Summary: Add workflow items by clicking + and configure the different fields so the workflow item does what you want it to. You can also use variables to move information between different systems and around your workflow.
What are workflow items?
There’s a variety of different workflow items. They perform actions, retrieve information, and apply conditional logic. For example, the delay item tells Automation to wait a set amount of time. They all do different things and can form a complex chain of actions when linked together in a workflow. Each workflow item has its own settings that require configuration, they will be explained later in this guide.
Configure your trigger
Your trigger is always your first workflow item. Your trigger may require some additional information in order to work, e.g. the name of the LX that learners need to complete to trigger the workflow.
The custom xAPI trigger allows you to use your own xAPI query to create a trigger. To do this, you need to be well acquainted with the query builder in Learning Locker. If you’re not, then we suggest that you go to The Academy and take the Getting Started with Learning Locker course before continuing.
In Learning Locker, build a query that filters the xAPI statements down to only those that you would like to trigger your workflow. Then click on the <> button to swap to the plaintext query editor.
Highlight your plaintext query and copy it.
Paste it into your custom xAPI trigger in Automation and click update.
The workflow is built by adding items. Items are added by clicking on the + icon below the
current item. Each item has its own settings and helps direct the path of the workflow.
What are variables?
Variables are like little containers where you can store pieces of information that you want to obtain, change, and reference throughout your workflow. For example, one of the variables is Learner’s
Full Name. You could use that in the Send email item to make sure that every learner gets an email
addressed to their name.
There are two types of variable:
Global variables
Global variables are variables that are automatically available. They’re containers that Automation has already filled with information for you. Automation looks at the xAPI statement that triggered the workflow and extracts this information so that you can use it in your workflow items. For example, Learner’s Full Name is a global variable.
Custom variables
Custom variables are empty containers that you create and name yourself so that you can store information that you obtain during the workflow. E.g. I could make one called “score on assessment 2” and then store the learner’s score from the second assessment in there, meaning that I can reference it in another workflow item.
Using variables
There are three different ways to use variables in your workflow items.
Drop-down menus (input)
In some workflow items, you can select your variables from a dropdown list. These “input” sections are always at the top of the workflow item and are used because the workflow item needs a certain piece of information in order to do its job. In this image, the Get persona attribute item needs to know which persona to access in Learning Locker, so it has a Person ID field which Automation needs to be filled with a variable.
Text field inputs
You can use variables in text fields to insert the information contained within the variable. In the example below, each learner will receive an email which Automation greets them by name because the variable {Learner first
name} has been included. You can do this either by typing out the name of the variable inside curly
brackets e.g. {Learner ID} or by first clicking in the text field and then clicking on the variable in the variables box to automatically insert it in the text field.
Drop-down menus (output)
These work the same way as the input drop down menus, but instead of using the information in a variable, it changes the information in a variable. This can only be done with custom variables.
Adding custom variables
Click on the Custom tab in the variables window (in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen) and click Add variable.
Add the Display name and Description and click Create.
You can now use your new custom variable in your workflow. By default, your custom variable does not contain any information. To add information to it, you will need to use an output from a workflow, as
mentioned earlier in this guide. Once a custom variable contains some information, you can use it as an input in a workflow item further down the flow.
Custom variables only exist within the workflow that they were created in and cannot be transferred
to other parts of the same campaign.
In the example below, the selected course is chosen from the dropdown list, and then the custom variable is mapped to the Score output, by selecting it from the Score dropdown list. This means that whenever the Score custom variable is used throughout the rest of the workflow, it will pull the score from the course identified in the dropdown list.
Workflow items
Condition
This workflow item creates a branch in your workflow. The way you configure the item will determine how it decides which path the learner will go down.
Variable - select the variable that you want this condition to be based on. You can use custom or global variables.
Operator - this will define the rule of the condition. It dictates what kind of comparison will be made between the variable and the value.
Value - This can be text or numbers. The condition will be checking the information in the variable against the information you enter here.
In this example, the condition will check: Is the information in the AssessmentPassed variable greater than the number 59? If it is, the learner will go down the true branch, if not then they will follow the false branch.
Delay
This adds a delay of days, hours, and minutes between workflow items.
There are three fields for you to enter values into: Days, Hours, and Minutes. You can fill in one or all of the fields depending on how long you would like the delay to last.
In this example, the workflow sends an email to the learner, delays the workflow, and then checks the completion status of the course. The condition item then branches the workflow depending on that course completion status.
Send email
To - typically this will be populated by the {LearnerEmail} variable, but can be populated with any email address. You could also retrieve email addresses captured within Learning Locker attributes by using the Get attribute item (see below). Separate multiple email addresses with a semi-colon.
Subject - the subject of the email (can also be populated with variables).
Body - this is the editor for the content of the email (can also be populated with variables).
Email template - set a template to be applied to this specific email. See the email template guide for more info.
Get score
This item retrieves various score-related pieces of information about a course or learning experience. This information can then be stored in a custom variable (explained above).
Course - this is the course or LX you want to retrieve information about. The Show additional options section allows you to enter the ID number of the assessment from the course.
Status - the learner's status within this course: eg, passed, failed or incomplete.
Success - retrieves either a ‘True’ or ‘False’ status.
Score - retrieves the score that the learner has achieved.
Score (%) - retrieves their score as a percentage.
