Managing your workspaces

The workspace is the canvas on which you can design your automation visually.

You can use workspaces to organize different projects. Each workspace is a self-contained environment, which lets you start a new design session without clearing the canvas. You can return to a specific process at any time. Save your assets to the database, or keep them on the canvas until you click Deploy.
Workspaces management
To get started with workspaces, open the UI and select Design. The My workspaces page is the central hub for the management of your workspaces.
You can create a new workspace or manage existing ones. Select multiple workspaces by checking the checkbox in the top-right corner of the workspace card to perform bulk actions:
  • Duplicate
  • Export
  • Delete

To perform these actions on an individual workspace—or to rename it—click the three-dot menu on its card. You can also quickly find a workspace by using the search bar or sorting by name or modification time.

Exporting
Facilitate teamwork by exporting your workspace. You can do this from the My Workspaces page or directly within the canvas. The available export formats are:
  • JSON
  • YAML
  • Scheduling language
From the workspace canvas, you can download a visual representation of your work as a PNG file by clicking the Image icon in the upper-right area of the canvas.
Note: You can export workspace definitions from a workspace containing errors. When importing these definitions, the errors are retained.
Importing
When you import a workspace, the import process checks the definitions against your assets list and performs the following actions:
  • Adds new definitions to your workspace and marks them with a green dot.
  • Marks definitions that conflict with existing ones with an orange dot. You can then review and manage the differences.
    Note: Imported definitions override existing definitions.
Deleting
Deleted workspaces are moved to the Trash page. To permanently remove them you have two options:
  • Select one or more workspaces and click Delete forever.
  • Click Empty trash.
To restore one or more workspaces, select them and click Restore.
Workspace merging
Conflicts occur when the workflow in your local workspace is different from the database version:
  • Concurrent editing: You and another user edit the same workflow simultaneously, and the other user saves their changes first.
  • Stale data: You keep a workflow open while the database version is updated. When you later attempt to deploy your version, it conflicts with the current database state.

Your workspace does not automatically sync with the database. This means you might be working on an outdated version, which will cause a conflict when you try to Deploy.

Thanks to the merge feature, you can prevent and resolve conflicts. The merge action is available via the drop-down menu of the Deploy button, or within the Merge Conflicts Found panel that appears during deployment.
Resolving conflicts
If you try to deploy a workflow that contains conflicts, a notification prompts you to resolve them before proceeding. To resolve the conflicts, click Merge.
Conflicts occur when the item in your workspace no longer matches the current database entry due to simultaneous additions, deletions, or modifications.
Note: Changes to previously unmodified fields are merged automatically and do not trigger a conflict alert.

For items with IDs derived from the Name field, renaming the item causes HCL Universal Orchestrator to treat it as a new entity instead of an update, resulting in a new entry in the target item upon deployment. The change is marked as Added item(s) or Removed item(s) within the Resolve Conflicts panel.

The Resolve Conflicts panel provides a tree view of all items affected by the merge, enabling you to see your workspace changes in the context of the current database state. Use the following tools to manage discrepancies:
  • Previous conflict and next conflict: Use these buttons to navigate directly to the specific items requiring your attention.
  • Status links: These indicators identify whether an item was added, removed, or modified. Click conflict(s) found to view the specific differences between your workspace and the database.
  • Show conflicts only: Use this toggle to filter the tree view, hiding all non-conflicting items to focus exclusively on required resolutions.
You can resolve conflicts on the Resolve Conflicts panel using two methods:
  • Global resolution: Apply a single action to every conflict simultaneously.
    • Accept all incoming: Discards your local workspace changes and applies all changes from the database.
    • Discard all incoming: Rejects all database changes to keep your local workspace as is.
    • Select all: Highlights every conflicted item in the list. This enables you to quickly exclude specific items from the list before performing a bulk action (Accept or Discard) on the entire selection at once.
  • Selective resolution: Review each conflict individually. Click a specific item to accept or discard changes for only that item.