Step rules provide powerful automation capabilities by allowing attributes of upcoming flow steps to be modified based on data submitted in the current step.

Step Rules have two parts: conditions (IF statement) and events (THEN statement)

If a field value on the current step matches a specified condition

then do an event on a subsequent step.

To configure a step rule, select the step that contains the data field that the rule is to be triggered by - do not configure the rule on the step you want modified. Click on the Step Rules tab and configure the conditions and events.

The step selected could be the next step in the flow, or any subsequent step. Only one step can be updated by a Step Rule. It is possible however to update a step from multiple Step Rules configured on several steps across a flow.

The first Flowingly Step Rule is:

This rule allows you to change the actor assigned to an upcoming step, based on a user value selected in a field on the current step.

To configure the rule, set the condition to If the below field returns a User value, then select the required form field. Note that only valid fields can be selected. For this rule, this field would normally be a database lookup field, returning a user value from a database. Please see the example below for details on setting this up.

Under Event, select Then, change the Dynamic Actor of the Step below with that User. Then choose the desired step. Note that only steps configured to be assigned to a dynamic actor can be selected. Steps set to an individual or group cannot be updated using Step Rules.

In the event that the selected field does not return a valid user value, then the original dynamic user configured will be used.

Within a flow, we want a user to select a country, and have the next step assigned to the Region Manager responsible for that country. While this could be achieved using decision gateways, it is easier and more flexible to use a database and a Step Rule to assign the correct manager.

To set this up, first create a database with fields for Country and Manager. Make sure that the field type for Manager is set to User. Populate the database with the desired countries and managers.

Create a new flow. For this example, we need 2 steps.

In the first step (called Submit Enquiry in this example), in addition to the other fields required, add a Dropdown List. Set the Data Source to Database and choose the database created above, then choose Country as the Values to Display. Filters are not required in this example but could be used if required.

Add a Lookup field. Select the database, and set Previous Field to the Dropdown List created above. Set Query column to Country, and the display column to Manager. This will populate the field to the appropriate manager based on the country selection.

The next (or any other subsequent step) will be for the Region Manager to respond. We have called this step Respond to Enquiry. Create any desired fields, and set Who will complete this step to Dynamic Actor. While any dynamic actor can be used, we suggest assigning this to a suitable person to handle the step in the event that no Region Manager is configured for a country.

In the first step, now configure the Step Rule. Condition is If the below field returns a User value. Under Form Field, select the lookup field created above.

Set Event to Then, change the Dynamic Actor of the Step below with that User, and under Step, choose the second step (Respond to Enquiry in our example).

When the flow is run, the user will choose a country from the drop down. This will populate the lookup field with the manager's name. Once submitted, the Step Rule will reassign the Respond to Enquiry step to the required manager.