Node Number creation

[Former Member]

Hi everyone - I have a question about how the Workflow system assigns Node Numbers to steps.

I see that the definition of a Node Number is:

"Number of a workflow definition step, outcome or operator.

All steps, outcomes and operators are given a unique number by the system."

My question is more in depth - how does the system go about assigning these numbers.....simply by numerical order? For instance, I'm working on a workflow, and I create a Send Mail step.....it is assigned a number of 000001. An hour later, my co-worker creates an Activity step in his workflow.....will the system assign 000002? After that, I create a Loop step.....the system assigns it 000003? Is this how it assigns numbers?

Thanks!

Steve

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Steven,

Is there are specific reason why you are asking this question? Is there a problem with the numbers, or?

I have never thought about this (=no problems with the numbers). I guess that this is a bit irrelevant question. If you create a new task, it will of course get an unique ID (or number). With the tasks it is clear that the new task will always get the next number from the number range. But finally it doesn't really matter, which number it gets. It is just an ID for the new object. I suppose the same goes with the steps (or nodes). (Well of course you cannot use the same step/node in another workflow as you can use tasks).

Regards,

Karri

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Karri - no, there isn't a problem. It's just that someone on my team asked me why the numbers in our workflows weren't in sequence. I couldn't answer the question.....but logic dictates that as you create a new task, it takes the next available number and assigns it....so that's what I said, but I decided to do some research to find out for sure (I don't want to give anyone false info). We have a number of people doing workflow on our team, so lots of tasks/workflows are being created sotrying to keep track of when one task was created before or after another gets a little complicated. Anyway, I wasn'tableto find anything on help, sdn, library, or in my workflow book that stated this exactly. Hence, I posted a question.

Thanks for the reply!

Steve

[pokrakam · Accepted solution]

Hi Steven,

Task numbers are assingned globally, but node numbers are sequential within a workflow template.

Add a few undefined steps and they should be in sequenece. Some things can create gaps in the numbering so that it may appear a little bit random. e.g. an until loop What's a little bit confusing is that many nodes aren't obvious in the workflow builder (e.g. an outcome is a node, as is a point where two branches join). Also as you go along editing &cutting/pasting, new nodes are created all the time so it's easy to end up with a 15 step workflow and node numbers in the 100's.

If you want to see the details, use the alphanumeric editor. Much more informative.

Cheers,

Mike

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Mike - ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification!

Regards,

Steve