The Workflow Service uses many components to enable you to fully automate business processes in LUSID. This page provides further information on each component for your reference.
| Term | Definition |
| Workflow | A series of one of more task definitions and workers that combine to complete a process. |
| Task definition | Modelled as a Mealy state machine, a sequence of states and actions which encapsulate a workflow (or part of a complex workflow). Within a task definition, you can configure parameters for a task, such as states, fields and allowable state transitions. Task definitions also include actions, which can run workers to interrogate your data and generate child tasks. The task definition determines what a particular task does when an instance of that task occurs. |
| Task | An occurrence of the workflow defined in a task definition. You can create multiple tasks from one task definition, typically with changing input values, for example you might create one task per LUID for securities to be screened. |
| State | A condition a task can exist in, for example Pending, In progress or Complete. State names are completely customisable and can be defined in a task definition. |
| State transition | Movement from one state to another. Each state transition includes a start state, end state and is prompted by a trigger. |
| Guard | An operational condition which must be met for a state transition to succeed. For example, all child tasks are in the state Complete. |
| Field | The way in which data is passed into, around and out the other end of the task. Field names and data types are completely customisable and can be defined in a task definition. Field values can be specified when creating or updating a task. |
| Trigger | Defined within a state transition, a prompt which induces a state transition to occur. |
| Worker | Units of functionality which can access LUSID data. Called by tasks, workers take input parameters mapped from the fields of a task, and return results which can be mapped to a task definition. Worker status can be used to trigger a parent task automatically. |
| Action | An activity detailed in a state transition to be taken on completion of the transition. For example, start a worker, create a child task or trigger a parent task. |