Workflows are set to “not Editable” after code deployment

This article resolves the AEM issue where after creating a Workflow in AEM followed by a code deployment, the Workflow appears as “Not Editable”. As best practice, you should keep your workflow models in the codebase consistent across multiple environments, so you don’t have to re-create Workflows per each environment.

Description description

Environment

Experience Manager as a Cloud Service

Issue/Symptoms

After creating a Workflow in AEM and there is a code deployment, the Workflow appears as “Not Editable”.

Resolution resolution

When you create a workflow, its model is saved by default in:

/conf/global/settings/workflow/models

and when you perform the sync operation to make it usable, the model is also saved in:

/var/workflow/models

The best practice says that you should keep your workflow models in the codebase to be consistent across multiple environments, and you don’t have to re-create Workflows per each environment.

When creating a workflow using the AEM UI, the outcome is that after a code deployment, the

/conf/global/settings/workflow/models

is overwritten as per the codebase filter configuration.

<filter root="/conf/global/settings/workflow/models" mode="replace" />

This creates an issue because the model in:

/conf/global/settings/workflow/models

is deleted since it’s not in the codebase, and the model in:

/var/workflow/models

is not deleted but is still usable instead.

Since you no longer have the model in:

/conf/global/settings/workflow/models

the workflow model is marked as “Not Editable”.

Related reading

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