vCenter Orchestrator: Operation Automate - Part Five

Now that we have a completely working automation workflow with some cool little auto-generated stuff in it, we can move to the presentation of the workflow.  Think of this as the GUI for the workflow.  There are two different presentation views controlled by a single presentation configuration view.  These are:

• vCO Client Workflow Execution View
• Web Workflow Execution View[/list]

The presentation of a workflow is controlled through essentially an advanced form editor, in my opinion.  This editor is found within the Edit workflow portion of the vCO client.  To get to this you just go edit your workflow as usual and select the Presentation tab in the editor.  I won’t go into too much detail as there isn’t much to really go into.  You can play around with the settings within the presentation section and run the workflow to see what it does.  Try running the workflow from the vCO client and from a webview.  You will see how the form pieces react differently within each type of view.

The presentation of a workflow is important because you give your workflow a polished view to the user executing it.  It can offer a roadmap through the workflow and at the same time give a pleasant experience for the user.  If you would like for a more detailed post about the presentation section then please feel free to say so and I will do my best to accommodate.

I have to say that this series has definitely been a fun one to do.  I hope that this gave you a good introduction into vCO and how you can apply it to your daily tasks.  So kick back, automate, and prepare to have more time to do other things than your daily tasks.  On an ending note, please go grab yourself a copy of Cody Bunch’s book, Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator.  This is by far a great reference and how-to on real world use cases.  Anyway, have a fun time with Orchestrator and as always, if you have any questions then please sound off in the comments and I will see if I can help!