Workflows in Uncountable are used to represent scientific processes that demand higher levels of organization and relationships for inputs and outputs. 

Access

To access the Experiment Workflow Editor, 1) select the Inputs/Outputs button from the Navigation Bar and select Workflows, or 2) navigate directly to the from the ribbon on the Recipe view of your Experiment.

Workflow Organization:

A workflow may contain one or more steps that can be configured and rearranged into an unlimited number of possible variants.

• Workflow: A workflow is a collection of steps which can be configured to represent a unique arrangement of the steps. 
• Step: Steps represent the inputs and outputs of a given process operation.
• Variant: A template experiment representing a unique ordering of the steps defined in the workflow. Steps can be reused in a variant, and the order in which they appear can be modified.

Creating a New Workflow

1. From the Workflow Editor, select the blue “Create New Workflow” button with the “+”:

2. From the List tab, add new Steps by selecting the “+ Add Step” button. You can then select the row added for the new Step and rename the Step, as needed.

Workflow Properties

• Show Set/Actual: If checked, will display an extra section on the Measurements view of your Experiments to set actual values for inputs from each Step by selecting show inputs
• Collapse Steps in Recipe Card: If checked, Inputs will be shown together on the Recipe Card (displayed on the right side of a Project Dashboard after selecting an experiment) without any step delineation. 
• Hide Recipe Total: If checked, the total recipe amount (based on its components) will be hidden.
• Enable Mix Order (All Steps): If checked, will enable Mix Order for All Steps, which allows you to freely reorder Inputs in your Recipes according to a specified order of addition.
• Calculations Shown: Indicates which Input Calculations should appear for the selected Workflow.
• Output Groups: Indicates which outputs will live on the Parent Experiment (not on any of the specified Steps, if using Test Samples).
• Default Product: Indicates which Product the Experiment will be initialized as when using the workflow.
• Experiment Metadata: Indicates which Experiment Metadata will appear by default for newly created Experiments that use the selected Workflow.

Step Properties

Standard Options

• Has Ingredients: Allows you to add Ingredients in the Workflow Step.
• Has Process Parameters: Allows you to add Process Parameters in the Workflow Step.
• Enable Mix Order: If checked, will enable Mix Order by default for Ingredients and Process Parameters within the Workflow Step.
• Test Sample Templates: Indicates the Test Sample Templates that will be associated with the Step. The Test Sample Template is used to record the Outputs tied to a specific Step in the overall Workflow.
• Default Input Group: Indicates the Inputs (usually Process Parameters) that will appear by default for a Step. Note that this default Input Group will be overridden by any information that is included in the Step of an associated Workflow Variant.
• Displayed Step Totals: Indicates the units to be displayed on the recipe step (mass, volume, and/or moles).

Advanced Options:

• Hide Step: Determines if the Step is displayed or hidden on the Recipe Card preview, after selecting an Experiment on a Project Dashboard.
• Used in Modeling: Determines if the Step should be factored into Uncountable’s advanced modeling features.
• Copy Inputs with Use in New Experiment: If the step is to be repeated when using “Use in New Experiment”, selecting this button will copy the inputs into the Recipe of the new Experiment.
• Product: Adds a Product to the recipe step. After checking this option, a “Product Behavior” field will appear.
  • Copy Inputs: Will copy all the Inputs of the Product into the Workflow Step.
  • Include as a Component: Will include the Product Recipe as a component.
• Mass, Volume and Moles Units: Used to set the default units that will be displayed for ingredients, once the basis has been selected.

Creating a New Variant 

1. Under the Variants tab, select “+Add New Variant”:

2. Name the Variant. If you already have a template Experiment that you would like to make a Variant, you can assign it here. Note: The existing Experiment must use the same Workflow.

3. Make sure to select which pieces of information (Inputs, Input Values, Outputs, Output Values, Notebooks) should be included from the template Experiment when utilizing the variant.

4. Within the Workflow diagram editor, steps can be rearranged, renamed (by clicking the three dots on the top right corner of a step), and new steps can be added (by selecting the plus button coming from the step rectangle).

5. Selecting the ‘+’ button above any step will add a preceding step; selecting the ‘+’ button below the step will add the subsequent step.

6. Modify the template Experiment by selecting the name of the Experiment associated with the Variant. This will bring you to the Recipe view of the template Experiment, from which you may add Ingredients, Process Parameters, and Notebook Entry templates. You may then switch the Measurements view of the template Experiment to add Outputs and/or Test Samples. Depending on which of these options are checked on the Variant (see Step 3 above), this information will be included automatically in newly created Experiments utilizing the Variant.

Step Relationships 

There are several organizational tools available to create relationships between Steps within a Variant. Creating Steps that flow into each other (vs. feeding into the final formulation) gives you the ability to indicate how much (amount, percentage, feed rate) of the preceding Step carries into the subsequent Step. The below image indicates how the two previous steps (Charging (1) and Charging (2)) feed into the reaction step. 

Relationships are defined by navigating to the Recipe view of the Experiment, selecting the Workflow Step that is feeding into the subsequent step, and selecting Change Relationship Type.

The available options are:

• Include Quantity: Allows you to specify the quantity taken from the preceding Step (according to the specified units of the Workflow Step) into the selected Step.
• Include Percentage: Allows you to specify the percentage taken from the preceding Step into the selected Step.
• Auto Fill: Will automatically select the amount from the previous Step to fill the selected Step up to 100.
• Feed: Will display a Feed Rate and Feed Time for you enter, and thus calculate the amount of material used from the preceding Step in the selected Step.
• Include All: Will hide the Step relationship entirely and assume that all of the preceding Step is being added to the selected Step.

Modifying a Workflow Variant while in an Experiment 

1. Workflow Variants can be modified while in the Recipe view of an Experiment by searching for Workflow in the Search Actions field of the ribbon and then selecting “Experiment Workflow”.

2. You may modify the way in which the Workflow Variant steps are presented on the Recipes view by dragging and dropping the Workflow Steps into a new order, like below

3. If you modify the order of the Steps in the Experiment or create new Steps, you can publish this Experiment directly as a new Variant template by selecting the Publish Variant button.