Using Workflow Rules

Workflow rules are used to define what should happen to a document in a particular workflow state when a specific operation is selected on the Document > Change State menu in ProjectWise Explorer.

Normally, a workflow is assigned to a folder and users change the states of documents as needed by selecting the standard Next, Previous, and Change options on the Document > Change State menu. When workflow rules are in place, the standard Next, Previous, and Change options are disabled, and instead the user has new options or operations to select from on the Document > Change State menu. The selected operation triggers a rule, which is a defined set of actions configured to run in a specific, sequential order. As a simple example, when a document is in a particular state in a particular workflow, the 'Revise' operation might be configured to 'place this document in a specific state of the workflow' AND 'create a new version'.

Workflow rules are imported through the Rules Engine node in ProjectWise Administrator. Any user who has the Workflow Rules Engine extension installed (an option of your ProjectWise Explorer installation) will be able to use the rules, assuming they also have access to the workflows that are using the rules.

Note: The Document > New > Version will also be disabled, as the Rules Engine is configured to create versions through the pre-configured operations instead.

Server-Side Rules Engine Processing

If your administrator has configured the Rules Engine to use server-side processing, workflow rules will be handled by the server instead of the ProjectWise Explorer client.

Note: When server-side processing applies the Update_TB command on a Microsoft Office document, the document is updated with the latest title block data, but when you open the document, the fields that actually display the title block data will still show the old data because those fields are not automatically updated. The user will have to manually update the title block fields after they open the document. This is a Microsoft issue and has nothing to do with ProjectWise.