Introduction

Compare and sync FlowWright artifacts between FlowWright environments.

Last published at: October 16th, 2026

FlowWright's environment-level Synchronization is different from the Synchronize process step used inside a workflow.

The environment-level feature manages and keeps FlowWright artifacts consistent across separate FlowWright environments—for example, Development, QA/Testing, Staging, and Production.

It helps teams move changes between environments, reduce manual deployment effort, and maintain consistency across the software development and release lifecycle.

 

1. Why is environment synchronization necessary?

Consider a team developing a new business process in the Development environment. The process may depend on forms, variables, rules, subprocesses, and other FlowWright artifacts.

When the process is ready for testing, those related artifacts must also be available in the QA environment. After testing, promote the approved changes to Production.

Without a controlled synchronization mechanism, teams may have to export and import artifacts manually, track changes using spreadsheets, and verify dependencies individually. This increases the risk of missing artifacts, inconsistent configurations, and deployment errors.

 

2. What artifacts can be synchronized?

FlowWright supports synchronization across a broad range of configurable artifacts. The available categories depend on the FlowWright version and configuration.

  • Process and workflow artifacts

Process definitions, workflow steps, data types, business objects, folders, document templates, and subprocess-related definitions.

  • Forms and user interface

Form definitions, form widgets, subforms, associated resources, dashboard definitions, dashboard widgets, menus, and themes.

  • Integration and automation

ETL definitions, event definitions, event handlers, event subscriptions, connections, and triggers.

  • Configuration and administration

Roles, settings, queues, globalization settings, lookup data, email templates, database schema, users, organizational structures, and authentication providers.

  • Packages

Selected process definitions, form definitions, ETL definitions, ESB artifacts, microservices, applications, and import packages, including supported dependencies.

 

3. How does synchronization work?

The general process compares the source and target environments, selects the artifacts to transfer, and synchronizes the selected items.

 

How does the comparison work?

The Synchronization interface identifies differences between the source and target:

  • Green — new artifacts that can be added to the target.
  • Purple — existing artifacts that have changes in the source.

The interface provides selection options to control the scope:

 

4. Individual artifacts vs. package synchronization

This is one of the feature's most important aspects.

Suppose a process definition called EmployeeOnboarding depends on:

  • Several workflow steps and data types
  • A business object
  • A form definition and its widgets
  • One or more subprocesses
  • Events or other supported dependencies

Synchronizing only the process definition may not be enough if the target environment lacks its required artifacts.

FlowWright's Package Synchronization can transfer a selected definition together with its supported dependencies. For example, the process-definition package workflow presents the definition and its dependencies in a hierarchy for synchronization. Form-definition packages provide similar dependency handling.

Package synchronization does not necessarily include every external resource or environment-specific secret. Verify the package contents and target configuration before deploying.

 

5. How to synchronize artifacts between environments

An administrator can follow this general procedure.

  • Configure the environment connections. In FlowWright, navigate to the Integration – Connections area and configure the connections required to access the source and target environments.
  • Open Synchronization. Navigate to Status → Synchronize.
  • Connect to the environments. Select the source and target FlowWright connections and use the Connect action to establish connectivity.
  • Choose an artifact category. Select the required category, such as Process Definitions, Form Definitions, Data Types, Configuration, or Packages.
  • Review the differences. Identify additions and changes, then select the items to transfer.
  • Execute synchronization. Review the selection and confirmation, then initiate the synchronization.
  • Verify the result. Inspect the target environment, confirm the required artifacts are present, and test the application. FlowWright documents audit logging and target snapshots for synchronization operations.

If the connection fails, check the source and target connection strings and their network accessibility.

 

6. Why is this feature important for product teams?

For an enterprise BPM product such as FlowWright, environment synchronization supports controlled promotion of application changes throughout the release lifecycle.

 

7. Important considerations and limitations

Treat synchronization as a controlled deployment operation, not simply a background replication process.