Minimum Score - retrieves the minimum score that can be achieved on the course or LX.
Maximum Score - retrieves the maximum score that can be achieved on the course or LX.
You can use any combination of the outputs.
Get persona attribute and Set persona attribute
Get persona attribute retrieves information about the learner from Learning Locker. This information can then be added to custom variables.
Person ID - the ID of the user you want to retrieve information from Learning Locker about. This is available as the Learner’s Person ID global variable.
Name - the name of the attribute that you want to pull through from Learning Locker. This is case sensitive and needs to exactly match the attribute name in Learning Locker.
Value - this dictates which custom variable the information from Learning Locker should be stored in.
Tip: It's good practice to give your custom variable the same name at the attribute. It makes it easier to identify information in complicated workflows.
Set persona attribute works in much the same way, but instead of retrieving the persona attribute, it changes it to the information you enter in the Value field. You can only use set persona attributes with attributes that already exist on a learner’s persona. You will find persona attributes in Learning Locker in People > Manage > Users Name > Attributes.
Enrol on a learning experience
This workflow item requires an LXP integration. This workflow item will allow you to enrol members of the workflow onto a learning experience.
From the Experience dropdown list choose the LX that you would like to enrol campaign members on.
Wait until
Trigger the next workflow item at a specific date and time.
Date/time - add a date and time that you would like the workflow to wait until - alternatively, you can click on the calendar icon and select a date and time from the calendar.
Time zone - this will always default to the time zone settings that have been applied to your organization.
Get completion status
This retrieves information about a course, activity, or LX from Learning Locker.
Course - this is the course, LX, or activity that information will be retrieved from.
Status - the learner's status on this course: eg, passed, failed, or incomplete.
Completion date - the date that the learner completed this course.
Success - whether the learner was successful or not. This will retrieve either a ‘True’ or ‘False’ status.
Completion - whether the learner has completed the course. This will return ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
You can use any combination of the outputs that you would like.
Get Custom xAPI statement
This is similar to Get Score and Get Completion Status, but it allows you to retrieve a wider selection
of information from a wider selection of xAPI statement types. If you’re not familiar with xAPI statements and Learning Locker, we recommend taking Getting Started with Learning Locker on The Academy.
You need to specify the Verb and Activity ID so that Automation
knows which statements to search for (click here to read our guide to which statements Learning Pool products send). You can find the Activity ID by finding another xAPI statement that’s related to the object you want to reference. For example, if you want to look up whether the learner has previously completed their Cybersecurity training, you would set the verb to “completed”. To get the activity ID, you open Learning Locker, search for statements relating to the Cybersecurity training, and locate the activity ID within that statement.
The Activity ID can be found in Statement / Object / ID in an xAPI statement. These sections of a
statement are nested inside each other by indents. So, to find Statement / Object / ID, you first want
to find where Statement is indented.
Click Show additional options to specify that the statements have to be from a certain period of time or must be from a specific Learning Locker store.
Information from the retrieved xAPI statement can then be used as outputs in custom variables in the same way as they can in other workflow items.
Outbound webhook
Note: this workflow item is only available via consultation with your account manager. Please talk to your account manager if you would like to have this activated for your organization.
The outbound webhook is used to send events from Automation
to other systems. It accepts unique URLs and sends data to them in JSON format as events occur. It works with any application that
accepts incoming webhook, including Slack, Salesforce, MS Teams, and Google Sheets.
You could add the outbound webhook to your workflow to send reminders and notifications to Slack or MS Teams to guide users through their learning journeys; create and update Google Sheets to manage projects, or create meetings in Google Calendar.
Endpoint: A HTTP or HTTPS address where the data will be sent to.
Request type:
• POST: The POST method sends data to the server and creates a new resource.
• PUT: The PUT method is most often used to update an existing resource.
• PATCH: The PATCH method is very similar to the PUT method because it modifies an existing resource as well. The difference between them is that for the PUT method, the request body contains the complete new version, whereas for the PATCH method, the request body only needs to contain the specific changes to the resource.
• DELETE: The DELETE method is used to delete a resource specified by its URL.
Auth:
• None: No authorisation required.
• Basic Auth: When selecting this, you will need to fill in a key and a secret which must match the authorisation configured at the receiving webhook.
JSON: Build the JSON string using the editor to be sent to your webhook. The editor has validation so you will not be able to save unless it has been correctly formatted.
You will also be able to use variables when building out the JSON. For example, when used with a Slack webhook including the course link variable, it would send a message to a Slack channel reminding users to complete training and provide them with the link to do so.
Stop workflow
This item is used to terminate the workflow for a learner.
There is no configuration necessary - as shown on the screenshot, it appears at the end of the workflow path as a checked flag.
Checking for errors
To ensure that you’ve filled in everything that's needed for your workflow to work, the Check box in the top right corner continuously checks your workflow for errors and lets you know if you’re missing anything.
To view the items that require attention, click Check. Clicking on one of these errors will take you directly to that error on the workflow.
Activating a workflow
When all errors are cleared on the workflow, a green tick will appear alongside the Check button. Next to this green tick is the Activate button. Click this to activate the workflow. Once a workflow has been activated, any learners meeting the criteria of the trigger (e.g. they enrol on the relevant course) then they will be enrolled on the workflow. See the guide on Creating and managing workflows to learn about pausing, editing, and deleting workflows.