If there are errors in Activities, while executing the workflow, an Activity Failed Task is generated by default. The Activity Failed Task signalizes that there has been an error while executing the workflow. The workflow itself interrupts the execution. These errors can be of any type such as parse error, or the given path does not exist, etc.
As you created the workflow, you are the process owner and therefore you receive the Activity Failed Task (if no User in Charge is configured), does not matter if you were the one who started the process or not. For that reason, it is your turn (or the turn of the specified user in charge) to decide what happens to the interrupted execution of the workflow.
There are options:
- Click Continue for the opportunity to enter missing or false information into the sheet.
- Click Stop Process to stop the execution of the workflow.
- Click Retry to let the workflow attempt the activity again.
After choosing one of the options, the workflow will either be continued, stopped or retried. If it is stopped it can be viewed under the Finished tab. If the workflow continues, it is displayed under the Running tab. If it finishes without another Activity Failed Task, it can be viewed in the Finished tab as well.
There is another way to pursue error handling, the previously described way is just how it is done by default. For every activity, an exception can be configured in order to define what should happen in case of an error. For that, you simply have to configure an additional path starting at the round blizzard icon which is displayed below. So, if the activity fails for any reason, the additional path will be activated, and this path can be configured howsoever you wish to handle the error.
For some activities like the WebService/Powershell activity, you can redirect the output of errors in order to check them during the workflow. The disadvantage of this version is, that errors during the execution are not apparent if they are not checked in the workflow.