Design > Designing Guides > Adding Guide Steps
  

Adding Guide Steps

Add steps to access services and data, and to perform multiple related activities.
When you add a step, you also define properties for that step.
Perform one of the following tasks to add a step to a guide:

Assignment Step

Use the Assignment step to set a value to a field. To create an Assignment step, click a process, and then select Assignment from the Design canvas. Then, from the Assignments properties panel, click the Add icon to assign Name and Assignment values.
The following image shows an Assignment step:
This image shows an Assignment step with five fields
To add a field, click the Add icon, and then add the following information for each field:
Name
This is the fully-qualified field name. The name can contain only alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), spaces, and Unicode characters.
You can select a field name from the list of fields you defined under Start > Fields.
Assignments
This is the source from which the field takes values. The fields you see depend on the data type you definedunder Start > Properties > Input Fields or Temporary Fields.
For example, if you define the data type in the Input Fields as Date or Time, the following options appear for that field in the Assignment step:
If you define the data type as Integer or Text, you see the following options to specify the value of the field:
For more information about data types, see Using the Field Properties Dialog.

Create Step

Use the Create step to add new object instances. For example, if you work with an Account object, you can use the Create step to add a new account.
The Create step name can contain only alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), spaces, and Unicode characters.
The following image shows a Create step:
This image shows the Create tab with the Salesforce Account selected.
Perform the following tasks to create new objects:
  1. 1Choose the Input Fields tab and select the fields that you want to add to the object. Some are required, some are optional.
  2. 2Set the source to one of the following values: Content, Field, Formula, or Screen.
Use the Edit Screen option to place the fields and labels or prompts for the user, if any.

Using Reference Fields

Note the following information about reference fields:

Screen Step

Use the a Screen step to perform the following tasks:
The Screen step name can contain only alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), spaces, and Unicode characters.
The following image shows a Screen step that contains what a sales rep would say to a prospect:
This image shows the Edit Screen window of a screen step. There is a prompt for a sales representative to ask a customer about a POC. There are options for the representative to select.
When the sales representative runs the guide, they see the question that they need to ask as well as buttons for each possible answer.
The following image shows a part of a simulated Screen step:
This image shows a part of a simulated screen step. There is a prompt and the four options.
After you add a Screen step with different choices, Guide Designer creates a branch for each answer.
The following image shows a Screen step with four possible answers:
This image shows a canvas view of the Screen step. Four branches emerge from it, one for each possible outcome.
You can add steps to each branch of the Screen step.
The following image shows a Screen step with two answers:
This image shows a Screen step with two outcomes. One branch leads to a Create step and the other branch leads to an End step.
You can insert the following field types when you edit a Screen step:
To create a translated version of a Screen step, see Guide Translations.

Decision Step

The following table describes the properties in a Decision step:
Property
Description
Name
The name of the Decision step. The name can contain only alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), spaces, and Unicode characters.
Decision
The guide takes a decision based on the fields and paths you define here.
Select a field name from the list of fields you define under Start > Fields.
Enter conditions and values that you want the Decision step to base a decision on.
The conditions available depend on the field that you select.
For example, if you select a field of type Simple > Text, the following conditions are available:
  • - Equals
  • - Starts With
  • - Ends With
  • - Starts with any of
  • - Contains
You can enter text values against the conditions you select.
You can add multiple conditions to a Decision step. Each condition is a potential data path.
For each path that you add, a corresponding branch appears on the UI. Drag branches to rearrange the order in which the branches appear on the UI.
Most Decision steps have an Otherwise path. This path handles execution if no data meets the conditions in your tests.

Evaluating Paths

A guide evaluates conditions based on the criteria you specify. Ensure that you construct paths with non-intersecting conditions.
For example, you create a Decision step with the following paths:
If the integer field for which the Decision step was created has a value of 25, the Decision step takes path 1. This is because 25 is less than 100 and path 1 is the first option.
To ensure that the Data Decision step follows the "Field less than or equal to 25" path, re-create the paths with the following criteria:
Important: The guide evaluates conditions in a top-down manner. Ensure that the Otherwise branch is the last path.
A Decision step can lead to another Decision step. For example, a branch could run if an annual income exceeds $100,000. The next decision test along the same path could test if the city is Boston, or otherwise. Using this technique, you use Boolean AND logic because you base the test for the second condition on the true branch of the first condition. In this example, you use the Decision step to set the condition "Annual Revenue exceeds $100,000 AND city is Boston".
Similarly, to support Boolean OR logic, you can add a test for the second condition on any branch.

Jump Step

When you create a guide, one set of choices might require some activities and a branch would occur. After these activities are completed, the flow of steps should rejoin the actions of another branch.
For example, a guide that leads a sales rep through a conversation with a prospect could take many different branches as the rep talks about features and overcomes objectives. However, at some point in some of these branches, the rep should schedule a meeting. The scheduling step and the steps that follow may be same. Rather than add a scheduling step to each branch that needs one, you could instead jump to a scheduling step that has the scheduling steps.
Set the following property when you create a Jump step:
Property
Description
To
The target of the jump. Select from a list of available steps.
More than one step can jump to the same target step. To see how many Jump steps have a particular step as their target, place the cursor over the arrow next to the target step.
The Jump step has the following restrictions when used in conjunction with the Parallel Paths step:
  • - You cannot jump to any branch of a Parallel Path step from outside of the Parallel Paths step.
  • - You cannot jump to outside a Parallel Path step from within the Parallel Path step.
You can jump from one branch of a Parallel Path step to another branch.

