Working with Winshuttle Composer swim lanes

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 swimlane properties:

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

Swim Lane overview (Video)

The following video provides an overview of working with Winshuttle Composer swim lanes.

Adding or configuring a Swim Lane with the Swim Lane Wizard

On the ribbon, on 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 SharePoint Query. Select a user from a SharePoint Query, with options to configure SharePoint Site, List, Field and a Query string.
- Team from SharePoint Query. Select a team from a SharePoint Query, with options to configure SharePoint Site, List, Field and a Query string.
- Person from Active Directory Group: Select a person from an Active Directory group.
- Team from Active Directory Group: Select a Team (group) 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.)

Swim Lane Properties

Description: Brief description of the swim lane.

Group: The SharePoint group from which to select the members of this swim lane. Click and then click Show Members to assign and/or view members of a selected group.

NOTE: If you've added a new SharePoint List but it is not appearing in your swim lane Group selection, do the following:

Click the Workflow Tab.

In the Properties Pane, click the Refresh button.

Include Self (true/false): Whether or not to include your name in the selection list if you are a member of the selected group.

Name: The name you want to give to the swim lane.

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. Valid range can be between 50 and 500.

Participant Resolver: Determines how a participant is assigned. Common examples include assignment by SharePointListQuery or Web Service.

Participant Resolver Arguments: Configuration settings (if any) for the participant resolver. See the Participant Resolver reference guide for information about each type of resolver and available configuration options.

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. NOTE: In most circumstances, this setting is not recommended because if the specified person is no longer involved in the workflow (in the future) you will need to modify the swim lane.
PersonFromRole: Enables a selection from a mapped SharePoint group. This SharePoint group is presented as a list of selections to assign the swim lane.
TeamFromRole: Enables multiple selections from a mapped SharePoint group. This SharePoint group of people will be presented as the list of selections to assign the swim lane.

User: Specify a user here to assign a single, specific user to the swim lane. This is only needed if the selected Type is Person (see above).

Winshuttle Composer swim lane properties