Dialog Workitem Created By the actual agent of previous dialo g wo rkitem

[Michael Pokraka]

Interestingly enough, I've just been handed the exact opposite problem. To get
'advance with dialog' working with a background task in between two dialog
steps, the intervening step was simply changed to non-background, with
agent assignment - thus preserving the user context.
 
Now, agents are assigned via security roles and the user doesn't have
access to evaluate who has a given role, thus - from the agent's
perspective - the task has no agent.... bit of a catch 22 unless we
give view access to security profiles.
 
Still working out some details as I'm not 100% certain this is where the
problem lies, but I think I'll be posting a seperate mail on this issue.
 
Cheers
Mike
 
On Mon, Mar 10, 2003 at 01:53:43PM +0100, Zmudzin,Tomasz,VEVEY,GL-IS/IT wrote:
> Michael,
>
> you're right. But then there should be technically some way of getting the
> new work item created in some separate process (on WF-BATCH's ID), then
> receiving the ID of the newly created item so it can be processed in the
> current context of the Inbox. In this way a clean separation of layers
> (application vs workflow system) can be ensured.
>
> Please also note it's not the authorization to create a work item that's
> missing in this case -- Jihoon Kim indicated that some HR authorizations
> were checked. What I've seen was similar: the lack of authorizations to
> evaluate the HR structures for a certain user resulted in the role
> resolution failing for the next task!
>
> I guess we all know the workarounds now (we've actually used those that
> Jocelyn proposed today), but it would still be nice if things like this
> could be perfected.
>
> Kind regards,
> Tomasz
>
> P.S. Honors to Jocelyn for listing the workarounds, still!
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Michael Pokraka [mailto:workflow at quirky.me.uk]
> Sent: Monday,10. March 2003 11:22
> To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: Dialog Workitem Created By the actual agent of previous
> dialo g wo rkitem
>
>
> Hmmm, is the reason not a more technical one? - it has to stay in the
> user context to be able to 'advance with dialog'. By switching users
> that context is lost... As I see it, creating a WI is a fairly 'general'
> authorization without much security risk associated.
> Cheers
> Mike
>
> On Mon, Mar 10, 2003 at 11:15:01AM +0100, Dart, Jocelyn wrote:
> > Sounds like a development request to me....
> > Jocelyn
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Zmudzin,Tomasz,VEVEY,GL-IS/IT [mailto:Tomasz.Zmudzin at nestle.com]
> > Sent: Monday, 10 March 2003 9:10 PM
> > To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Dialog Workitem Created By the actual agent of previous
> > dialo g wo rkitem
> >
> >
> > Jocelyn,
> >
> > I think nobody argues the usefulness of "Advance with dialog" or keeping
> the
> > context within it. On the other hand IDEALLY the creation of the work item
> > could consistently be done by WF-BATCH, regardless of current task's
> > attributes. Only in this way the creation of a work item (a system
> service)
> > would not depend on current user's authorizations...
> >
> > Kind regards,
> > Tomasz
> > (who's still happy to live in a less-than-ideal world)
> >
> > --------------------------
> > Dr. Tomasz Zmudzin
> > Senior Consultant
> > SAP (Schweiz) AG, Lausanne
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Dart, Jocelyn [mailto:jocelyn.dart at sap.com]
> > Sent: Monday,10. March 2003 11:04
> > To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Dialog Workitem Created By the actual agent of previous
> > dialo g wo rkitem
> >
> >
> > Hi Kim/Tomasz,
> > Yes if you have the advance with dialog flag on the workflow just tries to
> > keep
> > going in case the next dialog item is to be displayed to the same user.
> > That's
> > how advance with dialog works.
> >
> > If you don't want that you can:
> > a) Turn off advance with dialog
> > b) Worst case, you can always slot in an empty background method to force
> a
> > switch to Wf-batch.
> >
> > Both options work.
> > 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: Zmudzin,Tomasz,VEVEY,GL-IS/IT [mailto:Tomasz.Zmudzin at nestle.com]
> > Sent: Monday, 10 March 2003 8:59 PM
> > To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Dialog Workitem Created By the actual agent of previous
> > dialo g wo rkitem
> >
> >
> > Kim,
> >
> > > As of my memories, all workitem(both dialog and background)
> > > is created by WF-BATCH in 4.6C.
> >
> > No. The next dialog item can be created with your current user ID as the
> > creator. I've encountered this troublesome behavior  many times on 4.6c
> and
> > 4.7.
> >
> > I've debugged the SBWP inbox and there's no context (USER) switch when
> > creating the next work item. I think it is because of the "Advance with
> > dialog" option (the next item needs to be executed in the same context) --
> > but this could have been done nicer, I guess... For now you will need the
> > workaround you've described already.
> >
> > Kind regards,
> > Tomasz
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Kim, Ji Hoon [mailto:ji.hoon.kim at sap.com]
> > Sent: Monday,10. March 2003 10:37
> > To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > Subject: Dialog Workitem Created By the actual agent of previous dialog
> > wo rkitem
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > We're using the R/3 enterprise version.(470 with basis 620)
> >
> > I have found something strange in this version
> > as comparing the R/3 4.6C .
> >
> > As of my memories, all workitem(both dialog and background)
> > is created by WF-BATCH in 4.6C.
> >
> > But in our system, the dialog workitem is created by the actual
> > agent of the previous dialog workitem while the background workitem
> > is created by WF-BATCH.
> > And if the previous activity is background, the dialog workitem
> > is created by WF-BATCH.
> >
> > See the attached technical log of the workflow by downloading
> >
> > http://hoonkim.x-y.net/log.jpg
> >
> > In this log, workitem 425316 has been created by WF-BATCH,
> > it's normal case.
> > But workitem 427136, 427167 and 427168 have benn created by
> > the previous actual agent (NOT WF-BATCH).
> >
> > So, we have some authorization problem in PROD system,
> > because we didn't give the authorization for infotype 1000, 1001
> > and 0105 to all users.
> >
> > Without authorization for infotype 1000, 1001 and 0105,
> > some workitem is not created correctly, when the responsible
> > agent is object type P(person), or Rule (AC), while the workitem
> > of which the responsible agent is US(user) is created correctly.
> >
> > We solve this problem by giving the authorization for infotype
> > 1000, 1001 and 0105 to all possible agents.
> >
> > Any information will be very appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks and regards
> > Jihoon kim