Comparing self-hosted Workflow and Workflow in Process Automation

For self-hosted deployments, Laserfiche Workflow is a desktop-based application where organizations can use a variety of drag and drop automation activities to automate repetitive patterns of tasks, such as routing documents for approval, renaming and moving documents, and updating third-party databases. For cloud systems, the workflow designer is incorporated as part of the process automation feature set and is the main engine to execute upon other components designed independently from workflows, such as decision tables, capture profiles, and lookup table queries.

Feature Comparison Tables

The below series of tables illustrate activity differences between cloud and self-hosted installations of Laserfiche Workflow

ClosedSee Process Automation Features.

Process Automation Features SaaS SELF HOSTED
Workflow Designer ✓ ✓
Business Process Designer ✓ ✓
Rules ✓  
Ellucian Banner integration through Ethos ✓  
In-App Notifications ✓  
Work Schedules ✓ (1)
File Attachment (2) ✓ ✓
Capture Profiles ✓  
Smart Invoice Capture ✓  
Workflow Bots ✓  
Surveys ✓  

Included Workflow activities (3)

ClosedWorkflow activities for Process Automation Actions.

Process Automation Workflow Actions SaaS SELF HOSTED
Invoke Bot (pre-release) ✓  
Run Capture Profile ✓  
Run Rule ✓  
Read Barcode ✓  
Execute Application Action ✓  
Replace Lookup Table Data ✓  

ClosedWorkflow activities for Routing Activities.

Routing Activities SaaS SELF HOSTED
Route Entry to Folder (4) ✓
Route Entry to Group   ✓
Route Entry to User   ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Laserfiche Actions.

Laserfiche Actions SaaS SELF HOSTED
Add Sticky Note ✓ ✓
Add Text Box ✓ ✓
Apply Stamp ✓ ✓
Apply Text Annotation ✓ ✓
Assign Geographical Location   ✓
Assign Rights ✓ ✓
Attach Electronic Document ✓ ✓
Create Entry ✓ ✓
Delete Annotation ✓ ✓
Delete Entry ✓ ✓
Delete Shortcuts ✓ ✓
Download Electronic Document ✓ ✓
Email ✓ ✓
Fill Out PDF Form ✓(14) ✓
Migrate Entry   ✓
Move Entry ✓ ✓
Move Pages ✓ ✓
PDF Metadata   ✓
Rename Entry ✓ ✓
Replicate Entries   ✓
Retrieve Version History   ✓
Schedule PDF generation   ✓
Schedule OCR   ✓
Set Entry Owner ✓ ✓
Set Records Management Properties ✓ ✓
Version Control   ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Laserfiche Metadata.

Laserfiche Metadata SaaS SELF HOSTED
Append List Field Choices   ✓
Assign Field Values ✓ ✓
Assign Tags ✓ ✓
Copy Metadata ✓ ✓
Create Link ✓ ✓
Delete Document Signatures   ✓
Delete Links ✓ ✓
Sign Document   ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Flow Control.

Flow Control SaaS SELF HOSTED
Conditional Decision ✓ ✓
Conditional Parallel ✓ ✓
Conditional Sequence ✓ ✓
Deadline ✓ ✓
Delay ✓ ✓
End Workflow ✓ ✓
Escalation ✓ ✓
Parallel ✓ ✓
Rethrow ✓ ✓
Sequence ✓ ✓
Try-Catch ✓ ✓
Wait for Entry Change ✓ ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Repeating.

Repeating SaaS SELF HOSTED
For Each Entry ✓ ✓
For Each File   ✓
For Each Row ✓ ✓
For Each User   ✓
For Each Value ✓ ✓
Repeat ✓ ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Information Gathering.

