What is a lifecycle?
For each document type or form created in Athento it is possible to define one or more Lifecycles.
A lifecycle is a set of states that a document goes through. In other tools, this functionality is known as workflows or work flows.
Lifecycles can be shared by different forms.
Let’s go with a simple lifecycle example: the lifecycle of an invoice.
An invoice can go through the following states:
- Received
- Accepted
- Paid
The invoice lifecycle in Athento is composed of the States (Received, Accepted, etc.) and the Transitions or connections that allow the document to move from one state to another.
Steps to create a lifecycle
Create a lifecycle
Lifecycles are managed from the form administration (Forms menu in the side navigation bar).
Click on a form to which you want to add a lifecycle.
Within the form administration, go to the Lifecycle tab.
Click on the Add lifecycle button.
Next, give your lifecycle a name.
Once your new lifecycle is created, you will be able to access it by clicking on its name.
Create the lifecycle states
Once a lifecycle is created, the next step is to add the lifecycle states that we want documents of a certain type to go through.
Add transitions between states
Once you create all the lifecycle states, you must indicate how users can move a document from one state to another. For this there are the lifecycle transitions.
Add transitions between states
Activate my lifecycle
Once the states and transitions are created, you must activate your cycle in order to use it.
Test the lifecycle
You can view your lifecycle from any document belonging to the form for which you created the lifecycle.