Automatic Forwarding: What is a functional document?

[Dart, Jocelyn]

Hi David,
Thanks for that - I stand corrected on the functional document flag! Another flag I never need to worry about again...
 
Definitely the "also place in inbox" is purely for email not work items - even if you execute the work item from an external environment such as the web, from a technical perspective they must always exist in the SAP inbox.  Not so emails - they can be sent directly to an external mail server without being kept in the SAP inbox.
 
My general recommendation to customers these days when you use an external mail server is:
 
1. Use transaction SO16 to forward all emails to the user's home address - this is the default communication type and communication address that you can see when you look at the user master via txn SU01.   As a bonus it's easy to update these user master details using function module BAPI_USER_CHANGE if you want to upload email addresses.
 
That takes care of all the emails.
 
It also means that if you have workflow send an email to an SAP user id it will automatically be forwarded on to the user's email address without having to put logic in the workflow to look up the email address.
 
2. Use the email notification program RSWUWFML (or the new extended version if you have it) to send an email notifying the user that work items exist.  For the sake of avoiding spam I prefer the "collective mail" (i.e. one mail per user not per work item) approach that just lets them know there is something to look for in the inbox.  You can however tailor this, e.g. to let them know they have work items relating to a particular business scnario (based on the task id).
 
This avoids having to set up auto-forwarding for anyone, and means all users are treated in a consistent fashion.
 
I would only use auto-forwarding if you really want to let people subscribe/unsubscribe to auto-forwarding - of course they could also get the same result by doing the above and just clearing their default communication type.  I have had customers who wanted to disallow the subscribe/unsubscribe process anyway as users tended to forget that they had unsubscribed.
 
And of course if you are in SRM, remember that we actually use a similar email-address-in-user-master approach with the addition of an auto-forwarding flag in the user attributes to say if autoforwarding is on or off.
 
By the way, if you have HR and use info type 105 subtype 10 to store the email address - get the extended email notification program to use this option.
Regards,
Jocelyn
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: SAP Workflow [mailto:Owner-SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU] On Behalf Of Trant, David
Sent: Wednesday,25 February 2004 3:58 AM
To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: Automatic Forwarding: What is a functional document?
 
 
Jocelyn,
 
Thanks for your explanation.  I thought I'd share my colleague's response, plus some additional analysis I had done, with the group in case anyone else has interest in this topic.  Her response is:
 
While the explanation below for forwarding "Functional" documents makes perfect sense and is how I would have thought it worked, that IS NOT consistent with my testing.  When I marked "forward functional documents only", I DID NOT get any actual workflow work items in my Outlook.  I DID receive the "just mail" type of messages (one is attached so you can see it).
So, my testing result seems to be exactly opposite of what you were told.
Jan
 
My additional analysis is documented as follows:
 
I spoke with Jan this morning and got the results of her testing.  We still don't know exactly what a functional document is, but after our conversation I opened up a random document in my own R/3 inbox and looked at the attributes tab.  I noticed a field called Sensitivity that has the following values available:
 
501 Standard
502 Confidential
503 Functional
 
The help on this field says:
 
Sensitivity description
 
Use
 
    Select the sensitivity for the document.
 
Dependencies
 
 
 
    Confidential documents, distribution lists and folders are not visible
    to substitutes who logon to your mailbox.  Your system administrator may
    also have specified that confidential documents cannot be sent to
    external addresses (for example, via fax or Internet).
 
 
It's still somewhat clear as mud, but I think the key to observe is that a lot of this stuff is really geared toward true substitution, i.e. sending your work to somebody else, versus simply forwarding your own work to a different delivery system that is also owned by you.
 
Jan confirmed that "also place in inbox" has no bearing on work items.  They always show up in R/3 regardless.  I believe our recommendation should generally be that if someone is a power user, they consider not using automatic forwarding at all.  If they think they still need it so they know right away that a critical work item has been delivered to them, then they think long and hard whether they expect to read non-work item documents directly in R/3.  If they feel comfortable that they'll read notifications in Outlook and not need to view them via the workplace, then do not check "also place in inbox."  Only in the rare case where a user needs to see items in Outlook, but normally uses their R/3 workplace to review e-mail documents (not work items) should they check this box.  For occasional users, the recommendation is to use automatic forwarding, and to not check "also place in inbox."  Everyone should choose the radio button "forward all documents" unless we learn someth!
ing later that influences this advice.
 
I've posted the question to the workflow users group as to exactly what a functional document is.  I'll forward any responses I might get.
 
David
 
If someone sees a flaw in the above or has additional information, I'd love to hear it.  Otherwise, I feel comfortable that we've done enough with this one to publish a policy and move on.
 
Thanks again,
David
 
P.S.  Jocelyn:  good call on chastising me for outdated and incorrect EBP knowledge.  I should have followed my gut and not responded at all without being sure of the answer :)
 
 -----Original Message-----
From:   SAP Workflow [mailto:Owner-SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU]  On Behalf Of Dart, Jocelyn
Sent:   Monday, February 23, 2004 12:50 AM
To:     SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject:        Re: Automatic Forwarding:  What is a functional document?
 
Hi David,
"Functional" document = work item.
Otherwise they are just mails.  (Email notifications from RSWUWFML are just mails too of course.)
Jocelyn
 
-----Original Message-----
From: SAP Workflow [mailto:Owner-SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU] On Behalf Of Trant, David
Sent: Saturday,21 February 2004 3:51 AM
To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Automatic Forwarding: What is a functional document?
 
 
When you enable automatic forwarding in office settings in the business workplace, there is a checkbox to also place in inbox and radio buttons to forward all documents or forward functional documents only.  The "also place in inbox" checkbox does not appear to affect workflow items, as they will continue to show up in the R/3 workplace regardless, which makes sense to me given that SAP needs to retain ownership of the fact that work remains to be done whereas with a simple document, once it is sent, SAP does not care anymore.  Where it gets confusing is toggling between forwarding all documents and functional documents only.  During tests using one of our more complex workflows, we saw a mixture of documents showing up in R/3 when the "forward functional documents" button was chosen in conjunction with "also place in inbox" unchecked.  We even saw a workflow item message (the kind generated by RSWUWFML that says you have work to do ... login to SAP and do it....) show up in t!
!
he R/3 document section.  Of course, from there, trying to double-click on the attachment that normally launches a SAPGui session to take you to the work fails.  The SAP help, of course, basically says a functional document is a document that is functional.  Can anyone give me a more useful definition?  Right now, we're just telling people to always choose "forward all documents," but it would be nice to understand the difference.
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