Status change of Work ITem in Entry Sheet release

[Zmudzin,Tomasz,VEVEY,GL-IS/IT]

Swami,
 
The typical way to handle such cases is to loop until your object is finally
released (= last approval stage reached). Within this loop you usually put a
fork into (at least) two branches:
 
- In one of the branches you send the workitem for approval
- In the other branches you "Wait for events" that signal the approval
outside the workflow (approval, rejection, sending for correction etc.)
 
The trick is to have the fork terminate if one (=any) of these branches is
complete. You can do it within the detail of the fork -- just double-click
on the fork icon in the WF definition. Now if someone processes the
workitem, the first branch is complete and we move on to the next approval
stage. If someone approves outside the workflow, the event is raised, so one
of the other branches is complete and we also move to the next approval
stage.
 
This of course works as long as you can determine current approval status
based on your object only (current stage, next stage, approval complete?).
Based on your description it is hard to judge whether that's true in your
case. Managing the approval status in container variables does not suffice
here, because the approval outside WF would not work. Make sure that you
have the status managed by the object already. If you don't, implement it
and it will save you a lot of trouble afterwards.
 
Hope this helps,
Tomasz
 
P.S. There are some variations around this scheme, so don't be surprised if
you see other proposals. Anyway, having the status managed by the object
itself helps a lot.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Swami Bala [mailto:swam_in at hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday,20. February 2003 17:46
To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: Status change of Work ITem in Entry Sheet release
 
 
Thanks Tomasz. After my question was posted the business process has been
changed. The end users wants to utilize the collective release program by
SAP. But since SAP does not have a standard workflow for the Entry sheet, I
did a custom development on that. My concerns are how to handle these
scenarios:
1.When the entry sheet is created it triggers the workflow and goes to
  the approvers (App1) inbox which is ok and working fine
2.The users - because of the volume of the entry sheet in a day - are
  permitted to use the collective release program for the release which
  will make it ready for the next level of approvers ( App2 ). At this
  instance there is no use of the workitems lying in App1 inbox. What
  needs to be taken care of at this point ?.
 
Though I can set up triggering events through change document on every level
of release I still donot have a clue how to handle the moving of workitems
from App1 to next levels since I donot know who is going to be the next
level of approver unless the wortkitem is executed.
 
Let me know if you have any suggestions on this...
Swami Bala
 
 
 
 
>Swami,
>
>Use terminating events.
>
>Normally you're allowed to do "manual" interventions in the process only on
>exceptional basis. Trying to circumvent the standard mechanisms (even by
>going through API calls) will backfire earlier than you think. The work
>item
>status network has been devised for a reason -- to maintain the consistency
>of the process, which is well-reported in the logs etc.
>
>Kind regards,
>Tomasz
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Swami Bala [mailto:swam_in at hotmail.com]
>Sent: Thursday,13. February 2003 22:27
>To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
>Subject: Status change of Work ITem
>
>
>Hello,
>
>What is the proper procedure for changing the status of the work Items ?
>I have several workItems lying in many users inbox. At the same time there
>is customer report running every hour to mass release the entry sheet. At
>the end of the the report I need to remove the work items from the users
>inbox. Is this can be achieved by using terminating events or would it be
>ok
>to use SAP standard fmodules to build into this custom program ?
>Thanks
>
>Swami Bala
>
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
 
 
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