Attributes as object types

[Raskin, Alon (Soliance)]

Peter I am glad that you brought this up. I raised this With SAP as an OSS
as I argued that it is totally valid for an object to be INITIAL and the
workflow should not error. What's worse here is that you cant even check
whether an object is initial because (as you said) the Check Condition
errors! I personally believe SAP has made a big mistake by implementing
this.
 
What's worse is that if attribute exits using the macro
exit_object_not_found or exit_property_not_found then the workflow will also
error. Yet SAP themselves deliver attributes which use those macros. Does
that mean they are off limits for Workflow? It just doesn't make any sense.
 
I like Stephan Becker's solution of adding both to the dictionary field and
object type as the attribute. It seems like a valid solution (I haven't
tried it yet) but it feels a bit like a work-around. I just don't understand
why SAP would do this.
 
(I feel better now)
 
Regards,
 
Alon Raskin
Workflow Advisor - Soliance
(xtn. 3183)
 
 -----Original Message-----
From:   Roehlen, Peter [mailto:PRoehlen at powercor.com.au]
Sent:   March 08 2002 1:44
To:     SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject:        Attributes as object types
 
Hello workflowers,
 
I'm seeking some guidance from anyone who has come across the following
problem:
 
When we add a new attribute to a business object type, we usually try to
make the 'type reference' of the attribute itself an 'object type'.  An
object type as the type reference is typically a lot more useful to workflow
designers than just the field value; doing this can often meet the needs of
future workflow templates as well.  For example: if someone asks me to add
the 'Superior Functional Location' as an attribute to business type
ZBUS0010, "Functional Location", I would automatically make the new
attribute reference an object type (in this case it would also be ZBUS0010)
rather than just reference the ABAP dictionary field.
 
The ease with which a regular attribute can be made to reference an object
type is a tribute to the SAP designers, however when we do this there is
often one problem that continually crops up: If the field value for the
attribute is initial - ie with no value - then the object reference is
'nothing'.  This causes workflow templates to terminate if you use the
attribute in a Condition step.  If, however, the attribute references the
ABAP dictionary field then the initial value causes no problem.
 
One work around is to have two attributes for each field, one referencing
the appropriate object type and the other the ABAP dictionary field.  This
is pretty ugly though.
 
Has anyone got any thoughts on the above?
 
Peter Roehlen
Team Lead - SAP Technical & Development
Powercor Australia Ltd
0409 950 263
 
 
 
 
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