Workflows

Overview

Workflows in Lunr are used to control the lifecycle of documents by defining the states they move through and the rules governing transitions between those states. Workflows enforce governance by ensuring documents follow consistent review, approval, and release processes aligned with business requirements.

Workflows are typically associated with document types and can be configured to restrict actions such as editing, approval, or release based on the current state and the user's role. They also determine when metadata can be modified, when revisions or versions are created, and when documents become visible to broader audiences.

Proper workflow configuration is critical to maintaining data integrity, auditability, and compliance, and should be designed in conjunction with access controls and document type definitions to ensure predictable and controlled document behaviour.

This page covers building and configuring workflows. For how a workflow is used day to day, including moving a document through its steps and why an action might be unavailable, see Document Workflows in the User Guide.

The workflow engine itself is enabled by Configurable Workflow Enabled under Workflow on the General Settings page.

Adding a New Workflow

1. Select the Add Workflow button.

2. Complete the fields and select the Create Workflow button. The Name cannot be changed once the workflow is created, so choose it with care. You can change the Display Name later.

3. Use the Editor tab to build the workflow's states and transitions. See Workflow Editor for what the editor screen shows and how saving it works.

Workflow Actions Reference

When you create a workflow transition, you can attach one or more actions to it. Actions run automatically whenever a document moves through that transition, for example sending a notification, applying a tag, or locking a related document. The same actions are available as initialisation actions, which run when a document enters the workflow. See Workflow Editor for where to add them.

Actions with settings show them once you add the action. See Action Settings.

Notifications & Communication

• Email Notification sends an email notification to stakeholders when the document reaches this step.
• Custom Email Message sends a custom email notification with your own message.
• User Comment prompts the user to add a comment when they perform this transition.

Tags & Metadata

• Add Custom Tags adds custom tags to the document.
• Clear Tag Values clears specified tag values from the document.
• Set Tag Value sets a preconfigured tag value on the document.
• Set Tag from Change Request sets a tag value using details from the Change Request.
• Copy Tags to Parent copies selected tag values to the parent document.
• Copy Tag Value copies the value of one tag to another tag on the same document. It runs on transitions only, not as an initialisation action. See Copy Tag Value Rules.
• Clear Parent Tag Values clears specified tag values from the parent document.
• Set Tag to Current User's Name sets a tag to the name of the person performing the transition.
• Set Tag to Current Timestamp sets a tag to the current date and time, in a format you choose.
• Set Tag to Assigned Users sets a tag to the names of the users the document is currently assigned to, either its reviewers or its assignees. This differs from Set Tag to Current User's Name, which records who performed the transition.

Approvals & Reviews

• SquadCheck Review collects approval from every required reviewer before allowing the transition.
• SquadCheck Review Summary lets the approver finalise the review cycle, or reject it to start a new cycle.
• SquadCheck Review History shows a read-only summary of the most recent review cycle.

Document Revisions

• Increment Revision increases the document's revision number.
• Increment Drawing Revision increments the drawing revision sequence number.

When a new upload enters its default workflow, the revision increments that run as entry actions are skipped, so the upload keeps its starting revision. Entering a document into the workflow manually, or in a batch, still increments.

Assignment

• Assign to Group reassigns the document to a specific group.
• Reassign to Change Request Assignee reassigns the document to the Change Request's assignee.
• Assign Reviewer from Assignee assigns the document's current assignee, or the submitter, as the reviewer. No user picker is shown.
• Assign User (User Picker) prompts the user to pick the document's assignee from the transition's group. If no user is picked, the workflow submitter is assigned.
• Remember current reviewer saves the document's current reviewers into a named slot.
• Return to remembered reviewer reassigns the document's reviewers to the set saved in a named slot.

Publishing

• Publish makes the document publicly available.
• Publish Version Event publishes a version event of a specified type.

PDF Stamping

• Stamp PDF adds a status watermark to the document's PDF rendition.
• Stamp Parent Document PDF adds a custom stamp to the parent document's PDF.

Document Links

These actions use a link type, set up under Link Types. See Document Link Actions.

• Link Matching Document links the document to the one in the same project folder or Change Request whose file name starts the same way.
• Copy Tags to Linked Document copies selected tag values to the document this one is linked to.

