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To pause a chain to enable an approval workflow before proceeding to its next step, add an Approval event. For example, with an approval workflow, you can:

• Approve or reject information before it flows between data sources.
• Coordinate resources and collect auditable responses.
• Automate the workflow between requesters and approvers.

Approval types

With the Approval event, you can enable sequential, flat, or single approval workflows:

• Sequential, where multiple approvers receive requests for approval one-at-a-time, in a hierarchy.
• Flat, where multiple approvers receive requests for approval at the same time.
• Single, with only one approver.

Step 1. Add the event to the chain

1. In Chain Builder, from the Chains  device_hub tab, click Edit create for the chain.
2. Click Chain Events  event, and move Approval  playlist_add_check to the canvas.
3. Drag a link to the event from the preceding node in the chain.

Step 2. Set the approval workflow

1. Select the event's node, and click Edit  create.
   
2. Under Basic Info, enter a unique name and description to help identify the event.
3. Under Approval details, enter a title to help identify the workflow.
4. In Requesters, select the email addresses of the collaborators to notify of approvals or rejections. To include the collaborator who runs the chain, select Runtime User.
5. In Approvers, select the email addresses of the collaborators to review the data. 
   • For a sequential approval, enter the email addresses in the order to receive requests for approval.
   • To include the collaborator who runs the chain, select Runtime User.
6. In Details, enter any guidelines for the approvers, such as the criteria to approve or reject data.
7. In Due In, enter how many days approvers have for review:
   • For a sequential approval, enter the number of days each approver has before escalating to the next email address.
   • For a single or flat approval, enter the number of days to allow for the complete workflow.
8. In Approval type, select whether to enable a sequential, flat, or single approval.
9. To include a file or command output for approvers to review, in Attachment, select the output to attach to the email.

   Note: To attach a file, include a Runtime File Upload event earlier in the chain to upload the attachment.

10. Click Save.

Approval outputs

The Approval event generates data you can then use with later commands in the chain, such as to upload to another data source. You can use these outputs directly or use other commands to transform them.

Tip: To parse specific values from an output, such as email addresses or approval responses, use a variable transformation.