Nextcloud Flow makes it easy to automate workflows and actions

Date de publication

14 septembre 2019

Catégories

Auteur

Jos Poortvliet

With Nextcloud 18, we introduced the Flow app. It makes it easy for users to automate some common tasks through an easy, graphical user interface. Read on to understand how it works and how to begin automating your routine already today.

Discover how our four Nextcloud Flow components ensure maximum productivity

Nextcloud Flow consists of four different components: the built-in workflow app, the Open Collaboration Service (OCS) API, Windmill, and Nextcloud Tables.

This article focuses on the capabilities of the built-in workflow app.

Read more about the other components and the technical side of Nextcloud Flow in our blog post « How to automate business processes with Nextcloud Flow?«

How to automate workflows with Nextcloud Flow

Nextcloud Flow is designed to help you automate tasks. For example, when a file is added to a specific folder, a shared link to the file could be created and sent through Nextcloud Talk into a specified chat room. Or, when a new element (like a file, a chat, or a Deck board) is added to a certain project, you get a notification.

Here is a mockup (based on the current state) of what Nextcloud Flow should look like by release time:

One thing Flow can do is help the workflow of teams collaborating on documents. Think of the approval and review processes, as in this example:

An partner sends a customer order form by mail to a special inbox. The attachments get uploaded to Nextcloud and, because they end in a special folder, are given a specific tag. This tag results in the file getting added as a task card in a Deck board for Team X to process. The chat from Team X notifies them of the arrival of the new task. A team member reviews the form and when done, moves the card to done which automatically adds a ‘reviewed’ tag. This tag results a notification for the manager. Once they adds the ‘approved’ tag, the files are turned into a PDF, then shared via a public link, which in turn is added to a mail that gets send to the partner.

As you see, Flow can go beyond files, tying together the various capabilities of Nextcloud. Through an easy API, Nextcloud applications like Calendar, Mail, Talk, and Deck will be able to provide actions and triggers for users to use. This means that more and more apps will be able to offer integration, so users can configure Nextcloud to respond to a wider range of events with an ever-growing number of actions.

Get Nextcloud Flow

Flow will be a part of Nextcloud 18. We have just started working on this release, but Flow has been under development for a while already. A first tech preview is available as part of our development version, downloadable as a daily build. Input from users is very welcome, as there is a wide range of capabilities that could be added, and the team is looking for use cases to prioritize. App developers can also get started supporting Flow in their apps! Documentation for Flow will soon be available on our Developer site.

At the Nextcloud Conference this weekend, a workshop will demonstrate how developers can add new capabilities from their apps to Flow.

Screenshots of the current state: