Feature Overview

Web Inputs are considered an advanced feature.

If you’d like to learn more about the Globus Flows service itself first, foundational tutorials can be found at Automation with Globus Flows.

What are Web Inputs?

Web inputs are a mechanism by which a flow run may pause to request asynchronous input from one or more designated respondents before continuing execution.

Common use cases for web inputs include:

  • Enforcing administrator sign-off when moving data into a secure enclave.

  • Evaluating the initial results of an experiment, deciding whether to continue or abort the experiment.

  • Requesting human approval prior to publishing an automated result.

Lifecycle of a Web Input

Note

A web input is managed by the inclusion of two subsequent state types in a flow definition: (1) a CreateWebInput state to open the resource, and (2) an AwaitWebInput state to pause execution and wait for a response.

  1. A flow run encounters a CreateWebInput state, creating a new web input with a selection of options for respondents to choose from.

  2. The flow run encounters an AwaitWebInput state, halting execution until an option is selected.

  3. A respondent selects one of the web input options, thereby closing the web input.

    • More details on this process may be found at Responding.

  4. The flow run automatically resumes execution with the selected option available in its run state.

Note
Respondents have 10 days to respond to a web input, after which they expire.

Availability

Web Inputs are available to all Globus customers as a part of the Flows service.