Test & Publish Workflows

Nected lets you test workflows in a staging environment before deploying them to production. There are two ways to test a workflow:

1. Quick Test — a one-off, ad-hoc test with custom inputs. Best for exploring behavior during development and validating individual nodes.

2. Test Suite — a saved collection of test cases you can run all at once. Best for regression testing before every publish.

Both methods are accessible from the Test Run button in the top-right of the workflow editor.

Before You Test

Before testing a workflow — by either method — make sure:

1. You've provided proper input data to all added nodes.

2. Each individual node has been configured and tested.

Always test every node separately and run an end-to-end test before publishing your workflow.

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Method 1: Quick Test

Quick Test lets you fire a single set of inputs at your workflow and immediately see the full execution trace. Nothing is saved — it's designed for fast, exploratory testing during development.

How to Run a Quick Test

1. Open a workflow in the editor.

2. Click the Test Run button (in case Run Quick Test is selected) in the top-right header.

   • Alternatively, click the ▼ dropdown arrow next to Test Run and select Run Quick Test.

   
3. The Test Workflow tab opens.

4. Enter values for each input parameter defined in your workflow's trigger node.

5. Click Test Now.

6. The execution result appears, showing three columns:

Understanding the Quick Test Result

Column	Description
Steps	Each node in the workflow. A ✅ mark next to a node name means it executed successfully.
Input	The input attributes passed to that particular node.
Result	The execution output for that node — including output values, action name, and action status (if all conditions were met). Toggle between Raw (low-code JSON view) and Pretty (no-code formatted view).

Testing Individual Nodes

You can also test each node in isolation before running the full workflow:

• Click on any node in the canvas to open its configuration panel.

• Use the node-level test option to run just that node with specific inputs.

• Once all nodes pass individually, run the end-to-end Quick Test.

Quick Test always runs against the Staging environment, so there's no risk to Production.

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Method 2: Test Suite

Test Suite is a persistent library of test cases tied to your workflow. You define inputs and expected outputs once, save them, and re-run them with a single click whenever the workflow changes. This makes it the right tool for regression testing before every publish.

Accessing the Test Suite

1. Open any workflow in the editor.

2. Click the ▼ dropdown arrow to the right of the Test Run button.

3. Select Run Test Suite from the dropdown.

4. The Test Suite panel opens on the right.

The Test Suite Panel

The panel header contains the following controls:

Control	Action
Search on Name	Filter test cases by name
Run All Tests	Execute all saved test cases at once
Save Test	Save new or edited test cases
View Last Test Result	Jump to the results of the most recent run
Download	Export all test cases as a CSV file

When no test cases exist yet, you'll see an empty state with two options: + Add test case manually and Import Test Cases.

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Adding Test Cases

Option A: Add Manually

1. Click + Add test case manually (or the button in the empty state).

2. A new row appears in the table with these columns:

   Input columns — one per workflow input attribute (matching your trigger node's parameters):

   • Fill in the values to be sent to the workflow when this test runs.

     

   Name & Group:

   • Name — a label for this test case (used for search and for merge-on-import)

   • Group Name — optional; group related tests together (e.g., payment scenarios, edge cases)

   Output / expectation columns:

   • Matching Row — which output rows you expect the workflow to produce (e.g., Row 1, Row 5)

   • Default Output — true if you expect the default output path, false otherwise

   • Output field columns (e.g., code, main, description, discount) — the exact values you expect the workflow to return. Leave blank to skip assertion on that field.

3. Click Save Test (top-right) to persist the test cases.

4. A green toast confirms: "X test cases saved."

Option B: Import via CSV

For bulk test case creation, import a CSV file.

