ECOWorkflowApprovalProcessSetupand

1、eco workflow approval process setup and use id modified 22-oct-2008 type white paper status published purpose - this document is intended as a technical paper on eco workflow setup and use. scope & application - this paper covers the basics of using and modifying the eco workflow approval proces

2、s and assumes a basic understanding of the same. oracle engineering eco notification approval process setups and requirements - i. table of contents. 1. section 1 introduction 2. section 2 setting up workflow 3. section 3 setting up the eco 4. section 4 standard approval process flow 5. section 5 ec

3、o voting activity setup 6. section 6 eco multiple approval list setup 7. section 7 alerts 8. section 8 release 11i notes ii. section 1 - introduction. engineering has an embedded standard workflow process for eco approvals that does not require the installation of the full oracle workflow product. w

4、orkflow builder is required, however, because there is no seeded default performer for the eco standard approval process. the standard workflow process for eco approvals also allows the use of the submit button on the define eco form and the use of the eco notifications inbox form. this workflow pro

5、cess allows the eco to be sent to an approval list. the approvers have the option to approve or reject the eco before implementation. iii. section 2 - setting up workflow. please reference the workflow users guide part no: a56104-01 for more detailed instructions. 1. update embedded workflow to vers

6、ion a. order the cd, oracle workflow embedded version for oracle applications, for windows 95/windows nt (part no. a60742-01 or a34760). b. you can order this through support on a shipping tar. c. the workflow development team will only support version for and d. workflow is used for release 11i e.

7、the installation instructions are included on the cd readme file. f. follow all the installation instructions provided for workflow. g. patch 1036678 is a complete synchronization patch of all workflow c code for embedded applications workflow. 2. setup an e-mail account for the user workflow. you c

8、an do this in unix sendmail, oracle messaging, oracle interoffice or a mapi-compliant e-mail system. use the documentation provided with the email system you are using. 3. edit the file located in the $fnd_top/resource directory. include the following important required fields: a. connect username/p

9、assword b. account - use the following: 1) for mapi system: username/password 2) for oracle interoffice: username/password 3) for unix sendmail full path to the outgoing mail spool file usually located in var/mail directory account corresponds to the account from which the notification mailer is sta

10、rted. if using embedded version, this is the account from which you start the concurrent manager (program). c. node - the computer name from which the notification mailer is started. if you intend to use the web part of notifications, you must also configure the following in the file. # html web age

11、nt path: (required for mailed html support) # change this! htmlagent= # html attachment file: used as the filename when attachment is saved htmlfile= # html attachment desc: description of attachment type htmldesc=html # html attachment type: numeric attachment code (oracle office) # htmltype=10003

12、4. types of notification mailer programs. the notification mailer is a program that performs e-mail send and response processing for the oracle workflow notification system. a. embedded workflow. wfmail is used on unix platforms. is used for the embedded versions is submitted using the concurrent re

13、quest submit form in sysadmin. command line syntax: wfmail apps/pwd 0 y & this program is for windows nt server platforms. it can be installed from the cd above. you can register this program in oracle apps. this program must be installed and started from the mapi e-mail server. command line syn

14、tax: -f you can start this from an icon with properties set to find the right file. b. standalone workflow. this program is for standalone version using unix sendmail this program is for standalone version of workflow using oracle interoffice. the syntax for submitting the programs from the command

15、line is: where xxx is snd or ofc respectively wfmail. -f 5. setup the concurrent programs if you are not using the mapi version. a. navigate to system administrator/security/responsibility/requests. b. in the group field, query up system administrator reports. c. scroll down to the bottom and add th

16、e following: type name application program notification mailer application object library program workflow resource generator application object library program workflow definitions loader application object library program workflow background process application object library d. save the screen. 6

17、. create or edit the resource file as follows: the file is located in the $fnd_top/resource/ directory for embedded workflow. this file is needed for two reasons in embedded workflow. it defines the workflow web agent to use. it defines the workflow administrator role. once the file is edited with a

18、. and b. below, it is necessary to upload the file to the database. before installing workflow, oracle webserver must be properly installed and configured. once the webserver is configured, the oracle web agent that workflow uses must be identified so workflow can access its web components. enter th

19、at web agent in the file as follows: a. to add the oracle web agent to the file: wftkn wf_web_agent 0 is your base url of the oracle web agent defined for oracle workflow in oracle webserver. the url should look something like this: b. to add the oracle workflow administrator role to the file: wftkn

20、 wf_admin_role 0 any user associated with the admin role will have workflow admin privileges. if you want all users to have administrator privileges, the * can be used as a wildcard to enable all users. edit the file as follows: wftkn wf_admin_role 0 * c. to generate a binary resource file from a so

