Workflows in Sonia

A workflow is a way of automating a series of tasks that you, as a placement officer, would normally perform.

Some examples of simple workflows:
 

Concept	Detail
Giving a “pack of forms” to a student	You might have 2 or 3 forms that you want to assign to students in a placement group.  You could create a workflow that: Assigns form A, Form B, form C Sends the student an email informing them
Send a reminder email to a group of students 2 weeks after start of placement	Wait for 2 weeks after placement request start date… then Send an email.
When a student joins a placement group send them a welcome email	Keep track of when students join a placement group. When they are added to a placement group, send them an email
You have 3 Forms that students need to complete in sequence	Assign Form A to the student Completing the first form sets student Check “A” When Check A is passed, assign Form B Completing this new form sets student check “B” When Check B is passed, assign Form C
Once placements are finalised, contact all site mentors	When placements are finailised Give each mentor a form with the student’s information Send an email to each mentor.

Workflows consist of a series of steps that are sequentially processed.  Next, we will look at creating a simple workflow.

 

Your first workflow

The scenario for our first workflow is to send our students an email message when they have passed all of their mandatory checks.

1.  

Creating a New Workflow

From the Sonia main screen, click Workflows on the ribbon, then New.

Name and describe the workflow clearly, avoiding vague titles like “My workflow.”

Add the first step to the workflow

Click Design to add steps.

Append a Condition so the workflow waits until all mandatory student checks are met (e.g., name it “Are Checks done”). Save.

Once met, append an Action to send an email to the student.

 

• Click Append action to add an action.
• Set its name (e.g., “Send student congratulations”)
• Choose Communicate as the action type, and set the target role to Student.
• Click the pencil icon to compose the email.

Student emails use student templates and placeholders.

• Compose the email, click OK
• Optionally enable Send log, then save the workflow.

Test workflows with a small group—especially email actions, which can’t be undone.

 

WARNING: CHECKS AT WORK

When testing workflows with checks, note that Managed checks must be Completed (e.g., cleared), not just set to Yes/No, to pass the workflow condition.

In the image above 

Example Above: The student has two managed checks.

Although both are marked Yes, Police clearance isn’t cleared in Check Manager, so any workflow condition waiting on it will remain blocked.

 

 

 

Assigning Workflows in Sonia

As with forms, workflows do nothing until they are assigned to the person they relate to and in an appropriate context.

Workflows can be assigned to:

• Students

• Site Contacts

• Supervisors

Workflow Context

Workflows are most commonly assigned in the context of a placement. Both workflows and forms inherit a hierarchy of placement context:

• Placement Group

• Placement Request

• Placement

When a workflow is assigned to a role (e.g. a student) within a placement context, it understands the related participants. For example, it can send emails to mentors or supervisors linked to that placement.

Workflows Without Context

Workflows can also be assigned without any placement context.

Example:
In an internship or pre-placement process, you may want students to complete an application form, police check, or passport verification before being added to a placement group. A workflow can be assigned directly to the student to manage these steps. Once completed, the student can then be added to placements.

Why Context Is Important

Context determines what a workflow can do:

• Forms inherit workflow context
  If a workflow is assigned to a student in a placement, any assigned forms can reference mentors, supervisors, or placement details.

• Role-based communication
  If a workflow is assigned to a supervisor within a placement, it can send emails to the student(s) they supervise.

Without context, these relationships are unavailable.

Assignment Types

Assignment can be:

• Automatic (triggered by conditions)

• Manual (you choose who receives the workflow)

Assigning Workflows Manually

Manual Assignment With Context

To manually assign a workflow with placement context, you must do so from within a Placement Group.

This process is similar to manually assigning a form within a placement group and ensures the workflow inherits the correct placement context.

Assigning workflows in a placement group

To assign a workflow to allocated students in a placement group:

1. Open the group
2. Click Workflows, then +.
3. Select the workflow, choose the role
4. Select recipients from the grid, and click OK.
   1. Context depth depends on the chosen role. 

Manual Assign Without Context

Manually assigning a workflow outside a placement group gives it no context; it can only act on the assigned person. Assigning a workflow to a student, supervisor, or site contact is straightforward.

1. Open the student (or supervisor/site contact), click Workflows, then +.

2. Select the workflow, click OK, and save.

   1. Processing starts immediately; refresh to see results.

 

​​​​ Without Context – Via Search

Use the Windows Search panel for Students, Supervisors, or Site Contacts to assign workflows to multiple users at once.

1. On the Search panel, use the Workflows button to bulk-assign a workflow.
2. Search for the target users (e.g., students with missing checks)
3. Select the workflow
4. Optionally prevent duplicates, and click Assign.

Workflows start processing immediately.

​​​​​Assigning Workflows Automatically

Sonia can automatically assign workflows when a condition is met, such as giving a workflow to students in a placement group without manual intervention.

Workflows can be assigned at the school level (applies to all placements; set in School Options/Workflow) or placement group level (set in the group under Settings).