1. Click Import Test Cases.

2. The Upload File modal appears.

3. Choose an Upload Policy:

   Policy	What it does
   Merge rows (based on name) (default)	Updates existing test cases with the same name; adds new ones for names that don't exist yet
   Append rows	Adds all rows from the CSV as new test cases, regardless of name duplicates
   Replace all rows	Deletes every existing test case and replaces with the CSV contents
   Replace row, exclude manually created	Replaces previously imported test cases but preserves manually added ones

4. Click Download Template to get a pre-formatted CSV with the correct column headers for your workflow.

5. Fill in the template:

   name, group, , <input_attr_1>, <input_attr_2>, ..., defaultOutputData, <output_key_1>, <output_key_2>, ..., <action_1>, <action_2>

   • name — the test case name (required; used for merge-by-name)

   • group — optional group name

   • Input attribute columns — one per workflow input parameter

   • defaultOutputData — true or false

   • Output key columns — expected output values (leave blank to skip assertion)

   • Action columns — expected action outcomes (if the workflow has post-execution actions)

6. Upload the filled CSV (.csv, max 2 MB).

7. The imported test cases appear in the panel.

8. Click Save Test to confirm.

Use Merge rows when syncing test cases from a shared spreadsheet — it won't delete cases you've added manually or that aren't in the current CSV.

Running the Tests

Run All Tests

1. Click Run All Tests in the panel header.

2. Nected runs every saved test case against the workflow in Staging — each test case triggers a full end-to-end execution.

3. The Test Result view opens automatically, showing:

   Column	Description
   Status	Icon indicating Pending, Passed ✅, or Failed ❌
   Name	Test case name
   Group Name	The group it belongs to
   Input	The inputs sent to the workflow
   Matching Row	Which output rows matched and whether default output was returned
   Output	Actual output values returned by the workflow, compared against expected

4. The summary bar at the top shows Total / Passed / Failed counts.

Run a Single Test

• Click the ▶ play icon on any test case row to run just that one test.

Re-run After Changes

• After editing the workflow, open Test Suite again and click Run All Tests to verify nothing regressed.

• From the Test Result view, click Retest All to re-run without going back to the suite panel.

Managing Test Cases

• Search — find test cases by name using the search bar

• Delete — use the row action menu (⋮) to remove individual test cases

• Download — export all test cases as CSV at any time (useful for sharing or version control)

• View Last Test Result — check the most recent run's output without triggering a new run

Quick Test vs. Test Suite: When to Use Which

	Quick Test	Test Suite
Best for	Exploring behavior and debugging during development	Regression testing before every publish
Saved	No — one-off only	Yes — persists across sessions
Scope	Full workflow + per-node trace	Full end-to-end workflow output
Multiple inputs	One at a time	All at once
Pass/fail tracking	No	Yes, with summary counts
Import/Export	No	Yes (CSV)
Groups & naming	No	Yes

Use Quick Test while building and debugging nodes. Use Test Suite as your final validation gate before every publish — it ensures existing scenarios still behave correctly after changes.

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Publish a Workflow

The publishing flow for workflows involves a structured process to ensure changes are properly documented, reviewed, and versioned. Here are the detailed steps:

The workflow starts in a draft state. You can make any necessary edits to ensure it meets your requirements. Once you've done with the editing, you now can do two things:

1. Submit it for Review: If you're working in a team, and there is a reviewer, then you can assign the reviewer and submit the workflow in review. Then it will go into the review flow, which you can read from Approval Flow.

   
2. Publish your workflow: If you don't want to review your workflow by an approver, then you can also directly publish your workflow in production. Here is how you can do that:

   • When you are ready to publish, click the "Publish" button.

   • Title and Description: A prompt will appear asking for a title and description of the changes. This information helps maintain a clear version history.

   • Confirm Publishing: After providing the title and description, click the publish button to move the workflow to production. The workflow is now published and it will create a new published version that you can access from the Publish tab of the Version Control section. This version is live in the production environment.

   

For more details about version control, and rolling back to a previous version, read the Version Control doc.

By following these detailed steps, users can effectively manage the publishing and rollback processes for their rules and workflows, ensuring high-quality and reliable outputs.

To make a Workflow in Production, You must test all the nodes separately or run "Test in Staging", otherwise the Workflow won't be published.

Versioning:

Every publish creates a new version of the workflow and you can always view the last published version along with the current draft. You can now control the version of a workflow, and rollback to its previous version using our Version Control& rollback feature. You can read more about it in versioning & rollback.