Start Action

The Start action is displayed as the starting page of a workflow when viewed through the User Application. This article discusses the Start action in more detail.

Table of Contents

• Understanding the Start Action
  
  • To Set Up a Start Action
  • To Set Up Ts&Cs (and other Policies) in a Start Action
  • To Set Up Starting Square Brackets in a Start Action
• Scheduling a Workflow from the Start Action
• How the Start Action looks in the User Application

Understanding the Start Action

All workflows in AUTTO begin with a Start action. The Start action cannot be deleted, unlike other Actions in AUTTO.

Use the Start action to give your users more information about the workflow. For example, you can put a more descriptive Headline and a more detailed Welcome text about the workflow on the Start action. You can also insert Terms and Conditions (Ts&Cs) and other policies for the workflow, if you have any, in the Start action.

A Start action can also be set up to accept starting values from another workflow that uses a Start Another Workflow action as its final action. For more information, see Start Another Workflow Action.

To Set Up the Start Action

When you start creating a Workflow, AUTTO already lays out a Start action on the Workflow Editor.

To set up the Start action:

1. Position your cursor over the Start action, then click the Edit icon when it appears.
2. On the Action Editor, optionally click the name of the Start action and change it from the default Start page to another one.
3. Enter a Headline and/or Welcome text for the Workflow, using the rich text formatting tools when necessary. You can also add images and videos to the T&C using the Insert Image and Insert Video tools, respectively, on the Rich Text Editor.
   
   
   
   NOTE: Images in PNG, GIF, and JPG formats are supported. For videos, you will need to either insert the link to the video or embed code from any popular video service, e.g. YouTube.
4. Click the x button on the top-left to save your changes and close the Action Editor.

To Set Up Ts&Cs (and other Policies) in a Start Action

If your company has policies that your users need to accept prior to using your Workflows, you can include these policies in the Start action. This way, your users will see them on the Workflow's first page, read them and signify their assent. You can add as many policies, including Ts&Cs, using the Start action.

To include a policy in a Start action:

1. Scroll down, then click Add T&C.
2. Enter a title and description for the workflow's T&C, then check the Compulsory terms? box if you want users to agree to the T&C before they can use the Workflow.
3. Enter the text for the T&C on the Visual Editor, using the formatting tools when necessary. You can also add images and videos to the T&C.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Done.
5. Click the x button on the top-left to save your changes and close the Action Editor.

To Set Up Starting Square Brackets in a Start Action

A Start action can contain optional starting square brackets that show default values to users or hold data passed from another workflow with a Start Another Workflow action.

NOTE: Publishing settings for a workflow that will hold data passed from another workflow should be either Invitation Required or Registration Required. For more information, see Start Another Workflow Action.

Starting square brackets can be any of the following types:

• Text
• Email
• Number
• Yes/No
• Address
• Country
• Date
• Time
• Value

The different starting square bracket types that can be added to the Start action are similar to the types of questions in a Form action. For more information, see Types of Questions in a Form Action.

To set up a starting square bracket in an action:

1. Scroll down, then click Advanced Options.
   
   
2. Click Add, then select the type of starting square bracket from the list.
   
3. Under the Variable box, enter the name as you want it to appear to your users.
4. Optionally, enter a description for the variable.
5. To save the variable to a square bracket, enter a name for the square bracket. With a square bracket, the variable will be available for use later in the workflow. For more information, see Working with Square Brackets.
   
   
   
   
6. Click Advanced Options to set up a default value for the variable.
7. Click Done.
8. To add more variables, repeat Steps 5-10. Otherwise, click the x button on the top-left to save your changes and close the Action Editor.

Scheduling a Workflow from the Start Action

A workflow can be started automatically with a Bot user from the Scheduler option in a Start action. This capability is unique to the Start action - it is not found anywhere else in AUTTO.

If you require a human user as the workflow progresses, you can use either an Assign User or Task Email action later on in the workflow. For more information, see Assign User Action and Task Email Action.

To schedule a workflow from a Start action:

1. Scroll down, then click Advanced Options.
2. Navigate down to the Scheduler section, then click Enabled.
   
   
3. Click the Calendar, then select a date for the scheduled start of the workflow.
4. Enter the time for the scheduled start. Click the AM button to change the start time to PM.
5. By default, scheduled workflows are set to start Once, or Do Not Repeat. To change this, select the appropriate option from the list.
6. If you do not find a suitable option for a scheduled start, click Custom, then set up the Number and Frequency.
7. Automated schedules are set to never end by default. Change this in case you know when you want the workflow to stop working.
8. Click the x button on the top-left to save your changes and close the Action Editor.

How the Start Action Appears in the User Application

The text that you inserted in the Start action as discussed in Setting Up a Start Action is displayed as the Start page of the Workflow when you access it via the User Application for the first time.

If you added one or more policies to the T&C section of the Start action and made them compulsory, users will need to accept them by marking the boxes next to them before they can use the workflow. To read a policy, they can click the link and display the text in a pop-up window.

If you publish a Workflow using the Invitation Required or Registration Required options (see To Publish a Workflow), the Start action in your workflow also displays account registration fields where a user can enter their name and email address, nominate a password, and create their own account in your AUTTO account.

Users who have already been invited before and/or created an account can click a link where they can log on to the Workflow using their existing credentials.

On the other hand, any user can access Workflows that use the Public publishing option, so long as they know the URL where the published Workflow can be found.

Once a user is able to access the workflow, they can continue going through the workflow by clicking the Continue button that appears at the bottom of the Start page.