 

The following events can automatically cause a workflow to occur
 

Triggering Event	Description
Student added to the placement group	A student gets added to the group – this can be triggered in the client, or by students adding themselves to the group online.
Allocations finalised to students	On the placement group Details tab, the checkbox “Allocations finalised to students” is checked and the group is Saved.
Allocations finalised to sites	On the placement group Details tab, the checkbox “Allocations finalised to sites” is checked and the group is Saved.
Allocations finalised to supervisors	On the placement group Details tab, the checkbox “Allocations finalised to supervisors” is checked and the group is Saved.

 

An automated trigger contains the event, the target role and the name of the workflow

Designing Workflows

Designing workflows uses the same user interface metaphor as designing Sonia forms, so if you have worked with forms before you should feel right at home.

The workflow window

Workflows in Sonia can be categorized, assigned to placement officers, and flagged for follow-up. They can also be password-protected or restricted to school administrators.

 

The Design page (above) is selected from the ribbon (1).  The list of steps in the workflow are displayed in execution order (2). Clicking a step will show its properties (3).  Steps can be copied, deleted and moved using standard Sonia icon/buttons (4).

Actions in Detail

Appending an action creates a new action item at the end of the workflow.  In the properties you will need to fill in details for the action.

When creating a new action, thoughtfully name the step.

Instead of “Step 1,” use descriptive names like “Send intro email to student” to track workflow progress.

The Action field lists available types: Assign a form, Assign a workflow, or Communicate. Future Sonia versions may include additional actions.

The Role field specifies the action’s recipient and defines the workflow context.

Choosing a role like Mentor means the workflow must be assigned within a placement and may generate multiple emails or forms for all related mentors and supervisors.

 Communicate

The Communicate action will pop up an email dialog window for you to fill in the details of the communication to the recipient role.

Role: Student – Communication details

The email dialog will be different for different Roles – corresponding to the different Communication Template types you can design (Student, Site, Site Contact and Supervisor).

All of the expected communications options are available – the message can be sent as an SMS or sent to the recipient’s mobile (in the case of Student and Supervisors with the Sonia app).
 

​​​​​​ Assign form

The Assign form action can assign a form to the workflow’s person or, with sufficient context, to a related role, such as a student’s mentor.

If we have a full-context workflow and the student has multiple mentors, each of these will receive their own form if you made the target Role “Mentor”.

1. 1.  

Assign Workflow

The Assign workflow action starts a new workflow that inherits the current workflow’s context, while the original workflow continues unless it’s the last step.

A workflow can assign another workflow to any role within its context—for example, a student’s workflow can trigger a workflow for their supervisor(s).

 

The workflow has six steps:

1. wait 2 days before placement
2. email the student
3. spawn another student workflow
4. spawn a supervisor workflow
5. wait 1 day before placement end
6. spawn a “Request Report” workflow for mentors.

Conditions appear as dark grey panels in the workflow designer.

A Workflow Condition step in the Designer.

Conditions act like traffic lights: the workflow pauses until the condition is met, then continues. Name conditions descriptively (e.g., “Wait 2 days before placement”) to make workflow status easier to interpret.

The “Next step” column shows the name of the Condition where the workflow is waiting

For date-based conditions Sonia provides an “offset” option.  This makes it easy for a workflow to wait on a condition step until a week after placement – or a day before preferencing opens.  

1. 1.  

Conditions list

Conditions can be divided into two types:

• Check conditions

• Dates in and around Placement Groups

Note that the Offset feature is only available for Date-related conditions
 

Condition	Comment
All student mandatory checks met
All supervisor mandatory checks met
Student check met	You need to specify the check you are waiting for
Supervisor check met	Specify the supervisor check
Date based conditions
Placement Starts / Ends	These are the dates a student is on placement
Placement Group Start / End dates	The date range of the placement group
Key Event based conditions	These all relate to the “Key Events” on a placement group’s Details page
Ignore all checks Open / Closed
Preferences Open / Closed
Review Open / Closed
Self-selected reviewers Open / Closed	This is for the 2017 Q4 feature – for Form peer reviewing
Sites can add interviews Open / Closed
Sites can create advertisements Open / Closed
Students can allocate themselves Open / Closed
Students can join placement group Open / Closed
Students select interviews Open / Closed

1. 1.  

Using the Offset

For date-based conditions, set the offset by clicking the clock icon in the offset field.

Clicking the clock will trigger the time picker to pop up:

Choose your offset

The Before and After buttons control if the target time is before or after the condition field we are waiting on.

There are no limits to the number of steps in a workflow.

If you workflow stops and it's unclear what has happened, there is a Log generated for each workflow instance and it might help identify the issue:

In the workflow’s Assignments tab, select the recipient causing the issue and click Log. A grid appears—check the Error column.

• For example, “No targets found” indicates the workflow attempted to email a mentor, but the student had none assigned.

Workflows are dynamic and reevaluated when modified. Pending steps will use the updated workflow, but completed steps (e.g., sent emails) are not redone.