Pushing workflows and components to clients

As a partner, you can build a workflow or component once in your own organization and push it to the client organizations you manage. This page covers what a push copies, how to review it before it runs, and how to follow the results.

What a push is

A push gives each client its own independent copy. The copy is an ordinary workflow or component in the client's organization, owned by the client. Their people can open, run, edit, duplicate, or delete it with their usual permissions.

To update a client's copy, push again. The new version lands on top of the client's copy. Nothing is merged: if the client changed their copy, you choose whether to replace their changes or leave that client out. Each client can also revert your last update. See Updates from your partner for what your clients see.

Before you start

Push to clients appears in the menu of each workflow in the Workflow Library and each component in the Task Library. You see it when:

• Your organization can manage client organizations.
• You have permission to manage client organizations. Owners and Admins have it.
• You have at least one client organization.

A workflow must be published, with no unpublished changes, before it can be pushed. The action still shows on other workflows, and the preview explains why they cannot be pushed: This workflow has never been published or This workflow has unpublished changes; publish it before pushing. See Versions and publishing.

What travels with a push

• The workflow or component itself. A workflow is pushed as it was last published. A component is pushed as it is now.
• Every component it uses, including the tasks inside a task group.
• The storage files those components reference. Each file is copied into a folder named From followed by your organization's name in the client's Storage. A file the client already received from an earlier push is reused, not copied again.
• Marketplace components you installed are installed in the client at the same marketplace version, reusing the client's installation of that version if it has one. A client on a different version is not upgraded.

Some things never travel:

• Organization secrets are never copied. If a pushed component runs a BIOS update and the client has not set its BIOS admin password, that client's row in the preview warns No BIOS admin password is set for this organization. See BIOS admin password.
• Parameter values the client set on a step are kept when you push again, for steps and parameters that still exist in your version. A client changing only parameter values does not count as changing their copy.

Pushing

1. 1

   Open the push dialog

   In the Workflow Library or Task Library, open the menu on the item and select Push to clients. The dialog shows Checking your clients... while it builds the preview.

2. 2

   Review the preview

   The top line says what the push carries, for example Carries 3 components and 1 file. Below it, each client you can push to has its own row with a state, any blockers or warnings, and Details.

3. 3

   Choose clients

   Tick the clients to push to. For a diverged client, choose what to do under For this client.

4. 4

   Push

   Select Push to followed by the number of clients. The dialog switches to the progress of the push.

Only clients you can open and work inside are listed. A client whose billing you stopped, for example, does not appear. If none qualify, the dialog reads No clients can receive pushes right now.

Reading the preview

Each client shows one of these states:

Select Details on a row to see which items would change for that client, each with its own state. Items that are up to date are not listed.

Blockers and warnings

Some problems block the whole push. They appear at the top of the dialog, and you cannot push until they are fixed in your own organization:

• A workflow that is not published, or has unpublished changes.
• Referenced files that are missing, still uploading, or belong to another organization.
• Steps that use a component that no longer exists or belongs to another organization.
• A task group that contains itself, directly or through another group.

Other problems block one client only. That client's row shows the reason in red and cannot be selected:

• Not enough storage for the files this push copies
• At its workflow limit, when the push would create a new workflow in a client that has reached its plan's workflow limit.
• A marketplace component version that can no longer be installed, for a client that does not already have that version.

Warnings, shown in amber, do not stop the push. Read them before you confirm.

Diverged clients

A diverged client's row reads This client changed their copy since your last push. Under For this client, choose:

• Leave out to skip that client. This is the default.
• Push anyway, replacing their changes to push over their local changes. The client can still revert your update afterwards.

If a client changes their copy after you open the preview, and you did not choose Push anyway, replacing their changes for them, that client is skipped with Changed locally after the preview.

Publishing in clients

Pushing a workflow shows a Publish in clients switch. It is off by default: Off: clients get a draft to review and publish themselves.

• Off. A new workflow arrives in the client as a draft. If the client's copy is already published, your update becomes its unpublished changes, and their devices keep running the published version until someone at the client publishes.
• On. After the copy lands, the push publishes the workflow in the client. This is a normal publish of the client's whole workflow, so it also publishes any unpublished edits the client made to it.

Publishing is refused when a required parameter has no value in the client's copy. With the switch on, the preview marks those clients in advance with a line that starts Will update, won't publish: followed by the reason. The copy still lands for those clients; only the publish is skipped, and the result reads Updated, not published: followed by the reason. If the client's copy was already up to date, it reads Not published: instead.

Name clashes

A push never overwrites a client's own items. If the client already has a workflow or component with the same name, the copy's name has "from" and your organization's name added in parentheses, for example "Install Agent (from Northwind IT)". If that name is taken too, a number is added after it, as in "Install Agent (from Northwind IT) 2". When too many of these names are taken, the push to that client fails and asks you to rename one.

Following a push

After you confirm, the dialog shows each client with its status:

The dialog refreshes on its own until every client has finished. Each client is pushed all or nothing: a failed client keeps what it had before, with nothing half copied. The one exception is an item someone in the client organization saved while the push was running: it stays as they saved it rather than being put back, and the reason names it. Select Retry on a failed client to push to it again.

You can close the dialog at any time. It reads You can close this; the push continues in the background. Select View all pushes to go to the Client Pushes page.

A client whose copy already matched your version ends as Done without anything being changed.

The Client Pushes page

Select Client Pushes in the sidebar, or View client pushes on the Managed Organizations tab, to see your recent pushes. Each one shows what was pushed, who pushed it, when, and a count of client results such as "4 done, 1 failed". Pushes made with Publish in clients turned on carry a Published in clients label.

Select a push to see each client's result, with Retry on failed clients.

While your partner account is suspended

You cannot push. Opening Push to clients shows a message that your partner account is suspended instead of the preview, and retrying a failed client is refused the same way. Clients still waiting in a push that was already started are skipped with Partner account is suspended. Copies your clients already have stay theirs and keep working.

The same applies once a client is no longer yours to manage: copies stay with the client as its own, and you cannot push to it again.

Related

• Updates from your partner for what your clients see and how they revert an update.
• Managing client organizations for creating and running your clients.
• Versions and publishing for drafts and published versions.