Spider Workflow in Action

After my previous post about the conception of the spider workflow, let’s put this into action. Let’s think about multi-level of approvals that you might have in your requirement.

Let’s imagine we have this simple requirement for a workflow in Power Automate, and we need to express the logic in Power Automate using the spider workflow concept. First of all, let’s work the trigger header, because we might need some of the information in it especially which account triggered the workflow.

Next, let’s work on the variables. Like previously mentioned, we need a boolean variable which will be the stopper of the workflow just like a cork of your wine bottle. Next is the entire workflow configuration just like I have shown you earlier (read the previous post for more) but with a little twist.

If you want a quick escape, just copy and paste the following code below.

[
  {
    "Index": 1,
    "Stage": "Review",
    "Status": "Pending Project Admin Review",
    "Type": "CustomApproval",
    "Approval": {
      "Actions": [
        "Checked",
        "Return"
      ]
    },
    "SendAttachment": true,
    "AssignedTo": {
      "AssignmentType": "Custom",
      "Assignee": [
        "radityo.ardi@radityoardidev.onmicrosoft.com"
      ]
    },
    "Outcomes": [
      {
        "Outcome": "Checked",
        "Next Index": 2
      },
      {
        "Outcome": "Return",
        "Next Index": 7
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "Index": 2,
    "Stage": "Approval 1",
    "Status": "Pending Approver 1",
    "Type": "BasicApproval",
    "SendAttachment": true,
    "AssignedTo": {
      "AssignmentType": "Custom",
      "Assignee": [
        "radityo.ardi@radityoardidev.onmicrosoft.com"
      ]
    },
    "Outcomes": [
      {
        "Outcome": "Approve",
        "Next Index": 3
      },
      {
        "Outcome": "Reject",
        "Next Index": 6
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "Index": 3,
    "Stage": "Approval 2",
    "Status": "Pending Approver 2",
    "Type": "BasicApproval",
    "SendAttachment": true,
    "AssignedTo": {
      "AssignmentType": "Custom",
      "Assignee": [
        "radityo.ardi@radityoardidev.onmicrosoft.com"
      ]
    },
    "Outcomes": [
      {
        "Outcome": "Approve",
        "Next Index": 4
      },
      {
        "Outcome": "Reject",
        "Next Index": 6
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "Index": 4,
    "Stage": "Super Admin",
    "Status": "Pending Super Admin",
    "Type": "CustomApproval",
    "Approval": {
      "ApprovalType": "customresponse",
      "Actions": [
        "Complete Request",
        "Return"
      ]
    },
    "SendAttachment": true,
    "AssignedTo": {
      "AssignmentType": "Custom",
      "Assignee": [
        "radityo.ardi@radityoardidev.onmicrosoft.com"
      ]
    },
    "Outcomes": [
      {
        "Outcome": "Complete Request",
        "Next Index": 5
      },
      {
        "Outcome": "Return",
        "Next Index": 7
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "Index": 5,
    "Stage": "Closed",
    "Status": "Completed",
    "Type": "Closure"
  },
  {
    "Index": 6,
    "Stage": "Closed",
    "Status": "Rejected",
    "Type": "Closure"
  },
  {
    "Index": 7,
    "Stage": "Resubmission",
    "Status": "Pending Resubmission",
    "Type": "Closure",
    "SendAttachment": true
  }
]

Next up, is to parse the JSON configuration well enough so that it’ll save time when you want to reference a specific JSON object property. And the subsequent action is to initialize the first index we need to tag as the first entry of the stages.

Just for your own sake, Index is just one idea to ID the current workflow stage. In the real world, you can use string, GUID, text, numbers, or anything that can identify what is the current stage and it has to be unique.

Now, here’s the heart of the spider workflow. We can’t use a state, pointer, go-to, or something like that in Power Automate to make the flow goes back to the controller. To overcome, we use Do-Until action until the [Keep Looping] variable turns false. You need the [Stop the loop] in case of any error or time out, so it doesn’t go to endless loop. Optionally, you can get the controller’s error message.

[Stop the loop] basically just to set [Keep Looping] to false.

Inside the controller, you probably need to find what is the current stage from the configuration. The next step up, is to filter the parsed body of the entire configuration that come out from [Parse Flow Configuration] action. This is where it gets interesting, you have to filter where the [Index] is equal to [Stage Index] which is 1. Then, parse the JSON value simply by taking the body of [Filter Flow Configuration on Index] which will return an array and take the first one.

Parsing the JSON is always helpful especially when you want to work the flow quickly without doing too many trial-and-error.

But then the next action is just simply notify the requestor what’s the current stage coming up. It’ll be just a message saying “Hi requestor, your flow now is in ___ stage with status of ____”. Simple enough…

Then, you [Switch on Type] that will be the path of your next bus stop of your flow. In this case, we identify 3 different types based on the configuration: BasicApproval, CustomApproval, and Closure. We can put [Closure] under [Default] which makes the logic more broad as if like “if the type is either Closure or everything else, then stop the loop”. Let’s take a closer look how the routing done on approval side.

Now you clearly see, that we’re going to filter the [Outcomes] array where [Outcome] property is equal to the outcome of the flow and return what’s the [Next Index] of that outcome and assign back to the [Stage Index]. Eventually, the loop will be executed once again to see whether it’s the Closure or another step of approval.

No bluff, that’s it!

Last words

Now, all I can say is just congratulations that you now can work with any kind of approval flow. Your stakeholder asks for more approval? No problem, give ‘em that!

But just don’t be too happy first and hear me out. If your workflow configuration is salty, the entire workflow may go ugly too. So, make sure you have done your thought process while thinking out loud what’d be the configuration for this flow.

via GIPHY