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Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Prepare a subflow

Review the process of preparing a subflow for use in a parent workflow, and for preparing the parent workflow to use a subflow.

Procedure

  1. In the editor, open and check out the workflow that you want to use as a subflow.

  2. In the title bar, click the menu icon and select Edit Inputs.

Image omitted: SubflowEditInputs.png
Editing workflow inputs
  1. In the Workflow Inputs window, click New in the Variables list.

  2. Add a new variable depending on the type of values that it is going to store.

    The following example sets up a string value.

Image omitted: SubflowNewVariables.png
Adding new variables
  1. Click Submit.

  2. Close the Workflows Inputs dialog.

  3. Create a Run Script activity on the subflow.

    • Set the value from the parameter to a field on the current form. This is important because the Notification activity can only pull values from the current variable and not from the newly added variable. The following example sets the value in the Description field.

      current.description = workflow.inputs.bluesubvariable;

    • Create a new field on the request form but do not display the field. This serves as temporary storage.

Image omitted: RunScriptSetParaValue.png
Create a script to set the parameter value
  1. Create a Notification activity on the subflow and use ${description} in the subject to return the value from the field.
Image omitted: NotificationActivityValues.png
Setting up the notification to return a value
This is what the subflow would look like:
Image omitted: WorkflowWithSubflow.png
Completed subflow

Parent Topic:Workflows used as subflows

Prepare a workflow to use a subflow

After you create a subflow, use this procedure to prepare the parent workflow.

Procedure

  1. On the parent workflow, create a variable similar to what you did on the subflow, but name it something different.

    In the following example, the variable is named Blue Main Variable.

Image omitted: ParentWorkflowInputVariable.png
Creating input variables for the workflow
  1. Click Submit.

  2. Insert a Run Script activity to return the value from a field to the newly created variable.

    In this example, the value of the Short Description field is returned and given to the newly created variable.

    workflow.scratchpad.bluemainvariable = current.short_description;

Image omitted: RunScriptActivityProperty.png
Run script activity properties
  1. Click Submit.

  2. In the subflow activity, set the Blue Sub Variable to pass the bluemainvariable to the bluesubvariable.

    ${workflow.scratchpad.bluemainvariable}

    This is what the main workflow looks like:

Image omitted: WorkflowExampleWithSubflow.png
Completed sample workflow with a subflow