The workflow settings that determine which operations cause the workflow to start are referred to as the workflow start conditions. For example, a workflow can be configured so that any request to create a user account in a specific container starts the workflow.
Starting a workflow creates a workflow instance based on the settings found in the workflow definition. Each workflow instance stores the runtime data indicating the current state of a single workflow that is in progress.
A workflow activity is a logically isolated unit that implements a particular operational step of a workflow. The logic incorporated in an activity takes effect both at design time, when you add the activity to a workflow definition, and at runtime, when a workflow instance is executed. When all the activities in a given flow path are finished running, the workflow instance is completed.
The Workflow Designer is a graphical tool provided by Active Roles for constructing workflows. The tool represents the workflow definition as a process diagram, with icons denoting workflow activities and directional arrows denoting transitions between activities. Users drag activities from the activities panel onto the process diagram and configure them using the pages provided by the designer interface. Separate pages are provided for configuring workflow start conditions.