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Sync Dependencies

In an Advanced workflow, the connectors on the canvas decide the order steps run in. A step that reads a table should run after the step that writes it, but nothing makes you draw that connector. Without it, the two steps can run at the same time, and the second step may read the table before the first has finished writing it. This is common in workflows that were converted, copied or assembled from other workflows.

Sync Dependencies finds those steps by reading which tables each step reads and writes, and suggests the connectors that put them in order. You review every suggestion, and nothing changes until you choose Add Connectors.

Sync Dependencies only adds connectors. It never removes or moves one, and it never changes a step.

Review the Suggested Connectors

Section titled “Review the Suggested Connectors”
  1. Open the workflow on the Advanced workflow canvas.
  2. Choose Sync Dependencies on the toolbar, next to Check. When Weave already has suggestions, a banner under the toolbar says so, for example Weave suggests 3 connectors so that each step runs after the step that writes a table it reads. Choose Review… on the banner to open the same window.
  3. The Sync Dependencies window lists one suggestion per row, such as Run “Load Sales” before “Report”, which reads “sales”. Each row has a tickbox.
  4. Tick the connectors you want, and clear the ones you don’t.
  5. Choose Add Connectors.

The connectors appear on the canvas straight away. Undo removes all of them in one step, and Redo puts them back.

You see the Sync Dependencies button if you can edit the workflow and read its tables.

Which Suggestions Are Ticked

Section titled “Which Suggestions Are Ticked”

A suggestion is ticked when both steps are Table: Extract, Table: Copy, Table: Melt (Columns to Rows), Table: Pivot (Rows to Columns) or Table: Build Features. These read one table and replace their target each run, so the order is clear.

Every other suggestion is listed but not ticked. These involve a step that appends (Table: Append), imports, joins or looks up, or reads several tables, such as Extract: SQL. Tick one if that step should wait for the other.

What the Window Also Tells You

Section titled “What the Window Also Tells You”
  • Steps already in the wrong order. If a connector already makes a step run before the step that writes a table it reads, the window says how many. Sync Dependencies doesn’t reorder steps; check those connectors on the canvas.
  • Steps you can’t open. A suggestion that involves a step your role hides is counted, not listed.
  • A workflow Weave can’t check. If a step runs another workflow, or uses tables Weave can’t follow, or the connectors form a loop, the window says Weave can’t check the workflow’s step order and suggests nothing.
  • Nothing to add. If every step already runs after the steps that write the tables it reads, the window says so.

What Weave Doesn’t Check

Section titled “What Weave Doesn’t Check”

Weave only suggests a connector when the order is certain. It doesn’t judge the following:

  • A table written by more than one step in the workflow, or also by another workflow, since a step may be meant to read the other workflow’s output. A step that both reads and writes a table that another step also writes counts the same way.
  • A table a step picks with a variable, a name several tables share, a view, or a table from another project.
  • A table a step in the workflow clears, deletes rows from or drops, since emptying a table before it is loaded is a deliberate order.
  • Steps inside an execution container.
  • Disabled steps, and steps in a disabled container. A connector path through a disabled step still counts, because the workflow passes straight through it.

Weave checks the order steps run in, not the data they produce.

If the Workflow Changes While You Review

Section titled “If the Workflow Changes While You Review”

If someone changes the workflow while the window is open, or a suggestion no longer applies, a Workflow Changed notice appears when you choose Add Connectors, and the canvas reloads. Choose Sync Dependencies again to see what Weave suggests now.

On a locked workflow, unlock it before you add connectors or undo them.

Weave Finds These on Its Own

Section titled “Weave Finds These on Its Own”

You don’t have to open the canvas to find these steps. Weave checks every Advanced workflow in the background, including ones that have never run, and reports Steps that can run before the table they read is written in the Weave tab. When a connector is missing, Fix on that finding opens this window on the workflow’s canvas. See Weave Findings.

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