How to get a rule to fail on blank responsibilities?

[Michael Pokraka]

Hehe, that about sums it up. The minor difference this time round is that I
actually agree with the users' point of view. 
Looks like it will go live with the big sledgehammer method...
Thanks
Mike


--- Richard Marut <rvmarut at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Mike,
> 
> Sounds like you've run into a case of 'I don't want to have to do that' with
> your users. This similar situation just happened to me recently and the
> users decided to scrap the workflow and have a message generated that told
> them they were missing data.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Richard...
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of
> Michael Pokraka
> Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 8:09 AM
> To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
> Subject: RE: How to get a rule to fail on blank responsibilities?
> 
> Hi Richard, 
> I feel like I'm deliberately trying to be difficult here, but I promise I'm
> not
> :-)
> 
> The rule is used in an application -  a QM notification uses rules to
> determine
> the various agents when it is created. So workflow doesn't feature at this
> point. 
> 
> As to filling in values... I suggested it, but they don't want to have to do
> that for umpteen responsibilities and remember not to leave blanks for ever
> more. I also kinda find it difficult to argue the requirement of 'if it
> isn't
> explicitly specified by a responsibility, leave it blank'.
> Oh, and there are a heck of a lot of elements to fill in ranges for - we've
> already created our own 'slimmed down' copy of the SAP standard rule because
> it
> has well over 200 container elements! (rules 03100024/6/7).
> 
> For now I've done the terrible deed and checked for blanks in a FM-based
> rule
> which calls RH_GET_ACTORS for the responsibility rule. But still I remain
> curious if there's a neater way for something seemingly obvious.
> 
> Thanks for your feedback!
> Cheers
> Mike
> 
> --- Richard Marut <rvmarut at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> > Mike,
> > 
> > What I meant to say was, check the data in a preceding condition step. If
> > blank, send something (mail or work item) to the workflow initiator or an
> > administrator.
> > 
> > By the way, have you tried not using an *? How about using a range for
> Plant
> > such as 0001 - 9999 and DocType of 01 - ZZ which would eliminate a blank
> as
> > being a valid piece of data? I didn't try this when I ran into the same
> > issue because the users wanted the work item to go to everyone when the
> data
> > was blank.
> > 
> > Richard...
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf
> Of
> > Michael Pokraka
> > Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 4:51 AM
> > To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
> > Subject: RE: How to get a rule to fail on blank responsibilities?
> > 
> > Hi Richard, 
> > I suppose I should have added that I have little control over the data. To
> > make
> > life interesting the rule also gets used outside of WF, it's used to
> > populate a
> > field in a document.
> > 
> > The biggest issue is that if the abuser doesn't fill in all the info, it
> > just
> > picks the first agent. Workflow is supposed to go and get someone to fill
> in
> > an
> > agent if it's blank, but so far the rule will always find an agent. 
> > 
> > I'm just desperately trying to avoid coding a FM-based rule which checks
> the
> > data and then calls the real rule... it's just way too big a hammer for
> > cracking a peanut. 
> > 
> > Thanks for the input,
> > Cheers
> > Mike
> > 
> > --- Richard Marut <rvmarut at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > Mike,
> > > 
> > > How about checking the data in a previous step before the activity step
> > with
> > > the responsibility role/rule? You can then take a different path or
> action
> > > when the data is blank.
> > > 
> > > Richard...
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf
> > Of
> > > Michael Pokraka
> > > Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 12:52 PM
> > > To: SAP Workflow User Group
> > > Subject: How to get a rule to fail on blank responsibilities?
> > > 
> > > G'day all, 
> > > Passing a blank value to a responsibility will always result in a
> positive
> > > test. Can't get them to fail on blank data. Unless of course I'm having
> a
> > > daft
> > > day (quite possible, it's been a long one!)? 
> > > 
> > > Now, the tricky bit is that I have many values to test against, but lets
> > > keep
> > > it simple: 
> > > 
> > > Resp1  Plant = 1000, DocType = *,  Agent 1
> > > Resp2  Plant = *,    DocType = ZZ, Agent 2
> > > 
> > > If I test this without entering any data, it will return all agents,
> even
> > > with
> > > 'Terminate if no resolution' switched on. It somehow feels like a stupid
> > > question... but how to get around that? 
> > > 
> > > In short I want only those with MATCHING data to return agents. I.e. in
> > the
> > > example above, it I test it with Plant 9999, it will return Agent 2
> (since
> > > the
> > > doctype is blank). For my purposes, this should also fail (but isn't as
> > > important as both blanks above). 
> > > 
> > > Any obvious answer I might have missed? 
> > > Cheers
> > > Mike
> > > 
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