21、urce(.msg) file: run the resource generator concurrent program with file as the destination type. the resource generator program creates a resource file. command line syntax: wfresgen apps/pwd 0 y file d. to upload seed data to the database: run the resource generator with database as the destinatio

22、n type. the resource generator program uploads the seeded data to the wf_resource table from the source(.msg) file. command line syntax: wfresgen apps/pwd 0 y database should be replaced with: application_short_name:/./ 7. submit the concurrent programs only if not using the mapi e-mail system. a. n

23、avigate to system administrator/requests. b. click on run. c. on the submit requests form click the lov for name. d. notification mailer should now be in the list, select it. e. in the parameters form, enter the directory name where the is located ., c:. f. set the resubmit interval to a least every

24、 hour or more. g. do the same for workflow background process. h. set the item type to eco approvals. k. the book says you should have one background engine for deferred processing and one background engine for timeout processing. however, you can, at a minimum, setup one with both. l. minimum and m

25、aximum thresholds default to 0(zero) and 100 to include all. 8. useful workflow scripts. all scripts below are in the $fnd_top/sql directory a. - workflow item status report displays a status report on the indicated item note: b. - workflow version display displays version information for all wf sou

26、rce note: c. - workflow background check displays a status report on background work waiting to be processed d. - workflow run a process creates and starts the specified process note: e. - workflow directory services data model check check directory services data model for all known problems note: f

27、. - workflow background engine starts the background engine, running for the indicated number of minutes. note: iv. section 3 - setting up oracle engineering and the eco. 1. create eco priorities. 2. create the approval list to include the people in the list or roles for the standard approval proces

28、s. this can be any name but must also be set as the default perfomer in the workflow process using workflow builder. if notifications are not sent to the people in the approval lists, you need patch 676283 or patch 866202, both are available for and . patch 1036678 (for release 11) is newer and cont

29、ains the changes in both 676283 and 866202. this updates and . 3. create an eco type that includes the standard approval process as its process. attach the standard approval process for each priority you want to use. 4. when creating the eco: a. pick the eco type that includes the standard approval

30、process. b. pick the priority attached to the standard approval process when eco type was defined. 5. save the eco. 6. if all the tables include at least one user and role, the eco type is setup correctly and the eco uses the eco type above, the submit button will be active. 7. click the submit butt

31、on to submit the eco to the standard approval process. a. once submitted, you cannot change the eco. b. you can abort the approval by selecting the special menu option and abort approval. c. when you abort, you can then make changes and resubmit. 8. if, after submitting, no one receives a notificati

32、on, navigate to engineering/ecos/ecos to see if there is an error. query the eco. click on the approvals button. select the current approval process. click the status button for the current status. in the approvals window, are the following four (4) steps performed by the approval process? step 1 ap

33、proval process step 2 start step 3 get eco attributes step 4 standard approval notification if the fourth step is in an error status, it will provide the error message. the messages differ slighltly for , , or for example, the below error means it tries to submit to no performer or an invalid perfor

34、mer and fails. 3120: activity eco_app/39779 has no performer. error process error:3116: activity wferror/eng_error_process is not a runnable process. it could also be that the process is actually not runnable, but this typically is not the case. to resolve the no performer error, do the following: l

35、oad workflow builder. login to the database where workflow is loaded. ignore effectivity. effectivity defines the revision date of the saved process in the database. workflow builder does not overwrite older or newer revisions of the processes stored in the database. you can load versions of the pro

36、cess in to workflow builder that were effective at particular point in time from the database based on effectivity. open eco approval. file/load roles from database and select your performer (approval list). click on the + for your database connect string. click on the + for eco approval. click on p

37、rocesses. to check if the process is runnable, right click on the standard approval process icon. select properties. ensure that the runnable checkbox is checked. double click on standard approval process. in the process window, right click on the icon for standard approval ., the one in the middle

38、that shoots off into two different directions). click on properties. at the bottom of the form, view what is in the performer area (zone). set the default performer to your approval list. if no roles appear in the list box, load/create the roles as per above. a role/performer is a: responsibility. v

39、alid person in hr/engineering/inventory. approval list. save the change back to the database that you connected to. run the eco approval process again. v. section 4 - the standard approval process flow. the package eng_workflow_api_pkg contains the procedures and functions for the eco approval workf

40、low and is created by file . the eco approval workflow notification process that is seeded in release 11 embedded oracle applications does the following: function description - start * mark start of process. get eco attributes * this activity sets pre-defined eco attributes that can be used by this

41、item type. this activity is seeded by the oracle engineering product. * gets the data from eng_engineering_changes for the eco number(change_notice), organization id(org_id). standard approval * this is the standard eco approval notification seeded for the oracle engineering product. * sends the not