  • Direction matters: Synchronization updates the designated target using artifacts from the source. It is not automatically bidirectional synchronization.
  • Environment-specific settings: Connection strings, credentials, URLs, external service configuration, and secrets may require separate configuration or validation in the target environment.
  • Dependencies: Prefer package synchronization when the goal is to promote a process or form with its supported dependencies.
  • Existing target changes: Review the target before applying source changes, especially when the target contains local modifications.
  • Snapshot is not a complete rollback guarantee: A snapshot is created before synchronizing selected items, but the documented behavior alone does not guarantee that every artifact, external resource, or configuration can be restored automatically.
  • Validation remains necessary: Successful synchronization does not prove that the application works correctly in the target environment.

 

For a team maintaining FlowWright or building solutions on it, a sensible promotion path is:

This is a recommended operating model, not a claim that FlowWright automatically enforces these release gates.

In summary: FlowWright's environment-level Synchronization feature compares and transfers configurable artifacts from a source FlowWright environment to a target environment. It helps teams manage additions, updates, and supported dependencies more controllably, making it valuable for development, testing, and production deployment.

 As an admin user, navigate to the Status - Synchronize menu option. To synchronize, first select the source and target FlowWright connections, then click the “Connect HTTP” button to confirm the connection. If the connection fails, navigate to the Integration - Connections menu option and verify the source and target connection strings.  

 

The "Connect HTTP" feature tests the HTTP connections according to the configuration. 

 

Next, select the desired item type that you want to synchronize. For example, select “Data Types”:


Data/items displayed in “Green” indicate new data/items to synchronize, and “Purple” indicates updates/changes made to the data/items. 

 

  • Click the  “Additions Only” button for items that are not present in the target database 
  • Click the  “Changes Only” button for items changed in the Source 
  • Click the “All” button to select all items 
  • Click the  “Clear” button to unselect the items 
  • Click the “Synchronization” button to initiate the process. A snapshot is created on the target database before synchronization. A confirmation message appears in the top-right corner upon successful completion.  

 

  • Synchronize selects the connection and auto-connects to the selected instance.
  • The Synchronize UI can swap the source & target. Click on the arrow icon to swap the positions.

 

  • Use the Search text bar to search the list. 

 

  • Synchronize UI shows # of added and updated.

 

NOTE: Synchronize Users shall automatically set the default time zone and culture for users according to the target environment. 

  • For Processes, you may synchronize Data Types, Steps, Business Objects, Folders, Process Definitions, and Document Templates. 

 

  • For Forms, you may synchronize Form Widgets, Folders, and Form Definitions. 

 

  • For the ETL Process, you may synchronize ETL steps, ETL Data Schema, and ETL Definitions. 

 

  • For the Enterprise Service Bus, you may synchronize Event Definitions, Event Handlers, and Event Subscribers. 

 

For Dashboards, you can synchronize Event Dashboard Widgets and Dashboard Definitions. 

 

For the Users, you may synchronize Users, User Connections, and Organizational Structure. 

 

You may synchronize Report Definitions. 

 

You may synchronize Decision Tables.

 

You may synchronize Authentication Providers and Connections. 

 

For the AI, you may synchronize AI Providers and MCP Servers. 

 

You may synchronize Telemetry Providers.

 

You may synchronize UI Themes. 

 

You may synchronize Menu Builder items. 

 

  • For the Configuration items, you may synchronize Roles (System and Application), Settings, Queues, Globalization, Lookup Data, Email Templates, and Database Schema.  

 

  • For the Connections items, you may synchronize Database, OAuth, RabbitMQ, FTP, SFTP, and Generic. 

 

  • For Triggers, you may synchronize Email, File System, RabbitMQ, MSMQ, FTP, and SFTP.

 

  • For Packages, you may synchronize Process Definitions, Form Definitions, ETL Definitions, Enterprise Service Bus, Microservices, Applications, and Import Packages.