Conductor OSS Updates: Polished Look for Workflow Visualizer and More

Conductor OSS is the heart of Orkes' mission and identity: to build world-class developer tools for developers by developers. Our journey with Conductor OSS, from its humble roots at Netflix, has been powered by a vibrant community of developers who are redefining application workflow orchestration and driving innovation in real-world applications.

Today, we are thrilled to introduce a revamped workflow visualizer in our latest release, v3.21.11. These changes are powered by the new orkes-workflow-visualizer library, which brings significant improvement to the visual clarity and usability of workflow diagrams. With the latest update, it is now easier for users to navigate, visualize, and monitor their workflows.

Key updates in Conductor OSS

The key highlight of this update is the introduction of the orkes-workflow-visualizer package. While the core functionality of Conductor OSS remains the same, the visual representation has been upgraded to address readability and usability issues. Other changes include improvements to task timeouts and subworkflow priority. You can learn more about the changes in the v3.21.11 release notes.

Why are we doing this?

The previous workflow visualizer in Conductor OSS offered only a bare skeleton of the workflow diagram. It could not effectively display nested tasks and iterations, leaving users to interpret complex workflows with minimal visual guidance.

How users see their workflows directly impacts how they understand and use them. The new workflow visualizer is inspired by the polished design of the workflow diagrams in the enterprise Orkes Conductor. This update aims to provide users with a cleaner, more intuitive UI for better readability and navigation.

What’s new with the workflow visualizer

The following changes apply to both the workflow definition and workflow execution diagrams:

• Design overhaul: The new visualizer introduces a sleek, modern design that is easy on the eyes.
• Improved layouts: The layout of key task information is optimized for better readability, making it easier to grasp the flow of complex workflows at a glance.
• Expanded task visibility: Nested tasks, iterations, and sub-workflows (previously hidden or hard to interpret) are now fully displayed in the diagram.

Here is a comparison of the workflow definition diagrams before and after v3.21.11:

a. Previous workflow definition diagram

b. New workflow definition diagram

And here is a comparison of the workflow execution diagrams before and after v3.21.11:

c. Previous workflow execution diagram

d. New workflow execution diagram

Implementation details

To bring this vision to life, we used Reaflow, a library designed for building node-based diagrams. Reaflow was chosen for the following advantages:

• It offers a flexible and efficient way to create dynamic, interactive diagrams.
• Its API and customization options align well with the requirements of Conductor OSS.
• It is lightweight and performant, ensuring smooth rendering even for large or complex workflows.

The orkes-workflow-visualizer package was added as a dependency to the Conductor OSS UI, in the package.json:

{  "dependencies": {
    "orkes-workflow-visualizer": "^1.0.1"
  }
}

To render both the workflow definition and execution diagrams, the visualizer component was integrated into the React UI:

import React from "react";
import { WorkflowVisualizer } from "orkes-workflow-visualizer";

const WorkflowDefinitionView = ({ workflowDefinition }) => {
  return (
    <div style={{ height: "100vh", width: "100%" }}>
      <WorkflowVisualizer
        data={workflowDefinition}
      />
    </div>
  );
};

export default WorkflowDefinitionView;

For the execution diagrams in particular, the data prop contains real-time information about workflow state and task progress:

const WorkflowExecutionView = ({ workflowExecution }) => {
  return (
    <WorkflowVisualizer
      executionMode={true}
      data={workflowExecution}
    />
  );
};

What users should know

• The package is standalone. Users cannot directly edit or modify the visualizer package itself. However, it’s designed to work with Conductor OSS workflows out of the box.
• Full compatibility. The package is fully compatible with existing workflows, so users can start using it without any migration steps.

Upgrading to the latest version

Here’s how you can get started with the new Conductor OSS workflow visualizer:

For new users

1. Clone the Conductor OSS repository.

git clone https://github.com/conductor-oss/conductor.git
cd conductor

2. Run the Conductor server.
   Use Docker Compose to spin up the Conductor server, which includes the new visualizer.

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yaml up

• The server will start at http://localhost:8080.
• The UI will be available at http://localhost:8127.

3. Check out the workflow visualizer.
   In your browser, go to http://localhost:8127 to explore the updated workflow visualizer.

For existing users

If you're already using Conductor and want to upgrade to the latest version:

1. Pull the latest changes from the Conductor repository.

git pull origin main

2. Rebuild the server image to include the new workflow visualizer.

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yaml build

3. Restart the Conductor server.
   Bring up the updated server:

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yaml up

4. Access the updated workflow visualizer.
   Go to http://localhost:8127 to use the enhanced workflow visualizer. Your workflows will remain unchanged, but you'll see the improved visuals and features.

Wrap up

The updated workflow visualizer represents a major step forward for Conductor OSS, addressing key user needs around visual clarity and usability. Whether you’re tracking simple workflow executions or making changes to complex workflow with nested tasks, the new visualizer makes the experience more intuitive and enjoyable.

We’re so excited for you to try the new orkes-workflow-visualizer package. Head over to the Conductor OSS repo now to explore the updated workflow visualizer.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback—connect with us on Slack or our Community site, or contribute to the Conductor OSS repo. ​​This community is what makes Conductor such a powerful workflow orchestration platform, and we are committed to collaboration, transparency, and building tools that solve real challenges that developers face.