Workflow Sample: Episode 502: "Master Reference" is for Eliminating the Fluctuation!

"Fluctuation" occurs frequently to corporate name!

Destination data in a Quotation or an Invoice differs like "Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation" or "Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp." or "NTT Corporation" ... Yet, the SELECT method must be adopted for an input form in Quote creation flow or Billing flow (instead of TEXT form). Otherwise, data that are not worthy to be aggregated would be accumulated, on and on.

Even though we manage so-called "Customer Master" in a Spreadsheet...

In the following Workflow, it is devised that a "Customer Master for Workflow platform" to be updated automatically with data in a Google Spreadsheet. The "Customer Master" will be maintained to be always up-to-date.

* The Auto-step (Service Task) referred to [Sheet reference] which is utilized here, will become available by feature expansion with [Addon XML] beforehand. (v11.1: 2016-09-05)

[Customer Master Synchronization]

In the Cloud-based Workflow "Questetra BPM Suite", a rectangular icon in gray represents an "Auto-processing Step", and a rectangular icon in light blue represents an "Inputting Step for human".

As you see at a glance, no human being is involved in the daily automatic update. The Customer Master on the Workflow platform is updated every morning automatically with the latest data. (Other columns such as 'Capital' or 'URL' are not referred.)

After all, the entire of the Business Process of "Updating the Customer Master" has been unmanned. Yet, it is capable of synchronizing manually, if needed. Awesome!

By the way, the automated communication in this example has been realized in a scheme of querying "Googlesheets API v4" (appeared May 2016) from Workflow platform side (Questetra).

Indeed, term of "API" (Application Programming Interface) might sound like something that only programmers can handle. But it's not a big deal to configure. Once you grant a permission of communication at setting, it updates every day automatically. If you haven't experienced APIs, you should try it.

＜OAuth2.0 communication＞

1) Setting on Service Provider (※ Google Developer Console)

Application type: Web application
Credentials: qapp
Authorized redirect URI: https://s.questetra.net/oauth2callback

2) Setting on Questetra (OAuth Consumer) (※[Process Model Details] > [OAuth 2.0 Setting])

Name: sheets-api-v4
Authorization Endpoint URL: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?access_type=offline&approval_prompt=force
Token Endpoint URL: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token
Scope: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets
Consumer Key: (Retrieve at Google Developers Console)
Consumer Secret: (Retrieve at Google Developers Console)

＜Addon-XML Config screen＞