Process Call Step

Use a Process Call step to invoke a process from within a guide.
The Process Call step name can contain only alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), spaces, and Unicode characters.
Guides need not be self-contained. Most guides embed externally created sets of actions, as follows:
The way in which you use a Process Call step is the same as for using an embedded guide step. See Embedded Guide step for more information.

Embedded Guide step

Use an Embedded Guide step to better orchestrate and manage your business processes. Design guides that embed other guides, similar to how you would create a subprocess that is called from another process.
Using an embedded guide has the following advantages:
You handle the data received from a guide and the data that can get sent back to it using the Input and Output fields defined in the guide properties.
For example, suppose there are a set of steps associated with entering client information. If there are different ways that your users interact with clients and many need to enter client information, you could group these client information steps into their own guide. Now, whenever a guide needs to enter client information, it just "embeds" the guide. This also means that all embedding guides use the same steps
When you create an Embedded Guide step, you enter the following properties:
Property
Description
General
The name of the Embedded Guide step. The name can contain only alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), spaces, and Unicode characters.
Guide
Select the guide that you want to embed within the current guide.
The current guide is called the embedding guide.
The guide that the embedding guide embeds is called the embedded guide.
Iteration Rule
Configure whether you want the embedded guide to run on a single object or on all objects.
If you choose Run on a single object, the embedded guide runs on the specific object it receives as input. The embedded guide passes control to the step that follows in the embedding guide when execution completes.
If you choose Run on each object in list until , you also choose an event that controls guide execution:
You can also choose from the following objects to process at runtime:
  • - Field: A single object or a list of objects is passed to the embedded guide (based on the selected Run choice).
  • - Query: Available only with Run on a single object. Allows you to define a WHERE condition that selects the object passed to the embedded guide.
  • - List: Available only with Run on each object in list until outcome. Allows you to define a WHERE condition that selects the objects passed to the embedded guide.
Input Fields
Displays the input fields available for the selected object. If the embedded guide receives one of these fields as input, the value of that field may be updated while the embedded guide executes. If so, the value is updated in the parent guide after this embedded guide completes execution.
The following image shows an embedding guide that contains an embedded guide:
In this image, the embedded guide, Add Lead to Campaign, contains an embedding guide called Close Lead.

Service Step

Use a Service step to connect to an external service, a system service, or a process.
When you add a Service step, you need to configure the Service Type, Connection, and Action.
The following table describes the Service step properties:
Property
Description
General
The name of the Service step. The name can contain only alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), spaces, and Unicode characters.
Service Type
The connection, process, or system service you add to the process. Select from a list of existing tasks.
Note: You must have an existing item to add to the guide. You cannot create an item when you use the Service step.
Connection
The connection to the service connector.
Action
The action contained within the connection.
The following image shows a Service step with the Salesforce connection selected:
This image shows a the properties section of a Service step. A Salesforce connection with the Submit For Approval action is selected.

Input Fields

The Input Fields section shows the names of input fields that are most often used when using this kind of step. For Service steps that create objects, the input fields shown are the fields that are most frequently needed when the object is created. (If you do not need a field and it is optional, you can delete it.) You can choose additional (optional) input fields from the list.
Use the delete icon to remove a field. This removes input fields that you do not want to pass to the Service step. Some fields are required and cannot be deleted.

End/Milestone Step

The End/Milestone step marks the end of a guide's execution or a milestone.
When you add an End step to a guide, you can configure the step to be a Milestone type step or an End of Guide type step. A Milestone ending indicates the end of one phase in a guide's activities.
Note: You can make the text that you enter more readable if you insert text and fields into a table. For more information, see Inserting Fields in Tables.

End of Guide Step

An End of Guide step marks the place where a guide finishes executing. Every branch in a guide concludes with an End step, unless it is a Jump Step. The An End of Guide step specifies an outcome.
The following image shows a sample End of Guide step:
This image shows an End step with End of Guide selected. The Show screen option is selected. The outcome is set to Evaluation Sent and there is a list of Preprocessing options.
Set the following properties when you select the End of Guide option:

Milestone Step

Milestones are especially useful when a user hands off work to someone else. (If the guide is handed off, the user who will be handing the guide off should let the next user know that something needs to be done. This may be built into your application's workflow rules.) When that user starts the guide, it starts at the step following the milestone. Milestones should also be used if the user normally stops executing the guide at a step to do something else.
In some cases, you may simply be using a milestone stop to record an event that occurred and the guide will automatically continue to the next step.
The following image shows a sample Milestone step:
This image shows a Milestone step. Show screen is selected and you can see a list of Preprocessing options.
After a guide hits a milestone, further activities do not need to occur. However, the guide will be terminated if no further actions occur within 14 days. Guides without a Milestone guides are terminated in seven days. Once action begins after a milestone is reached, the guide will be terminated if it does not either end or reach another milestone in seven days.
Set the following properties when you select the Milestone option: