EBP 3.5: Approval of Shopping cart: More approvers, different approver finding strategy

[Dart, Jocelyn]

Hi Christian,
Do you have any SAP EBP/Workflow consultants on site? There are
some very particular workflow patterns used in EBP and you need
to work with them if you are doing your own custom workflows if you are
to make maximum use of EBP's advantages.
 
Firstly, I'd recommend you have a look in the book as there is a chapter
on EBP which also talks about creating and extending EBP workflows and
you should find this useful.
 
To answer your immediate questions.
a) Ad hoc agent assignment is used.  If you are looking at WS1000129
then look at ad hoc agent object ASBMANAGER (shopping cart manager)
to get an idea. Basically your agent determination is linked to the
workflow via the adhoc agent object.  The Create method of the object
contains the call to whatever rule you use for agent determination.
The rule could even be in the backend system - I've done this now several
times (in scenarios very similar to the ones you describe) and
key information about how to do it is in the book.
 
One of the advantages of ad hoc agent objects is that it enables EBP
to determine the approvers in advance of workflow start.
It is therefore absolutely essential that you use an adhoc agent object so that
the approval preview shows the correct information.
 
Basic process for a custom workflow: create your own ad hoc agent object and put
your rule in the Create method, copy WS1000129 or similar, change the container
element pointing to ASBMANAGER to point to your ad hoc agent object,
set up your start conditions for the new workflow.
This will give you the same process as wS1000129 but using
your rule.  More info in the book.
 
b)So that EBP can determine during approval preview which workflow will be
started it actually starts the workflow directly.  However it does this by
evaluating the event linkage and start conditions in the same way as the
workflow system would normally do it, and using this to find the correct
workflow.  So you won't see anything appear on the event log, but the same
process will be used and you need to set up your events and start conditions
in the same way.  By the way you must use start conditions and not check function modules.
If you want to test your start condition logic, you can raise an event manually
via SWUE and you will then see what happens in the event log as normal - but this
is just for testing purposes.
 
c) The java applet is based on the graphical workflow log and calls some
internal function modules that the workflow system uses to portray the graphical workflow
log.  So the key to using the applet is to take care of what is being displayed
in the graphical workflow log rather than fiddling with function modules.  E.g.
you should mark non-essential steps as "step not in workflow log" and make
sure you follow the same pattern as the standard workflows with the group
names on each step indicating which steps are approval steps, ad hoc approval steps,
etc.
 
There are a number of BADIs (business add-ins).  These essentially the new user-exit
technique.  Suggest you read up on the EBP documentation in this area.  There are
a few BADIs related to workflow - they are especially useful in deciding whether
the same workflow is to continue or a new workflow to be started when a shopping cart
is changed.
 
Best advice I can give you for a starting point is to really look at WS1000129 in
detail and follow the same patterns in your own workflow.  But also get read the chapter
in the book and get hold of an SAP EBP/Workflow consultant who's done it all before
if you can. It will save you time.
 
The EBP workflows are the best provided workflows I have seen anywhere in SAP to date
so they are worth getting to know as the same sorts of patterns and techniques can
be used elsewhere.
 
Regards,
        Jocelyn Dart
Consultant (SRM, EBP, Workflow)
and co-author of the book
"Practical Workflow for SAP"
SAP Australia
email: jocelyn.dart at sap.com
phone: +61 412 390 267
fax:   +61 2 9935 4880
 
 
 
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Christian Baessler [mailto:Christian.Baessler at gmx.net]
Sent: Thursday, 6 February 2003 2:04 AM
To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: EBP 3.5: Approval of Shopping cart: More approvers, different
approver finding strategy
 
 
Hi,
 
we are implementing EBP 3.5 and would like to change the approver strategy
and add more levels of approvers.
 
More or less: the G/L account and cost-center combination determines which
path should be used,
the amount determines the number of levels.
 
My questions:
 
a) where does the approver determination take place ? In the transaction ?
Does anybody know if there's a user exit or at which place in the code to
change the logic ? (in case the transcation is called)
 
b) How is the Workflow called, e.g. WS10000129 for one step approval. If I
switch on the event monitor, I never get an entry in there. It seems to me
that the event linkage is not used ???
 
c) The nice litte Java Applet for the approver-preview and history: what FM
does it call in the background ?
 
 
Thanks
Christian