Instant Process

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Features & Integrations ​

This page gives an overview of additional capabilities around the graphs you create in Instant Process.

What you can do with graphs ​

Once you have one or more process graphs, you can use them in different ways, such as:

  • Arranging the nodes of a graph on its grid
  • Sharing a project with people in your tenant
  • Publishing a preview link for people without an account, optionally open to their comments
  • Exporting graphs as PDF, SVG or BPMN 2.0 XML for use in other tools

Arrange nodes ​

The layout places every node automatically. Arrange lets you move nodes to other cells of the layout grid. A moved node keeps its new cell, and its edges route to it.

Arrange is available in the editor while you hold the write lock, and only while no subprocess is expanded in the preview. It is not available in the trial workspace or on a preview link. Arrange works the same in a left-to-right and a top-to-bottom graph.

Switch to arranging ​

The mode toggle in the top-right corner of the preview has two icons: a pointer on top for selecting, and a move icon below it for arranging. The active mode is highlighted. The toggle appears when you point at the preview and stays visible while you arrange. The preview starts in select mode: a drag pans the view and a click selects one node. Dragging never opens the discussion panel, only a click does. Choose the move icon to start arranging. Choosing the pointer, or the move icon again, returns to select mode and keeps only the last selected node selected.

Select nodes ​

While arranging:

  • Click a node to select it alone.
  • Ctrl+click (Cmd+click on macOS) a node to add it to the selection or remove it.
  • Drag across empty canvas, a lane or a pool to draw a selection square. Every node the square touches is selected. Hold Ctrl or Cmd to add them to the current selection.
  • Click empty canvas, or press Escape, to clear the selection.

Hold Space and drag, or drag with the middle mouse button, to pan the view. The mouse wheel and trackpad gestures pan and zoom as before.

Move nodes ​

Drag a selected node to move the whole selection. Dragging an unselected node selects it alone and moves it. A see-through copy of each moving node follows the pointer and snaps to the grid cells. Moments later the preview shows the whole graph as it will look after the drop, with the moving nodes highlighted. With nodes selected, the arrow keys move the selection one cell in the arrow's direction.

  • A column is a step along the flow and a row a step across it inside a lane. In a left-to-right graph columns run left to right and rows top to bottom. In a top-to-bottom graph columns run top to bottom and rows left to right.
  • Every node moves by the same number of columns and the same number of rows within its own lane.
  • A node stays in its lane. A move that would take any node out of its lane outlines the copies in red, and dropping it changes nothing.
  • A node can move one row past the last row of its lane, which grows the lane, and any number of columns past the last column along the flow, which grows the grid. An empty column keeps the size of the widest column.
  • A node standing on a target cell moves in the direction of the flow, right in a left-to-right graph and down in a top-to-bottom graph, to the first free cell in its row. A see-through copy of it shows that cell before you drop.

The view keeps its zoom and position after a move. People editing the same project see the move as soon as the new layout is rendered. Placements apply in the editor, the preview link, the project thumbnail and every export, and they stay with a node when you switch the flow direction.

When the code changes ​

A moved node keeps its cell when you edit the code.

  • The position is a stored column and lane row. Adding, removing or reordering other nodes leaves a moved node in that cell while the cell is free. Nodes without a stored position follow the automatic layout.
  • Renaming a moved node keeps its position when that edit renames only that one node.
  • A moved node removed from the code keeps its stored position, which applies again when the node returns.
  • A moved node whose lane changes in the code, or whose cell another node takes, shows at its automatic cell. Its stored position applies again once the lane matches and the cell is free.
  • Reset selected node positions and Reset delete stored positions.

Undo and redo ​

Moves and resets have their own history, separate from the history of your code.

  • Click the preview, then press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on macOS) to undo the last move or reset. Press Ctrl+Shift+Z (Cmd+Shift+Z), or Ctrl+Y, to redo it.
  • The toolbar's Undo and Redo buttons act on whatever you used last: the code editor or the preview.
  • The history belongs to your editor tab and starts empty when you open another project.

Reset positions ​

The Node positions section of the toolbar's Layout options menu holds the resets:

  • Reset selected node positions returns the selected nodes to their automatic cells.
  • Reset returns every node in the project to its automatic cell, after a confirmation.

Sharing ​

Sharing gives named people in your tenant access to a project.

Open the share dialog from either place:

  • In the editor, the Share project button in the toolbar
  • In the drive, the Share action on a project or folder. Right click it, or hover over its row in list view

The dialog is titled Share '<name>' and holds up to three sections.

Add people ​

This section appears when you are the owner. Search for a colleague by name or by email address, pick them from the results, and choose Add. The search covers users within your own tenant.

People you add start with view access.

People with access ​

This section lists everyone with access, showing each person's name, email address and role. Two roles are assignable:

  • Viewer can open the project and view its graphs, but cannot change them
  • Editor can view and edit the project and its graphs

Change someone's role from the selector next to their name, or remove their access with the ×.

Assign Viewer to stakeholders who inspect or review processes, and Editor to collaborators who maintain or extend the graphs.

Plan

Adding people to a project requires the Basic plan.

A preview link is a single public URL that shows one project read-only. Anyone holding the link can open the process without an account.

The Preview link section appears in the share dialog when you open it on a project you own. Choose Create preview link, then copy the URL. The page it opens presents the process name, a Read-only preview marker and the rendered graph with pan and zoom, and it follows your live edits.

A project has one active preview link at a time:

  • Copy preview link copies the URL
  • Regenerate mints a new URL and stops the previous one from resolving
  • Revoke removes the link entirely
  • Allow comments lets anyone holding the link read the comments on the process and add their own

Comments from visitors ​

With Allow comments on, the preview page shows a comment badge on each step that has open comments and a Comments button in its header. Selecting a step or choosing Comments opens the comments panel beside the graph, and its close button hides it again. A visitor selects a step to comment on it, or comments on the whole process. The first time a visitor posts, the page asks for their name and keeps it in that browser; the panel shows the name with a Change action.

Visitor comments appear in the editor's Discussions panel with a Guest badge. Visitors cannot resolve or delete comments; collaborators with edit access can. Turning Allow comments off hides the comments from the preview page again.

Plan

Creating a preview link and allowing comments on it require the Basic plan. Copying, regenerating and revoking a link, and turning comments off, do not.

Exports ​

Export downloads the rendered project as a file.

Open the Export project button in the editor toolbar. In the trial workspace it reads Export process.

The dialog takes:

  • File name
  • File type, one of PDF, SVG or BPMN 2.0 XML
  • Width and Height
  • Watermark, one of None, In progress or Custom text. Choosing Custom text reveals a Watermark text field
  • Author header, which stamps the process name, the project's author and the export date in a band across the top of the export
  • Version, up to 20 characters, printed in that same band after the process name

BPMN 2.0 XML downloads a .bpmn file that opens as a drawn diagram in BPMN tools such as Camunda Modeler and bpmn.io. It carries the events, tasks, gateways, flows, lanes, pools, message flows, data objects, data stores and text annotations of the process at the positions of the preview. A subprocess reference exports as a call activity. The watermark, author header, version and subprocess fields do not apply to it.

Exporting is available on every plan.

Plan

Choosing or removing the watermark requires the Basic plan. Exports on the free plan always carry the Instant Process watermark.