Swim Lanes

Swim Lanes are typically used in conjunction with Participant Resolvers to assign tasks to participants in a workflow.

What is a swim lane?
Adding or configuring swim lanes with the Swim Lane Wizard
Moving or deleting swim lanes
Swim lane properties table

What is a swim lane?

A swim lane is a horizontal visual element on the workflow canvas that defines a list of assignees for any activity, approval or notification nodes placed within the borders of the swim lane. Any swim lane placed on the canvas is usable from any loop.

A swimlane is a reusable element and swim lanes can be organized into a stack to provide a representation of approval processes, such as an escalation from a supervisor to a manager, or a manager to a director.

The following nodes ignore swim lane properties:

Plug-in (with the exception of Winshuttle AutoRun and Winshuttle Update)
Value Setter
Decision
And Join
Xor Join

Those nodes have no assignees and can be placed anywhere to assist with workflow topography.

Adding or configuring a Swim Lane with the Swim Lane Wizard

On the side panel of the Workflow tab, click Add Swim Lane. Or: in the canvas, right-click and select Add Swim Lane.
Below Type, click the drop-down menu and select one of the following:
- Person. If you select Person, under User, select the User: and type a Name.
- Person from Role. If you select Person from Role, under Role, select a role from the drop-down menu.
- Team from Role. If you select Team from Role, select a role from the drop-down menu. Tasks and activities present in this type of Swimlane can be configured to support Locking. See Task Locking for more information.
- Person from Active Directory Group. Select a person from an Active Directory Group.
- Team from Active Directory Group. Select a team from an Active Directory Group.
Under Name, type a name for the Swim Lane, and then click OK.

Moving or deleting Swim Lanes

You can move or delete swim lanes from the right-click menu for the swim lane.

Click the Swim Lane to select it.
Right-click the Swim Lane, and then select an option:
- Move up
- Move down
- Move to Top
- Move to Bottom
- Delete

Note:

Only available options are displayed. For example, Move to Top will not be displayed if you have selected the top-most swim lane.

If the ProcessOwner swim lane has been deleted, it can be created again just like any other swim lane. Specify the Type as Person, and the Name as ProcessOwner. (The User setting is not applicable in this case.)

Table 1. Swim Lane Properties
Name	Description
General (General properties section is available all the time)
Name	The name you want to give to the swim lane.
Description	Brief description of the swim lane.
Type	Person, PersonFromRole, or TeamFromRole. Person: Select Person if the swim lane represents a specific person in your workflow who will perform the role represented by the swim lane. In most circumstances, this setting is not recommended because if the specified person is not involved in the workflow at some point in the future, you will need to modify the swim lane. PersonFromRole: Enables a selection from mapped Participant Resolver. The users returned by PR are presented as a list of selections to assign the swim lane and only a single user is assigned to the swim lane. TeamFromRole: Enables multiple selections from a mapped Participant Resolver. The users returned by the PR are presented as the list of selections to assign the swim lane and multiple users can be assigned to the swim lane.
User	Specify a user here to assign a single, specific user to the swim lane. This is only visible if the selected Type is Person (see above).
Participant Resolver
Participant Resolver	Select the participant resolver: ADGroup DataConnection SolutionFields
Participant Resolver Arguments	Define the participant resolver argument.
Alt Assignments The pool and reassignment feature To get the list of users to whom the task may be reassigned from this swim lane:a.) If Alt Assignment properties are configured, use those properties to get the user list. b.) If Alt Assignment properties are not configured, use the original Participant Resolver to get the user list.
Pool Enabled	For Task Assignment True: If "Participant Resolver" returns no user, then get the user from this "Pool Arguments". If "Pool Arguments" also don't return any user then no user found for the swim lane error will be displayed. False: If "Participant Resolver" returns no user then no user found for the swim lane error will be displayed. For Task Re-Assignments True: Use "Pool Arguments" to get list of user to whom this task can be reassigned. If no user found then return empty list also do not fall back to "Participant Resolver". False: Use "Participant Resolver" to get list of user to whom this task can be reassigned. If no user found then return empty list also do not fall back.
Pool Arguments	Define the pool arguments. Will only be visible when Pool Enabled is set to True.
Advanced
Random	Defines how the user is selected in case swim lane type is "PersonFromRole and multiple users are resolved by Participant Resolver. Values: Yes/No/LeastBusy. Yes: The selection is made randomly from the list of users resolved by the Participant Resolver. No: Selects the first user from the list of users resolved by the Participant Resolver. LeastBusy: It would select the least busy person from the list of users resolved by the Participant Resolver. This selection is based on the number of task assignments among all versions of the current process. If more than one user is selected, it will then select randomly from those users. Visible when Type is Person From Role or Team From Role.
Run At	A Start/End value that indicates when to run the query.
Include Self	Yes: If the list of users resolved by Participant Resolver contains originator, then originator will be included in the resolved users list. No: The originator will not be included in the resolved users list even if the list of users resolved by Participant Resolver contains originator.
Display	Default value is False. Readonly – List of user resolved by Participant Resolver will be displayed on the form in read-only format. False – List of users resolved by Participant Resolver will not be displayed on the form. AllowEdit – List of user resolved by Participant Resolver will be displayed on the form and will be able to select users from that list. For Excel Workflow, the only false option is visible because there is no form to display the user list.
Team Task Lock (All properties would be enabled/visible when PR Type is TeamFromRole)
Lock Type	You can choose any one of the following task locking settings: Off: Assignment locking is not enabled on this swimlane. Manual: Assignment locking is enabled on this swimlane. After users open the form, they have the option of locking the task. The task will remain locked until the user unlocks it. Automatic: Assignment locking is enabled on this swimlane. As users open forms, tasks are automatically locked. The Lock Duration Unit and Lock Duration properties allow users to set an amount of time during which the task will remain locked. Unless the original user completes the task, the task will be unlocked after the designated time period has elapsed; the task will then be available to other userss who have been assigned the same task. For Custom Excel Workflow, Manual type locking is not supported.
Lock Duration	The time duration for which the task will remain locked for the user who is working on the task. Visible when LockType is Automatic.
Lock Duration Unit	The unit of time used for Lock Duration. Can be Minute/Hour. Visible when LockType is Automatic.
Design UI
Override Size	The number in pixels for the height of the swim lane as it appears in the workflow editor. The default value is 133 pixels. Valid range can be between 50 and 500.