The “filter” data mapping refers to the filter input that you provide at the beginning of the workflow. The “instances” output is referenced in the next steps of the workflow.
Configure User Task component and set input variable
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Click the Activity user task at the beginning of the workflow and rename it to Filter input.
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Click Edit user interface to add the Filter variable to the user task.
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Go back to your workflow and click the Variables tab.
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Switch the Input toggle to Yes for the “filter” variable
Data mapping and variable values for “Send an email” skill
Now let’s define the input and output variables for the “Send an email” skill.
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Select the skill in the diagram and in the Activity properties panel, click Define data mapping.
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Fill the Subject and toRecipientsRequested variables with the subject line and the email address that the message is being sent to.
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Expand the body variable to show Content and content type, where Content is the body of the email. In this example we will use an expression to set the string value “Please check the draft of KB number” along with the number of InputItem.
You can see what variables can be referenced for an instancesType structure by expanding the data mapping for InputItem.
Filter input for “Get all knowledge articles” skill
The first step of the workflow is a user task where the user provides a filter input string that is passed into the “Get all knowledge articles” skill, which you need to configure here.
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Click on the blue preview button on the top right to create a new preview instance. You will then be prompted to provide the filter input string. Use the following filter input:
{"where":{"workflow_state":"draft"}}
For more information about how to use filter inputs and what query parameters are available for each skill, see the IBM Docs: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/watsonx/watson-orchestrate/current?topic=skills-filter-input
You can try out a particular skill in the main Chat page in watsonx Orchestrate. In this example, we can invoke the same “Get all knowledge articles” skill to see what kind of information/data is presented. You can see what kind of query parameters can be used in filter inputs, whether it’s in the chat or in Skill studio.
To learn more about using the legacy chat interface, see the IBM Docs: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/watsonx/watson-orchestrate/current?topic=using-legacy-chat
Going through the workflow
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Click the user task to continue through the workflow. You can see the filter string that you provided as input when creating the Preview instance is passed into the user task, and subsequently into the “Get all knowledge articles” skill.
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Confirm that the filter input is correct and then click Submit to continue running through the workflow.
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After the workflow is completed, you can see that separate emails have been sent for Knowledge Base articles set in the “draft” state.
After this walkthrough of Skill studio, you will now be able to do the following:
This particular example showcases just a few features that you can use to build out an automation. I would encourage you to explore other functionalities in Skill studio/watsonx Orchestrate to get a better understanding of how you can leverage these features to better fit your business needs.
Special thanks to @Margaux Chatelain @Mithun Katti @JUSTIN WANG @Tony Duong and Darshan Bulsara for their collaboration on this blog post.