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Workflow extensions allow you to attach a custom workflow to various operations in the API Manager such as user signup, application creation, registration, subscription etc. By default, the API Manager workflows have Simple Workflow Executor engaged in them. The sections below explain how the API Manager provides several workflow plug points Simple Workflow Executor carries out an operation without any intervention by a workflow admin. For example, when the user creates an application, the Simple Workflow Executor allows the application to be created without the need for an admin to approve the creation process.

In order to enforce intervention by a workflow admin, you can engage the WS Workflow Executor. It invokes an external Web service when executing a workflow and the process completes based on the output of the Web service. For example, when the user creates an application, the request goes into an intermediary state where it remains until authorized by a workflow admin.

By default, the WS Workflow Executor comes with,

• A sample BPEL and Human Task for each standard workflow such as application creation, registration, subscription etc. You can also customize the default implementations.
  

• A Jaggery-based Web application named workflow-admin (https://localhost:9443/workflow-admin). It provides a GUI for the workflow admin to approve/reject pending Human Tasks.
  
  When executing a workflow, an entry is added to the AM_WORKFLOWS table in the API Manager Database, indicating the workflow status and workflow external reference along with other information. This entry is used to track the progress of the workflow throughout its lifecycle. At a given time, the status of a workflow can be CREATED, APPROVED or REJECTED. CREATED is the default status of a workflow. It gets promoted to APPROVED or REJECTED, based on the response from the workflow engine.

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  You can maintain any number of states/steps for a workflow in between the CREATED and APPROVED/REJECTED states inside the workflow engine. The API Manager only acknowledges the CREATED/REJECTED states.

The sections below explain different workflows provided by the API Manager to engage business processes with API management operations. They also explain how to customize the default workflows: