This topic provides context for the phased discontinuation of Legal Engineer Builder in favor of Workflow Designer and a comparison of functionality between the two products.
Context for the transition away from LE Builder
For early Ironclad adopters, Ironclad Legal Engineers built customers’ workflows in an internal tool called “Legal Engineering Builder” or “LE Builder”, which functioned using a templating language for javascript called “Nunjucks.”
In 2018, Ironclad released a workflow building engine called “Blueprint”, which was later renamed “Workflow Designer”. Unlike LE Builder, Workflow Designer is a no-code, self-serve tool that enables Ironclad customers to build and make updates independently to their workflows, often in minutes.
Since its release, Workflow Designer has been the focal point of Ironclad’s product roadmap, and, in late 2019, the Ironclad product and engineering teams shifted their focus solely on product enhancements for Workflow Designer consequently no longer investing development hours into LE Builder.
Due to the overwhelming positive impact Workflow Designer has had across Ironclad’s customer base, the continuous improvement to its functionality, and its existing advantages over LE Builder, Ironclad has made the decision to discontinue LE Builder. This will be done in two waves with the first on October 1, 2023 for customers with minimal to no usage of their LE Builder Workflows, and the second and final wave on November 1, 2023 for all other clients.
As part of this decision, customers with active LE Builder workflows will need to migrate to Workflow Designer before the deprecation dates. Ironclad has a number of resources available to assist in this effort including:
- Workflow Designer Help Center - Articles and tools to assist in learning Workflow Designer
- Building Ironclad Workflows On-Demand Training on Workflow Designer Basics
LE Builder - Workflow Designer Comparison Chart
Though LE Builder and Workflow Designer have many functionality overlaps, we recommend thinking of them as distinct workflow-building tools as you plan your migration. Because of this, each workflow migration will have unique change management considerations. For the majority of workflows, these considerations will be minor, but it’s worth reviewing the product comparison chart below to best prepare for the migration. We recommend reviewing your LE Builder workflow(s) in detail prior to consulting this chart as a thorough understanding of the build will be needed to assess the impact.
| Functionality | Use Case | WFD | LE Builder | Notes/Implications |
| Self-Service, No-Code Workflow Building and Maintenance | Quick workflow build and iteration; easy maintenance | Yes | No | Faster updates. No more submitting a help request when changes are needed! |
| Upload counterparty paper and/or generate company template in one workflow | A business process where 3rd party paper or company paper can be used. | Yes | No | Ironclad instances that have separate “inbound” and “templatized” workflows may combine the concepts. |
|
Flexible Signature |
Signing. | Yes | No | Reverting to review to update signatories is no longer required. |
| Multiple Custom Emails Set Up at Review, Sign, and Archive | Send informational emails to users. | Yes | No | LE Builder restricts custom emails to one per step. |
| Management Chain Assignment | Set reviewers and signers based on values in the user’s identity provider profile. | Yes | No | Better utilize identity provider data for increased reviewer and signer automation. |
| Multi-Document Generation | A single business use case requires multiple, separate documents to be generated. | Yes | No | LE Builder restricts document generation to a single .docx. |
| Customizable attribute names | For API integrations, custom attribute names to identify Ironclad properties, e.g., “companyType.” | Yes | Yes | |
| Conditional statements based on values in table data | For tables with a list of services/SKUs: trigger visibility of additional launch form properties or input template language based on a specific service/SKU being selected. | Yes (at table level) | Yes | Workflow Designer uses Dynamic Tables and can perform logic based on the entire table—for example, the presence or absence of a particular SKU—but it does not currently support the ability to create row-level conditions using dynamic properties. For example, it can show a template section if a certain SKU is included, but it cannot currently show a question about a particular line item that is conditionally based on the SKU. |
| Customize the “Edit Info” form display at the Review step | Group like-fields for Reviewer updates. E.g., “Legal Review Fields.” | Yes | Yes | |
| Complex mathematical expressions using dynamic table data. | Generate a table of services/SKUs and auto-sum each line item. | Yes | Yes | Certain, extremely complex use cases may need to be modified. |
| Conditional workflow titles, file paths, and file names | Alter workflow title, cloud storage save path, or file name based on certain property conditions being true. | Yes | Yes | |
| Hidden Properties | Hide properties from the end-user that are filled in either from API launch or Salesforce. | Yes | Yes | Groups of questions can be hidden at launch in Workflow Designer and shown only during edits at the Review step. |
| Review Rejection | Allow reviewers to set their review status to “Rejected”. | No | Yes | Granular review statuses beyond “Approved” and “Rejected” are being considered for Workflow Designer. |
| Customize property data formatting for template and email generation | Manipulate property data to output a new variable. E.g., turn “counterparty name value” into “Counterparty Name Value” with a “title” filter. | No | Yes | Workflow Designer filters are built based on common needs. Filters are available for data formatting and titling. LE Builder utilized built-in Nunjucks data formatting filters. The list an LE Builder workflow might have used is here. |
| Custom data validation | Control the form of data inputs in launch form properties. | No | Yes | Free text properties requiring limited data range should have warning language added to property copy. |
| Conditional Record Typing | Workflow’s record type is determined based on certain property conditions being true. | No | Yes | A Workflow Designer workflow allows multiple record types, but the type must be selected when launching a workflow. |
| Workflow Chaining | Automatically kick off a related Ironclad workflow at the create or archive step of another workflow. | No | Yes | Functionality is possible by utilizing open API. Certain chained processes can be accomplished using Workflow Designer’s multi-doc generation feature, custom emails, or other features. |
| Review Comment Required | Require that reviewers leave a comment as part of their approval. | No | Yes | Reviewers may leave comments in the activity feed. |
| Custom Review-step warnings | Show custom warning text in the “Review and Change” box during the Review step, such as if the counterparty is in a country requiring special approval. | No | Yes | Such warnings can be displayed as properties, resolved through approvals or custom emails, shown as a warning in the document, or addressed in a variety of other ways. |