August was about the moments when a simple workflow stops being simple: the step that fails at 2am, the calculation no app does, the app that isn't in the catalog yet, the twelve-step process you'd rather build once and reuse. Here's everything we shipped, grouped by what it lets you do.
Workflows that cope with the unexpected
- A plan B when a step fails. Wrap steps in a Try / Catch, and if one of them fails, a different set of steps runs instead of the whole run stopping. Post the alert to Slack, say, and if Slack is down, send it by email. The error is saved too, so the plan B can say what went wrong.
- Workflows inside workflows. Build a piece once, like looking up a customer or formatting an invoice, and call it from any workflow with a Run a workflow step. The called workflow gets its own run record, listed on the run that called it, so you can see exactly what it did.
- Python where you need it. For the odd calculation no app does, drop in a Run Python code step. It runs offline, with no internet or file access, inside strict limits on time and memory, and hands its result to the next step.
- Any app with an API. If an app isn't in the catalog yet, a Call an API step can reach it directly: any method, headers, query parameters and a body, with your choice of whether the workflow stops or carries on if the call fails. Keys go in Secrets and Values, never in the step.
Easier to test and fix
- Test one part at a time. Every step's menu now offers Run up to this step, Run from this step and Run only this step, so you can check a change without running the whole workflow, and without sending that email again.
- Move steps by dragging them. Reorder steps right on the canvas. Lodol won't let you drop a step somewhere it would use a value before that value exists, and tells you why.
- Collapse what you're not working on. Fold a loop or a branch down to a single line that says how many steps it holds, and open it again when you need it.
Easier to keep tidy
Folders, with subfolders, now hold workflows on the Workflows page. Drag a workflow into one, or select several and move them together.
Quicker to bring people in
Share a single join link, optionally limited to your company's email domain, and anyone who uses it joins your workspace as a member. Or invite up to 1,000 people at once by uploading a spreadsheet, with a role for each. Owners and admins can revoke the link at any time.
Easier on the eyes
Under Settings, Preferences now has a high-contrast option that deepens text, borders and status colors, and a dyslexia-friendly font, Atkinson Hyperlegible, for the whole app. Small things, for the people who spend their day in Lodol.
See it for yourself.
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