In what ways can you map values to custom workflow activity inputs?

[Joey Alain1]

Apologies if this has been asked and answered elsewhere, I'm finding a lot of the material on Orchestration is from 2015/2016 and since it's changed quite a bit, it's difficult to find relevant answers.

When working in Orchestration -> Workflow Editor, specifically when creating a custom workflow activity, I have the option to define some custom workflow activity inputs (as shown in the image below).

From here, I can drag these into the execution window and use them however I like. When testing inputs, I can simply manually populate these fields with whatever I want, but how do I map values to these inputs I've defined normally? The only extra field that I can see that is made available when using them is the [Default] field on the Inputs tab. Or am I supposed to be using custom script activities to assign values to these inputs somewhere earlier in the workflow?

I'd just like to understand the difference between doing it this way, vs simply skipping the Inputs tab altogether, and just referencing variables declared or set elsewhere in the workflow using custom script activites, for example.

Thanks folks!

[SanjivMeher]

HI Joey,

This is a custom activity you have created.

Now when you use it in a workflow, you will see the input options.

To use it an a workflow, you can drag the custom activity to your form from the right navigator and then you get option to enter the inputs.

input should be in format ${your input variable name}

[Joey Alain1]

Thanks Sanjiv,

To clarify a bit further though, when defining those inputs am I restricted to only using inputs generated from the catalog form (or whatever input method you're using)? Or can I define input variables that were acquired through other means and are, for example, simply available and sitting in the scratchpad?

IE: I have a catalog item that, when requested, patches a specific computer using 3rd party patching software.

In scenario 1) I could expose catalogue item variables in the form, have the user enter answers, and then based on what you're saying I would then map those directly to the inputs of a custom workflow activity using the format above. However... consider scenario (2).

In scenario 2) I'm already doing something with the variables the user entered in the workflow, and this custom workflow I'm now building requires some other, interim or scratchpad variables, as inputs. Am I permitted to define internally created (internal to the workflow) variables as inputs here? Or am I supposed to only be using externally generated variables as inputs as in scenario (1)?

[SanjivMeher]

You can use most of them

If you are want to pass values from a field of requested item, format will be ${current.field_name}

If you are want to pass values from a variables of requested item, format will be ${current.variables.variable_name}

If you are want to pass values a scratchpad value, format will be ${workflow.scratchpad.variable_name}

[Joey Alain1]

Thanks Sanjiv, I think I found the piece I was missing. I failed to realize that the way you interact with an item completely changes what you're doing.

1) Double-clicking a custom workflow activity from the workflow editor nav menu, opens the activity editor and allows you to build/change the activity. But you're not hard coding inputs in here other than setting defaults if you want some, this was the confusing piece for me.

2) Single-clicking that same custom workflow from the workflow editor nav menu opens that activity's properties and allows you to set the values of the variables/inputs you've defined, but will do so for all instances of that custom activity you then drag and drop onto the canvas.

3) Dragging that custom activity out of the nav menu and onto the canvas, and then double-clicking it opens the activity properties (similar to above) but this time you're adjusting the values of the defined inputs for that instance of the custom activity only, not all going forward.

Can you let me know if I've got this right?

Thanks,