Workflow IDs not guaranteed to be unique

[Ferrisx4]

Summary

IDs generated by Galaxy, including those for workflows, are not guaranteed to be unique outside of an individual Galaxy server. The id_secret configuration field for Galaxy is used as a seed to generate these IDs. If this value is left default (not recommended but allowed by Galaxy), there is a high likelihood that two completely different workflows from two different Galaxy servers may have the same workflow ID.

Problem

This becomes a problem when Tripal Galaxy happens to have two of these workflows loaded. When a workflow is selected, the correct workflow form is loaded and asks for all the appropriate fields. Upon submission, the job throws an error due to an input mismatch because it is trying to launch a different workflow.

Solution

• Utilise both Galaxy ID and Workflow ID to guarantee uniqueness or use the internal identifier (galaxy_workflow_id) when referring to a specific workflow.
• If using workflows from different Galaxy servers (for instance production and development/testing), Galaxy admins should configure each Galaxy instance to have a unique id_secret.