Work Item Stalled (Another one today!)

Fri Jul 21 14:37:08 EDT 2000

Hello Again!

Well I read all of your suggestions and none have helped yet.  Let me try to
give you more info.

The workflow that is stalled is a sub-workflow (not a single step task).
The first step in this sub-workflow is a single step task that runs in the
background, calls a customer defined method and function module to change a
table.  This is a very simple method.  This single step task has not yet
executed.  Basically you are looking at a sub-workflow that gets triggerred,
but the first step is not starting.  This particular workflow gets called
many, many times a day and does not always error out.  In fact it has been
approximately two months since I have had this problem and I am not even
sure if it was at this same point in the Workflow last time.  This problem
happens in other steps of my workflows.  It does not discriminate.  Note:
There is another sub-workflow that gets called just before this one, and it
completed successfully.

I have another workflow that is stalled as of 9:00 am this morning.  Here's
the scenario on that one.  The user executed a work item (User Decision
step).  The next step in the workflow never appeared.  I took a look at it
and the workflow log and found that it was in an error status.  I corrected
the error (Restart After Error) and everything looked good.  But, the next
work item is still not showing up in the user's workflow inbox.  The User
Decision is the first step within a sub-workflow, and is completed (the user
made a decision).  The second step within this sup-workflow, which is a
container operation is not starting.  This is where it is stalled.

Two very different examples with the same problem.  (SM58 still shows
nothing and the RSWWERRE is not catching anything).

Hope this helps.  Anymore ideas?  Thanks a 1,000,000!!!

Best Regards,

Tammy Stark
Information Technology Engineer
Hewlett Packard, Business Critical Computing - IT
Voice mail: 916-748-2170
tammy_stark at am.exch.hp.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Huffman [mailto:m.r.huffman at worldnet.att.net]
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 11:12 AM
To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: Work Item Stalled

Just a follow-on here - I think Jeroen is quite right that this could be
a potential problem.

A few months back Stefan Becker commented that he always explicitly
models error handling within the graphical workflow and avoids using
exceptions. Since reading that, I have been doing this as well, so in an
error case, the workitem always completes and you can review any error
codes or text returned. In general this takes a bit more homework - for
example BAPI return codes are not uniform - but I think that it pays
dividends in the long run.

Van der Burg, Jeroen JA SI-PSTP-L wrote:
>
> Hi Tammy,
>
> Situations in which I have come across this problem is incorrect error
> handling, especially when the object method calls a function module. If
your
> function module has changed in 45b, and the exception is not properly
> recognised within your object method (is this a custom one?), the result
is
> a short dump which can not be resolved by the workflow system. This
results
> in your background task not calling it's terminating event but just
hanging
> in there, just as you described it.
>
> Easy way out (if this is your problem) is returning the exception to your
> object method using the exception statement of the function module call
but
> not processing it further, or - if required - set up correct event
> processing for the exception. Need some more info though to make sure this
> is indeed your problem.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Jeroen van der Burg
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: STARK,TAMMY (HP-Roseville,ex1) [mailto:tammy_stark at hp.com]
> Sent: Friday, 21 July 2000 9:22
> To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: Work Item Stalled
>
> Thanks Mark.  I will keep checking this out.  I can try changing the
> workflow, but seems kinda strange because this workflow (and the
background
> task) has been in production for three years.  It has only been since we
> upgraded to 4.5B that I have had this problem.  It doesn't happen very
> often.
>
> P.S. Roseville is near Sacarmento.
>
> Tammy Stark
> Information Technology Engineer
> Hewlett Packard, Business Critical Computing - IT
> Voice mail: 916-748-2170
> tammy_stark at am.exch.hp.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mark Huffman [mailto:m.r.huffman at worldnet.att.net]
> Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 4:21 PM
> To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: Work Item Stalled
>
> Since what i suggested earlier probably isn't going to apply to your
> scenario, another little trick would be to ask do you really need that
> to run as a background item. Maybe change the method flag to synchronous
> (if it isn't already) and delete the Bkgrd flag on the task (you will
> need to update the workflow as well, but don't necessarily need to
> create a new version). We have a  lot of items running this way, that in
> previous releases I would have automatically thought should be
> "background".
>
> Sometimes you come across a persnickety object method that has to be run
> as a background task and errors out if this flag is not set - though the
> method flag is still synchronous.
>
> Other things to look at are of course timing issues - the "black plague"
> of workflow - maybe you need to build a sleep in if you think some table
> has already been updated and in certain runtime scenarios it hasn't
> been.
>
> In any case - you need to give us out here on the WUG a bit more info ..
>
> Good Luck
>
> Mark
>
> P.S. Where is Roseville?
>
> STARK,TAMMY (HP-Roseville,ex1) wrote:
> >
> > Ya, I can manually end it.  I was hoping I could find a solution to this
> > rather than doing that.  I definately don't want to delete the work
item.
> >
> > I will keep trying.
> >
> > Tammy Stark
> > Information Technology Engineer
> > Hewlett Packard, Business Critical Computing - IT
> > Voice mail: 916-748-2170
> > tammy_stark at am.exch.hp.com
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bernhard Koenig [mailto:Bernhard.Koenig at ubsw.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 12:34 PM
> > To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Work Item Stalled
> >
> >      Tammy,
> >      I'm working with a 46B system. I hope 45 is similar to 46.
> >
> >      Use transaction SWUF ==> runtime administrator functions.
> >
> >      OR
> >
> >      Go to your inbox. Highlight the workitem, press icon (small yellow
> >      button with a cross) "Other functions". Pick "change workitem",
than
> >      select "manually completed", or "logically deleted".
> >
> >      Thanks
> >      Bernhard Koenig
> >
> > ______________________________ Reply Separator
> > _________________________________
> > Subject: Work Item Stalled
> > Author:  tammy.stark (tammy_stark at hp.com) at unix,mime
> > Date:    7/20/00 2:10 PM
> >
> > Hello!
> >
> > I am having this problem again.  I have a workflow that is stalled.
When
> I
> > look at the log, everything is fine.  The workflow is NOT in an "Error"
> > status.  The workitem (which is a background step) that it is currently
> > trying to process is just sitting there (reading "In Process") but it
will
> > not finish.  It started yesterday.  I checked transaction SM58 and there
> are
> > NO entries.  This used to be very simple to fix on 3.0D.  We are on
4.5B.
> > Any
> > ideas?
> >
> > Thanx!
> >
> > Tammy Stark
> > Information Technology Engineer
> > Hewlett Packard, Business Critical Computing - IT
> > Voice mail: 916-748-2170
> > tammy_stark at am.exch.hp.com
> >
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