Configure looping and end nodes within a flowchart

Looping can be used to automatically redo tasks in a flowchart without having to manually recreate them. For example, if a sample does not pass a quality control check, looping logic enables you to automatically route it back to an earlier flowchart step and creates a new quality control check task, instead of having to re-create the task manually.

End nodes can be used to stop a workflow when conditional logic criteria is met and a process should be ended.

Getting started

Before you can add loops and end nodes to the flowchart template, ensure the Task Schemas and Transitions tabs of the flowchart configuration section in your flowchart Task schema are complete.

For example, let's say we have a flowchart with a Quality Control task. If the QC task has a passing output, the task is complete, if the QC task has a passing output the QC task should be performed again. In the Transition tab of the flowchart, the QC task should map to the (1) flowchart task and (2) the QC task. It is important that every route has a transition.

Add a loop to a flowchart

Configuring a loop is simply just using a router! Use a router to route to a previous upstream node if specific criteria is met.

To add a loop:

1. Click the pencil icon of your template flowchart to open the window.
2. Drag and drop Task schemas from the right-side panel onto the canvas.
3. Drag a diamond-shaped router node from the right-side panel onto the canvas to create connections between Task schema nodes.
4. Open the router node's configuration window to set up rules for each connected edge, including adding a loop as the final step in the router configuration.
5. Click Save to submit changes to the template flowchart, then click Save to submit changes to the flowchart configuration.

Limitations

Flowcharts currently only support configuration of loops with one starting point. If you require a loop with two or more entry points, an error message displays until it's corrected. For flowcharts that require loops with multiple entry points, we recommend creating new instances of the task nodes in the loop.

Add end nodes to a flowchart

If the end node feature is available on your tenant, an end node icon (oval with a stop sign) displays in the right-side panel.

To add an end node:

1. Drag and drop an end node from the right-side panel onto the canvas.
2. Connect the end node to a router.
3. Open the router node's configuration window to configure the criteria to route to the end node.
4. Click Save to submit changes to the template flowchart, then click Save to submit changes to the flowchart configuration.

Limitations

End nodes can currently only be configured to connect to one router node.