Workflow Center

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Applies from version 2021.4

Workflows are managed from the Workflow Center, which is part of the Data Governance App. The Workflow Center is a collaboration tool enabling users to view, create, and manage data governance workflows.

The Workflow Center supports workflows for change management and approval for data objects found in the Catalog. Users are able to suggest changes to the content of the built-in and custom fields on the Catalog pages of specific objects. Objects can be enrolled in any number of workflows; whether it be none, one, two, up to the total number of workflows that exist that include that object within the Catalog. For objects that exist on multiple workflows, the oldest workflow that contains the object takes precedence.

Reviewers who receive change suggestions can approve or reject these changes individually from the Tasks tab in their inbox. Users with a viewer-only license that are within a group that is added as a reviewer will not receive notification nor be able to see the suggested change request tasks as they are unable to approve or reject the tasks. Upon approval by the designated reviewer, changes will be reflected in the respective fields and visible to users viewing the Catalog page. The history of changes, reviews, and approvals is stored in the corresponding workflow and the Workflow Center. For data objects that are enrolled in a workflow, the name of the workflow will appear under Properties on the right of the object page.

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Workflow users typically are the following:

  • Workflow Creators - Users with Server Admin or Catalog Admin roles who can create and deploy change management workflows for RDBMS catalog objects and policies.

  • Workflow Reviewers - Users designated as reviewers in the workflow settings. They can review, approve, and reject suggested changes for RDBMS catalog objects and policies that are part of a workflow.

  • Other Catalog users - Users who can suggest changes to RDBMS catalog objects and policies that are part of a workflow.