Require Flow on Collection Transfer Actions

Associate a Flow with your Collection

You can associate a flow with your collection to require users to run a flow when they attempt to perform transfers on the collection. The association can be set when the collection is used as a source, destination, or both.

The association can be set using the Globus Connect Server CLI. See the --flow-transfer-source and --flow-transfer-destination options to collection create or collection update.

At this time, only the transfer action is supported.
When a flow is associated with a collection, the Transfer API will reject task submissions not initiated using the associated flow (associated_flow_policy documentation).
The associated flow should adhere to the requirements outlined in the Flow Input Schema section below.

When users select your collection as a source or destination in the File Manager the Web App will automatically prompt them to run the flow you’ve associated.

Writing your Flow Input Schema

In order to use the user-selected options from the File Manager as input for your flow, you must define an input schema that meets the following requirements:

MUST include a property that implements the "globus-transfer-transfer#0.10" format at the top-level.

An example input schema using "globus-transfer-transfer#0.10"

{
  "title": "Start a Transfer",
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "file_manager_settings"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "file_manager_settings": {
      "type": "object",
      "format": "globus-transfer-transfer#0.10"
    }
  },
  "additionalProperties": false
}

The object provided by the File Manager, to your configured flow will match the Transfer API Task - Transfer and Delete Documents.

How you use the values from the File Manager in your flow is up to you.

Common Errors

Invalid Flow Input Schema

If the flow you associated with your collection does not have an input schema defined with the "globus-transfer-transfer#0.10" format, the Web App will display an error message when users attempt to start your flow from the File Manager. Users may still be able to run your associated flow (based on your input schema and definition), but all File Manager state will be lost.

An example of a the Flow Guided Start page displaying an error message about the flow input schema.