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Okta Certified Workflows - Specialty · Part I

Running and Maintaining Flows

13% of Part I

Running and Maintaining Flows

Sub-topic 1: Activate a Flow

4 sub-topics · this deck covers sub-topic 1 of 4

↑ Module Overview

The Scenario

"ON/OFF: Turn a flow on or off. A flow can execute only after it is turned on."

Every flow lives inside a folder on the Flows page, which lists all folders, flows, and tables in a Workflows instance. Whether or not a flow can ever run — on a schedule, from an event, or from an API call — comes down to a single ON/OFF toggle shown in the list view.

The Mechanism — Flows List Columns

The list view for the Flows tab shows one row per flow, with these columns:

TYPE — the type of flow: triggered by an event, an API Endpoint, a schedule, or a helper flow for another flow.

ON/OFF — the activation toggle itself.

NAME — a user-provided label.

ACTIONS — a visual summary of the connectors used in the flow.

The Mechanism — HISTORY and Metadata

HISTORY is "a visual summary of successful and failed executions for the flow, along with the last time that the flow was executed." A green check shows the successful-execution count; a red X shows the failed-execution count.

AUTHOR — the username of the account that created the flow. DATE CREATED or LAST EDITED — when the flow was created or last updated.

Duplicating a folder resets the HISTORY summary for every flow inside it, and sets each flow's creation date to the duplication date — the AUTHOR field for those flows becomes the account that ran the duplication, not the original author.

The Mechanism — Managing and Sorting Flows

For each flow you can edit its name and description, and run, duplicate, export, or delete it from the settings menu (list view) or the matching icon (tile view).

Flows can be moved between folders by dragging them onto a folder in the navigation panel — holding a flow over a closed folder auto-expands it one level. Okta shows an undo notification after the move, and the change is recorded in the Okta System Log.

In list view you can sort by clicking any column header except HISTORY, which can't be used as a sort key.

The Connection

Activation is the gate every other sub-topic in this section sits behind. An API Endpoint flow (next sub-topic) can't be invoked until it's turned on. Execution History only accumulates for flows that have actually run, which requires the ON/OFF toggle to be set. And the active flow count against your org's plan limit (covered under System Limitations) only counts flows that are turned on — flows that are off don't count against that limit.

The Angle — What Trips People Up

Watch for this in your own sandbox run:

→ Assuming a duplicated folder carries over its flows' execution history and original authorship — it doesn't. Duplication resets HISTORY and reassigns AUTHOR/creation date to the duplicating account.

→ Trying to sort the Flows list by HISTORY — every other column header is sortable, but HISTORY is the one exception.

One Line To Remember

A flow can execute only after its ON/OFF toggle is turned on. The Flows list also shows TYPE (event, API Endpoint, schedule, or helper), HISTORY (success/fail counts + last run, not sortable), AUTHOR, and DATE CREATED/LAST EDITED — and duplicating a folder resets HISTORY and reassigns authorship to whoever ran the duplication.

Sources: help.okta.com — ext-folder-view (Flows and tables)