42、ification with the eco attributes collected above to the individuals in the approval list using workflow notification mailer. if approved, * set mrp to active * this function sets mrp active to yes for all open or scheduled revised items belonging to the eco. * updates mrp_active to 1 (yes) in eng_r

43、evised_items for change_notice, org_id and having a status_type of 1 (open) or 4 (scheduled). * approve eco * this function sets the ecos approval status to approved, sets the approval date to the current date and sets all open revised items belonging to this eco to scheduled. * updates approval_sta

44、tus_type to 5 (approved) and approve_date to sysdate in eng_engineering changes table for change_notice, org_id. * updates status_type = 4(scheduled) eng_revised_items table for change_notice, org_id. end * marks the end of the process. if rejected, * set mrp to inactive * this function sets mrp act

45、ive to no for all open or scheduled revised items belonging to the eco. * updates mrp_active to 2 (no) in eng_revised_items for change_notice, org_id and having a status_type of 1 (open) or 4 (scheduled). * reject eco * this function sets the ecos approval status to rejected and clears out the appro

46、val date. * updates approval_status_type to 4 (rejected) and approval_date to null in eng_engineering_changes for change_notice, org_id. end * marks the end of the process. vi. section 5 - setting up the eco approval voting activity. 1. the default setup of the eco notification and approval process,

47、 when setup properly, allows the first of the approvers who sends a response to approve or reject the eco. all other responses are ignored. 2. to allow all approvers to approve the eco before it is implemented, the embedded workflow process eco approval must be altered using workflow builder. the ec

48、o standard approval process must be copied, renamed and edited to replace the notification standard approval notification activity with a notification voting activity. the creation of the eco vote approve/reject notification process is described below. 3. the voting activity can be setup using any o

49、f six different or customized voting methods as described in the on-line help in workflow builder. search on voting activity. these are some of the various methods described: a. simple majority: vote approve: 50% vote reject: 50% if either approve or reject get more than 50% of the vote, then it is

50、the result. b. simple majority with default: vote approve: 50% vote reject: if approve does not get more than 50% of the vote, then reject is the result. c. popularity: both vote approve and vote reject are null. the response with the most votes is the result. d. black ball: vote approve: 100% vote

51、reject: any vote for reject is a result of reject. e. jury: vote approve: 100% vote reject: 100% all must vote the same to get that result. 4. setup the above voting methods as described below in step d. 5. the vote approve/reject voting activity requires the following setup: a. lookup types b. mess

52、ages c. notification d. workflow process when you connect and load your eco approval process in workflow builder, save that definition to a file on your pc before you start to edit the process. you then have a backup if it is ruined in testing. it can be reloaded from a cd but why go to that trouble

53、. a) lookup types. 1) create or review lookup types. 2) review seeded approvals lookup types. eco approval (this is the seeded lookup type) internal name: eco_approval add the following attributes. percent approve internal name: 5 percent reject internal name: 4 3) create new voting options lookup t

54、ype. eco voting options (create new) internal name: wfeco_voting_option add the following lookup codes. require all votes internal name: require_all_votes tally on every vote internal name: tally_on_every_vote wait for all votes internal name: wait_for_all_votes b) messages. 1) use the seeded defaul

55、t standard_approval_message do not create a new message use the seeded message it works with the voting activity. c) notification. 1) create a new notification. voting approval notification internal name: voteforresulttype display name: vote approve/reject description: vote for approve/reject result

56、 type function: note: the function field only shows when expand roles is checked. after expand roles is checked, you can enter the function name. result type: eco approval message: default voting message approval/reject expand roles: checked icon: attributes: * percent approve: the internal name her

57、e must match the internal name of the seeded eco approval lookup types attributes: approve or reject internal name: 5 type: number * voting option internal name: voting_option type: lookup lookup type: eco voting options default value: constant - require all votes * percent reject: the internal name

58、 here must match the internal name of the seeded eco approval lookup types attributes: approve or reject internal name: 4 type: number after completing testing with the above setup, if you get the errors listed below, then you have incorrectly specified the lookup codes and the voting activity attri

59、butes internal names. 3109: attribute 4 does not exist for activity 119 in item eco_app/ec68044-511-1. error process error: 3116: activity wferror/ eng_error_process is not a runnable process. note: the internal names *must* match the internal names of the seeded eco approval lookup types attributes

60、: approve and reject respectively. d) workflow process. 1) copy the standard approval process and name it voting approval process. 2) in the voting approval process graphics window: replace the standard approval notification with the newly created vote approve/reject notification. navigate to eco approval p