Information Gathering SaaS SELF HOSTED
Find Entries ✓ ✓
Find Entry ✓ ✓
Find Group   ✓
Find Manager   ✓
Find User   ✓
Get Document Signatures   ✓
Retrieve Document Text ✓ ✓
Retrieve Field Values ✓ ✓
Retrieve PDF Form Content   ✓
Retrieve Shortcuts ✓ ✓
Search Repository ✓(5) ✓
Verify PDF Signatures    

ClosedWorkflow activities for Token Creators.

Token Creators SaaS SELF HOSTED
Assign Token Values ✓ ✓
Date Token Calculator ✓ ✓
Generate Web Access URLs (6) ✓
Generate WebLink URLs   ✓
Pattern Matching ✓ ✓
Read JSON ✓(7) ✓
Read XML   ✓
Token Calculator ✓ ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Enterprise Integration.

Enterprise Integration SaaS SELF HOSTED
Create iCalendar File   ✓
Custom Query   ✓
HTTP Form Post   ✓
HTTP Web Request ✓ ✓
Insert Data ✓(8) ✓
Query Data ✓(8) ✓
Update Data ✓(9) ✓
Delete Data ✓(10)  
Update Word Document ✓ ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Workflow Actions.

Workflow Actions SaaS SELF HOSTED
Change Starting Entry ✓ ✓
Create Checkpoint   ✓
Invoke Workflow ✓ ✓
Script ✓ ✓
SDK Script (11) ✓
Simple Synchronization Sequence   ✓
Track Tokens ✓ ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Business Process.

Business Process SaaS SELF HOSTED
Associate Entries   ✓
Business Process Step   ✓
Update Business Process   ✓
Update Participants   ✓
Update Step Due Date   ✓
Update Step Instructions   ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Integration with Exchange Servers.

Integration with Exchange Servers SaaS SELF HOSTED
Configure Automatic Replies   ✓
Create Exchange Item   ✓
Delete Exchange Item   ✓
Update Exchange Item   ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Integration with SharePoint Sites.

Integration with SharePoint Sites SaaS SELF HOSTED
Create List Item   ✓
Delete List Item   ✓

ClosedWorkflow activities for Laserfiche Forms.

Laserfiche Forms SaaS SELF HOSTED
Invoke Business Process ✓ ✓
Retrieve Laserfiche Forms Content ✓(12) ✓
Set Business Process Variables ✓(13) ✓

Footnotes:

  1. Self-hosted Workflow does allow configuration of weekends and holidays, but not business hours and creating different profiles of different work schedules.
  2. For SaaS, certain files can be made available for the workflow designer to reference using the "Files" feature in Process Automation. For self-hosted Workflow, this can be done using the server attachment feature.
  3. As Process Automation further develops, many functionalities available in Workflow may not have a direct one to one match in the Process Automation features set, but may be available in a more optimized way to accomplish the same purpose.
  4. "Route Entry to Folder" activity can be accomplished by multiple activities currently already available on SaaS.
  5. For SaaS, the "Search Repository" activity currently supports search by field value.
  6. "Find Entry" activity on SaaS has the option to generate URLs (web access and mobile) plus .lfe attachments to the document.
  7. "Read JSON" functionality is available natively in the "Run Web Request Rule" activity on SaaS.
  8. "Query Data" and "Insert Data" can be accomplished using the "Run Rule" activity available for SaaS. This applies to both lookup tables (data local to the SaaS environment) and external databases behind a firewall. External databases currently supported include SQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL, CSV, and Oracle.
  9. For both data local to the SaaS environment and data in external databases, "Update Data" is possible with the "Run Rule" activity.
  10. Delete Data is available for data local to the SaaS environment.
  11. Use of the Laserfiche SDK is supported through the SaaS Run Script Rule activity.
  12. Workflows started by business processes can accept incoming data from processes.
  13. Workflows can pass token data back to a waiting business process by configuring output parameters in the workflow options.
  14. Workflows can use the Run Rule activity to update a PDF using a document merge rule.

Note: Additional information about each activity available can be found in the following locations: