Communicate within requests using discussion tabs

The Discussion feature (or Discussion Tab) reduces the need to have conversations about a specific request outside of Nutrient Workflow Automation (formerly Integrify) and the need to have requests bounce back to the Requester for additional information. This centralizes all request-related information within Nutrient Workflow Automation and reduces the need to route requests back for clarification.

Key features of Discussions

  • The Discussion Tab is enabled by default, but can be disabled at the process level on the Process Details tab.

Discussion tab enabled checkbox in Process Details settings

  • Can post comments and attach files independent of the workflow routing. Users can even attach offline email discussions. To attach offline email discussions, save/export your emails out of your email client to a local file folder and then attach them as files to your comment.
  • Users can make posts private (only the users selected by the poster and the poster themselves will be able to see the comment).
  • You can choose to send an email to select people when posting a private message and only share it with those users.
  • When a discussion post is emailed, a link to the request is included in that email that’s sent from Nutrient Workflow Automation, giving them access to view the request details.

Controlling discussion access

By default, all users who can view a request can also participate in discussions. However, you can restrict discussion access to only those users who are actively involved in the workflow.

Discussion security options

When enabling the Discussion Tab, you have the following security options available:

Discussion security options showing restrict to participants, include statically assigned users, and include group members checkboxes

  • Restrict discussions to participants — When enabled, only users who are directly involved in the request can access the Discussion Tab and post comments. This includes:
    • The person who started the request (requester)
    • Users assigned to tasks within the active request
  • Include statically assigned users — Enables users who are statically assigned to any task in the process definition to access discussions, even if they don’t have an active task in a specific request.
  • Include statically assigned group members — Extends discussion access to all members of groups that are statically assigned to process tasks.

System administrator access

System administrators always have full access to discussions regardless of these settings.

How access is determined per request

Discussion access settings are copied to each request when it’s created. This means that permission rules remain consistent throughout the request’s lifecycle even if the process definition changes later.

Example

Many workflows have a form submission with several approval steps. The Approval tasks usually link back to the original form in the workflow in case an approver needs to send the request back to the requester (for example, More Information Needed). Once the requester sends the request back, it has to go through all approval steps again. This can happen multiple times.

Instead, once a request is launched, questions for the requester (or anyone else involved in the process) can be asked on the Discussion Tab, which appears along with the Request Detail and Flow View tabs. Discussions are independent of any routing and tracked along with the request. Discussions are then automatically saved along with all other request information if needed later.

Discussion tab interface showing comment input field and previous discussion posts