Building & publishing a private blueprint

Introduction

This guide steps through the process of building and publishing a new, private blueprint. As soon as a blueprint is published, it is added to your private marketplace.

If yours is a partner company, the blueprint will be available in the private marketplace for any of your linked (i.e. child) companies, ready to install.

Need to know

• To build blueprints, your user account must be associated with an administrator role. For more information please refer to our Roles & permissions summary page.

• To be available for selection in a blueprint, a process flow must be deployed (either to a virtual environment, or to no environment).

• When process flows are selected for inclusion in a blueprint, the last deployed version is added.

The steps

1

Log in to your own company profile

Log into the dashboard and (if you're managing multiple company profiles) ensure that you've switched to your own profile.

2

Build & deploy required process flows

Ensure that all required process flows are built, tested, and deployed - for example:

A process flow must be deployed before it can be added to a blueprint.

3

Access the blueprints section of the marketplace

Select marketplace from the left-hand navigation menu, then select blueprints and your private marketplace. For example:

4

Launch the new blueprint wizard

Click the build a new blueprint button:

5

Complete general details for the blueprint

Enter general details for this blueprint:

Available fields are summarised below:

Field

Summary

Name

Enter a name to be displayed for this blueprint wherever it is displayed in the dashboard.

Visibility

Always set to private. If you would like to submit a blueprint for availability in the Patchworks marketplace, please refer to Submitting a blueprint to the public marketplace.

Labels

Any labels defined for your company profile are available for selection.

Help guide

If available, enter a link to a help guide for this blueprint.

Post-install default

Select what action (if any) should be shown to users as the default whenever this blueprint is installed manually:

• None. The blueprint is installed, but the associated process flows are not deployed.

• Package flows. The blueprint is installed and the associated process flows are added to a new package, ready for manual deployment to virtual environments.

• Package and redeploy. The blueprint is installed and the associated process flows are redeployed wherever they currently exist - i.e. to any child companies (and any virtual environments) where this blueprint is presently installed.

When someone chooses to install this blueprint, they can change this option. All you're setting here is what the default setting will be.

6

Confirm general details

Click the create button to confirm general details. For example:

7

Configure the blueprint manifest

The manifest page is where you configure which process flows and resources to include in this blueprint:

First, choose which process flows to include. For example:

When a process flow is selected, the last deployed version is added.

As you select process flows, any associated resources are added to the manifest automatically. For example:

8

Review & update the blueprint manifest

Review the updated manifest page. By default, all resources needed for each selected process flow will be included; however, you can add more resources if necessary.

Changes to this page are saved as a draft, automatically.

9

Publish the blueprint

If you're ready to make this blueprint available in your private marketplace, click the publish button at the top of the manifest. For example:

The blueprint becomes available in your private marketplace immediately.

Publishing a new blueprint makes it available to install from your private marketplace - it does not deploy anything automatically.

Blueprint drafts

As soon as you confirm the general details for a blueprint (step 6 above), the blueprint is saved to the unpublished section of your private marketplace. For example:

From here, you can click any item to access the manifest, then make changes and publish the blueprint.

What next?

Having published a new blueprint, it becomes available in your private marketplace immediately. You can now install it in any required 'child' companies.

When installing the blueprint for a child company for the first time, installation must be completed manually. Thereafter, any updates can be promoted automatically.

Published blueprint options

At the top of the configuration page for a published blueprint, you'll see some new options:

These options are summarised below.

What is the 'active' version of a blueprint?

The active version of a blueprint is the version to be used whenever someone chooses to install this blueprint from your private marketplace.

When a blueprint is created, by default the initial version becomes active. For example:

Each time you publish an update for an existing blueprint, a new version is generated. When more than one version is available, you can choose which version is active.