Parent & Child Documents

• Merge with Parent merges changes with the parent document.
• Lock Parent locks the parent document to prevent further changes.
• Release Parent Lock releases the lock on the parent document.
• Clear Project Data removes all project-specific data from the document.
• Flag Parent as Archived marks the parent document as archived.
• Open Document Queue prompts for the parent document's queued Change Requests to be processed when the transition completes.

Lifecycle & Access

• Flag as Archived marks the document as archived.
• Revoke Document revokes access to the document.
• Un-Archive Document restores the document from its archived state.

Action Settings

These actions offer settings when you add them to a transition. Some offer fewer settings as initialisation actions. See Initialisation Actions for the settings that are available only on a transition.

Many other actions, including Publish, Increment Revision, Flag as Archived, Flag Parent as Archived, Lock Parent, Release Parent Lock, Clear Project Data, Revoke Document, Un-Archive Document, Open Document Queue, and the SquadCheck actions, offer only Optional (user can skip), which lets the user skip the action when they take the transition.

Document Link Actions

Link Matching Document and Copy Tags to Linked Document each work through a link type, which names the relationship between two documents. Add a link type before you configure either action. If the link type is later deleted, the action skips until you choose another.

Link Matching Document looks in the document's project folders and Change Request, and in the folder or request a new document is being uploaded to, for a document whose file name starts the same way. A segment is a part of the file name separated by a hyphen, underscore, full stop, or space, counted from the start of the name. The action needs at least the Minimum matching segments, and links the two only where exactly one document is the best match. It skips, and records the reason in the document's history, in these cases:

• No document matches the file name.
• Several documents match equally well, in which case the history asks you to link the right one by hand.
• The document is not in a project folder or Change Request, so there is nothing to match it against.

It also skips where the document is already linked, or is already the target of a link of that type. When it links two documents, both record the link in their history. An action that cannot link never stops the transition or the document entering the workflow. Both link actions are also available as initialisation actions.

Copy Tags to Linked Document follows the document's link of the chosen type to the document it links to, and writes the chosen tag values to that document's current version. It does so even where the linked document is locked in its own workflow, and the linked document records which tags were updated. It skips where the document has no link of that type, none of the chosen tags are on it, or the linked document is deleted or archived. A tag value that fails validation on the linked document is reported in the history.

Copy Tag Value Rules

Copy Tag Value runs each copy in its list in turn, and a copy that fails does not stop the others. It skips a copy, and records most reasons in the document's history, where:

• The source and destination are the same tag, or either tag does not exist.
• The destination cannot be written by a copy. This applies to structural, read-only, system, and title tags, and to tags computed from an expression or a related tag.
• The two tags are not compatible. Their data types differ, the source takes several values and the destination takes one, or the destination is a dropdown on a different lookup list.
• The source has no value on the document.
• The value is not valid for the destination.

Where you select Only if destination is empty, a copy is skipped when the destination already has a value. Otherwise a copy overwrites an existing destination value, and an empty source leaves the destination unchanged.

Copies run in the order listed, so a later copy can use a value an earlier copy wrote. Drag the action above Stamp PDF if the copied values should appear on the stamp.

Managing an Existing Workflow

Select a workflow from the list to open its Details tab, showing its Name, Display Name, Associated Repositories, and Description.

The Action Pane's Options dropdown offers two further actions:

• Export downloads the workflow as a JSON file.
• Deactivate is covered below.

Import from File loads a previously exported workflow JSON file straight into the workflow, without opening the Editor tab.

Deactivating a Workflow

Select Deactivate from the Options dropdown on a workflow's Details tab. There is no confirmation prompt. Lunr returns you to the Workflows list once the workflow is deactivated.

Editing a Workflow

Open the Editor tab on an existing workflow to change its states and transitions. See Workflow Editor for what the editor screen shows.

Bulk Workflow Transitions

Moving many documents through a workflow transition at once processes them in batches of 5, considerably smaller than the batch of 100 used when documents first enter a workflow. This is because an action such as merging multiple revisions into a parent document can take over ten minutes for a single document, and a batch has to complete within the time allowed for one bulk operation.