Recreate your Comala workflow in Cloud using workflow builder or the JSON editor

Overview

Due to functional differences between the Cloud and Server platforms, we are not able to deliver 1:1 feature parity between the environments. These differences are listed in a feature matrix comparing Comala Document Management Server and Cloud apps.

For this reason, the migration tool does not include the migration of existing Comala workflows from the server instance.

You must install and license the Comala Document Management for Cloud and either

• manually create the Comala workflows in your Cloud site

• import JSON cloud-compatible workflows from another space or Confluence site

• translate your server workflows using the server Workflow translator for Cloud and import the workflow

Comala Document Management workflows in cloud

Currently, some Comala Document Management server app features are unavailable or have a different range of functionality in Comala Document Management for Cloud.

Current feature differences in our cloud app include

• different events and action macros available for JSON triggers in Cloud

• space workflow application can not be filtered by content label

The breadth and depth of capabilities available in our Comala Document Management server were developed over the last two decades. Development of our cloud app only started a couple of years ago and we are actively developing the cloud version to create the cloud app with a comparable feature set to the server app.

Bundled workflows

There are several workflows available on installation of Comala Document Management for Cloud

• Basic Approval workflow

• Content Expiry workflow

• Quality Management Systems QMS Workflow

Custom workflows

A custom workflow in your server instance must be added manually to your cloud instance.

You will need to recreate each custom workflow in Confluence Cloud using either the

• workflow builder

• JSON editor

• importing a workflow

Workflow translator for cloud

v6.17.10+

In the server and data center app, a workflow is translated to cloud-compatible JSON code using the Workflow Translator for Cloud option in workflow builder.

Open

Server/data center workflow features that cannot be translated are displayed in the Messages dialog box.

• use the Copy button to copy the cloud-compatible JSON code

Navigate to a space in the cloud site

• choose Space Settings>Apps>Comala Document Management

The space document management dashboard is displayed.

Open

In the space document management dashboard

• choose Create New Workflow to open the visual editor

• add a temporary workflow name in the visual editor

• choose the code editor icon { }

• highlight the existing code and paste the copied code into the code editor (overwriting the existing code)

• choose Save

• choose Exit

The imported workflow is added as an editable custom workflow in the space document management dashboard.

Cloud workflow features 

Some Comala workflow server app features are unavailable or have different functionalities in the cloud app.

Differences in the cloud app include

• workflow JSON triggers include a different range of

  • events

  • conditions

  • action macros

• some parameters are not supported

  • workflow macro

    • header parameter

    • footer parameter

  • workflow state macro

    • hideselection parameter

    • hidefrompath parameter - current state cannot be hidden from the progress bar in the workflow popup

    • taskable parameter - manual addition of workflow tasks by a user in a workflow state

    • changeduedate parameter - a user, by default, can edit the due date for a state

• e-signatures

  • when enabled for a workflow approval a user MUST use a third-party authentication app to generate a security token (there is no option to choose to authenticate with their Confluence username and password)

Migration data

In addition, due to Atlassian Confluence platform limitations

• custom content properties on a page are not migrated

• only the last workflow state data is copied but the full document activity data for a page is not migrated

Additional apps

Based on your migration planning and needs requirements, you may also need to install and configure additional apps.

For example,

• if you require the capability to direct view users to approved content you need to

  • use the Cloud Publishing for Cloud app to manage page development in a source space, then publish approved pages to a target space

  • adjust how the workflow works in your Cloud instance in the source space

• adding user read confirmations requires the Comala Read Confirmations for Cloud app.