contact our Support team or get in touch with your Mobile Engagement Consultant.