Scheduled batch archiving of workitems using SARA

[Landry, Marcel]

Hi Jim,  interestingly enough, we are about to set up the same scenario.
 
Here's what I've come up with to solve the 'moving endate' syndrome..
   (I'm on 4.0B - hopefully the screens are somewhat similar...)
 
When you create your variant for the WORKTIEM object, you can define the end
date as a dynamicly calculated value.
  You then refer to this variant in you batch setup in SARA.
 
To setup the dynamic variant ...
================================
1. Create a new variant for WORKITEM.
2. On the maintenance screen, don't enter any dates and hit 'continue' to go
to the next screen.
3. Enter a description ...  you won't have a choice!
4. For the "Actual End Date" field, check the selection variable box.
5. Then hit the "Selection Variables button" at the top of your screen
6. On this screen, you should only have one value.
    Select the traffic light under the "D" column, (turns green)
    defines this field as "Dynamic date calculation"
7. Under the "variable name" column, hit the down arrow.. select " Current
date +/- ??? days"
8. Set your variable as "-60"  That will calculate "Current date -60   days"
9. On that same screen, set the selection option for that value to "<=" Less
than or equal to.
   Otherwise, you'll only select one day...
10.Save your variant...
    You should notice that the actual end date is grey'ed out and shows the
proper selection criteria.
 
I tested this quickly in our dev environment.
 
Try it out & keep us informed of your progress with this.
 
Marcel Landry
Workflow Administrator
New Brunswick Power.
Fredericton, N.B.
CANADA
506.458.6592
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Swain [mailto:jimswain at ix.netcom.com]
Sent: November 30, 2000 8:41 PM
To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Scheduled batch archiving of workitems using SARA
 
 
I am in the process of implementing workflow archiving on version 4.5B
using the SARA transaction.  So far everything is working fine in our
development environment, where we are individually starting each
archive, modifying the variant each time.  The goal, however, is to set
this up as a batch process in production (after initial clean-up of old
workflows, of course).  I can use SARA to schedule a start date/time and
a period (monthly) for the batch job but there seems to be no provision
to automatically update the archive program variant with a new value for
the actual end date before the scheduled job runs each month.  I would
like for the actual end date value of the variant to contain a date of
60 days prior to the batch job run date, in order to archive only
workflows that have been completed for over 60 days.
What is the correct way to automatically update this variant each month,
or is this just not a valid use for SARA?  If not, what is the correct
way to configure  scheduled batch archiving for workflow?  I did attend
the workflow archiving presentation at the ASUG group meeting in Tampa,
but I don't recall this particular issue being discussed.
 
Thank you in advance for any input you can provide.
 
Jim Swain
FPL