Workflow Parallels

The start and end parallel properties allow you to create parallel routing within a workflow. The Start property is used to designate the first stage of the parallel, which is where the initial branching occurs. The End property allows you to gather the parallel and return the workflow to a single stage series. Although parallels do not always need to be closed, it is best practice to do so whenever possible. It is also best practice to keep parallels independent of eachother, meaning you should never create a parallel within a parallel.

There are two types of parallels that can be added to a workflow:

1. Parallel Workflow - This is a straightforward parallel property which indicates that following the parallel start stage all relationships branching out of it will be kicked off. There is no need to set conditions on the relationships following a basic parallel workflow start stage because by default, every relationship is initiated regardless of the values entered into the form fields.
2. Conditional Parallel Workflow - Unlike the basic parallel workflow, a conditional parallel requires conditions to be added to the various relationships that are branching from the parallel start stage. Depending on those conditions, every relationship, or only some of those relationships, will be initiated after the parallel start stage is completed. You should use a conditional parallel if you have certain use cases where a workflow might need to route up to a certain amount of parallel stages, but might not always need to route to the max amount of parallel stages. When creating conditional parallels, always remember that at least one relationship needs to be initiated after the start stage is completed, so make sure that your conditions account for that.

To select which type of parallel to add to your workflow, simply select the stage where you want to start the paralle, and then add one of the Start Parallel properties:

Once a start stage has been designated, visual indicators will appear letting you know which relationships are part of that parallel. The indicators will be blue for basic parallels and red for conditional parallels:

To gather and end a parallel, select that stage which you would like to designate as the End Parallel stage, and add the End Parallel property. There are two options to select when adding an End Parallel stage:

1. Gather all relationships - Use this if your parallel is a basic parallel.
2. Continue if last token - Use this is your parallel is a conditional parallel.

Once an End Parallel stage has been designated a visual indicator will appear letting you know which stage is the end stage for that parallel. Again, this indicator will be blue for basic parallels and red for conditional parallels.