Documentation › Create an Artifact
Create an Artifact: automatically generated documents
An Artifact asks the user a few questions, then automatically fills in your templates (contract, letter, presentation…) with the answers. You create it once; after that, each generation takes only a few seconds.
What is an Artifact for?
Think of an employment contract: only the name, the date and the job title change from one employee to the next. Instead of retyping the document by hand, you describe once the questions to ask and where the answers go in the document. The rest is automatic.
1. Prepare your template
Open your usual document and replace each variable piece of information with a placeholder: a word surrounded by double curly braces.
- Examples:
{{Name}},{{StartDate}},{{JobTitle}}. - A placeholder name uses only unaccented letters, digits and the _ character (no spaces): write
{{StartDate}}, not{{Start date}}. - A placeholder can appear several times, in the body, a header or a slide: every occurrence is replaced.
- Formats accepted at upload: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .pdf, .html, .htm and .txt. Placeholders are filled in all of these formats except .pdf, which is used as is (see Template formats).
A placeholder with no answer is not erased: it stays visible as is ({{Name}}) in the generated document. Make sure every placeholder has a matching variable.
2. Create the Artifact
- Open the Artifacts tab
In the top bar, click Artifacts. You see the list of your artifacts and a search box.
- Click New artifact
A Create New Artifact panel opens on the right.
- Fill in the panel
Artifact name (required): a meaningful name, for example "Employment contract".
Contributors: the people who will be able to work on this Artifact.
Upload one or more templates: choose your files. Enter the Artifact name first: the button stays greyed out while it is empty. You can remove a template with the trash icon.
- Click Save
The Artifact appears in the list. A warning badge No template is shown if it has no template.
Artifacts
Reusable artifacts and templates used by your processesArtifacts
Reusable artifacts and templates used by your processesCreate New Artifact
Artifacts
Reusable artifacts and templates used by your processesSimple question configuration — Ask a question to the user
3. Build the artifact's editor
Click the pencil on the artifact's row (Edit): the document editor (Document editor) opens. In it you assemble, like a diagram, the questions and then the text to produce. The blocks available in the left column:
| Block | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Simple question | Asks the user a free-form question. The answer is stored in a variable, whose name is the placeholder to fill in. |
| Multi-choice question | Offers a list of choices (Options). Each option has an identifier and a text, and one can be "Selected by default". |
| Output Box | Defines the text produced for each variable, with an optional plural form (Has a plural form). |
| Condition | Chooses the path to follow based on conditions (Options + default path "Else"). |
| Join Bar | Merges several paths into one. |
| Wait | Pauses before continuing. |
| End | Ends the flow. |
Declaring your variables
Open the Start block (Editor Configuration): the Variables section lists the artifact's variables. For each one, set its name (the placeholder's name), its type and, optionally, a default value. The Override checkbox lets it be changed when a process instance is started. The Users and groups section lists the people and groups you can pick from later.
Add your variables in Start first, then create the questions: all you will have to do is pick the variable from the "Answer" list.
Configuring a block
Double-click a block to open its panel. In the Appearance area, you can change its colors; they have no effect on the result, only on how readable your diagram is. Click Save to confirm the panel — otherwise a message warns you about unsaved changes.
An artifact's variables: local, process-level, global
Each {{Name}} placeholder in the template matches a variable of the Artifact (defined in Start). The variable's Scope tells you where its value comes from:
| Scope | Where the value comes from | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Local | Specific to the artifact: the answer given in the questionnaire, otherwise the default value you entered in the artifact. | The employee's name, asked by a question. |
| Process | Shared with the process instance: the artifact takes the value of the variable with the same name in the process instance (the one entered at start-up or changed by a task). | The company name, already known to the process instance. |
| Global | Common to everyone: the value defined in the artifact for this global variable. | The country, the currency, a legal notice. |
When filling in the document, ProcNest picks the value in this order: 1. the answer given in the questionnaire; 2. for a Process variable, the process instance's value; 3. the value defined in the artifact (local or global variable); 4. a process instance variable that the artifact does not declare, if its name matches a placeholder.
Questions can depend on answers: with a Condition block, a question is only asked if a previous answer calls for it (for example an "end date" only for a fixed-term contract). As in a process instance, the rest is revealed on demand: answer the questions shown, then click Show the next questions to display the questions of the next branch (nothing is recalculated until you click, and Generate stays disabled until then). The conditions of a Condition block can combine several criteria with "And" (all of them) or "Or" (at least one), and compare texts, numbers, dates, emails, Yes / No values and lists.
As you answer, a progress bar shows how many questions are done. When nothing is left to ask, the All questions answered message appears: all that remains is to click Generate.
To continue later, click Save the survey: your answers are kept in this browser and come back the next time you open the panel (they are cleared once the document is generated). An invalid answer is shown in red with a message.
Template formats and uses
| Template format | Are placeholders filled in? | Possible use |
|---|---|---|
| .docx, .xlsx, .pptx | Yes | Attachment |
| .html, .htm, .txt | Yes | Attachment, or body of an email, a meeting or a task |
| No: the file is used as is | Attachment |
4. Save and publish
The top bar offers two buttons:
| Button | Effect | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Save draft | Saves a minor version (draft), after you confirm. | To save your work in progress. |
| Publish | Publishes a major version, usable by others, after you confirm. | When the artifact is finished and reviewed. |
You can improve an artifact at any time: each publication creates a new major version and each draft save a minor version.
View the details
To see who created an Artifact, when, which versions exist and which templates it fills, click the View details icon (the “i”) on its row in the Artifacts page. A panel opens on the right, without leaving the list:
- Overview: the creator (name and email), the creation date, the last modification and the latest version.
- Version history: every version, from the newest to the oldest, with its date (Draft, Published, Latest).
- Templates: the template files of the Artifact, with the icon of their format.
The Open artifact button opens the editor; Close, the cross or the Esc key close the panel. The pen icon (Edit) opens the editor straight away, without showing the panel.
5. Delete an Artifact
An Artifact you no longer need is deleted from the Artifacts page: click the bin icon (Delete) on its row, or open it in the editor and choose More → Delete artifact. Confirm, and the Artifact leaves the list together with its templates.
- Only the owner of the Artifact, or one of its contributors, can delete it.
- While a step of a process generates documents from its templates, deletion is refused: first remove that attachment from the step, or delete the process.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What to try |
|---|---|
| The upload button is greyed out | Enter the Artifact name first. |
| A No template badge is shown | The Artifact has no template: open it and add one (.docx, .pptx…). |
A {{Placeholder}} remains visible in the document | No variable has exactly that name: check the spelling, the capitalization, and that there is no space or accent. |
Permissions
Artifacts have their own permissions, separate from those of processes:
- Create artifacts: create an Artifact and upload templates (it is what shows the New artifact button);
- Edit artifacts: save, publish and edit the templates of an Artifact;
- Delete artifacts: delete an Artifact;
- View artifacts: look at it (the Viewer role can do this).
Editing or deleting an Artifact also requires being its owner or a contributor (unless you have Manage all processes and artifacts). A person who only has process permissions therefore cannot edit an Artifact, even as a contributor, and the other way round: ProcNest answers “You do not have permission to do this.”. The User role has all four Artifact permissions.
Everything about roles and permissions: Users and roles.