Previews help you understand a care flow by exploring different possible cases.
How to preview a case?
Preview validation
Upon case creation, you get prompted to the preview page showing you the validation of your care flow. This page shows if there are any issues in the flow configuration. The problems are highlighted and you can go back to the care flow and fix them.
👀 tip: let the system do the dirty work and run it through a preview once you are done building for the day. A quick check allows you to easily finalize missing configs at a glance and keeps your work tidy.
Care flow walk-through:
Continue with the Preview by clicking the Start preview button.
If baseline data points are defined in your care flow, the input will be requested prior to the start of the care flow. These could either be user-prompted or system inputs dependent on the care flow you are simulating.
Upon care flow start, all pending activities appear in the Activity feed. This is a log of all passed, present and upcoming operation activities.
You interact with the activities and care flow via de side panel "Pending activities" and consume the stakeholder role
The activity feed will load until a mandatory action is loaded, which is a form or checklist. These require completion and manual input for the next steps and rules to be evaluated. Without this input, the care flow will not progress - apart from data point not collected (see time travel section).
This is also the behavior in orchestration of the care flow. A message will be sent and will not require the stakeholder to read the message before proceeding with the next action. Whilst a form will halt progress to the next step.
Once an obligatory action is completed, the preview will automatically continue until there are no more activities to be completed.
Care flow preview end
Read up on the usage of the Preview views (Activity feed & Timeline) here.
Time travel
Pay attention to the timing references used in Studio to reflect on a real-life simulation. If a step is scheduled to be activated 5 days further, the preview cycle will skip ahead in time and simulate the full care flow cycle. This allows you to define optimal timings around important events and condense or spread your communication exchange.
Given the condition mentioned above about forms being mandatory actions and the Preview conducting time travel, simulating a data point not being collected requires a manual push. Activate this scheduled trigger via the Pending Activities side panel and simulate you wouldn't receive a reply on a specific question.
Rinse, repeat
Click the restart button to restart the preview and go for another run. Meanwhile, have fun updating your care flow while you spot improvements and small lapses here and there. That's why a good validation is golden prior to orchestrating your care flow 🥇.