Missing Workflow Container

Tue Dec 11 08:55:41 EST 2007

Hi Sue,

That contradicts what you just confirmed in response to Rick's message J

If the deadline is anywhere in the *calling* workflow, then that is the one
terminating the subworkflow. The subworkflow retains all its settings and
container element is, but because the termination happens from outside it
should *not* bind anything back. As I said earlier, the calling workflow
does not know whether the subworkflow is in a consistent state or has valid
data.

Think of the relationship between the two analogous to calling an RFC
function in another system: the caller submits a function call together with
parameters and wait for a response from the other system. After a certain
period of time it assumes that something has gone wrong and stops waiting
and continues with a predefined error handling process. There are no return
parameters involved here. The principle with both the RFC and calling
workflows is a "black box" -  the caller does not know what happens inside
the function or process that it is calling, it's just interested in a
result.

Cheers, 

Mike

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Sue Doughty
Sent: 11 December 2007 12:42
To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
Subject: RE: Missing Workflow Container

Mike,

After looking at this again..the deadline is in the calling workflow - on
the sub-workflow task that is being called.  Why am I seeing the MISSINGDOCS
container having the entries in it in the log though - shouldn't all the
containers of the sub-workflow be empty if the deadline is reached?

I will move the deadline to the sub-workflow and see if that fixes my
problem.

Thanks for your input.

Regards, 

Sue T. Doughty 
SAP Workflow Specialist

OLD DOMINION FREIGHT LINE, INC.

500 Old Dominion Way, Thomasville, NC 27360

Toll Free :(800)432-6335, ext.5189 
Phone :(336)822-5189 Fax :(336)822-5149 
sue.doughty at odfl.com

  _____  

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Mike Pokraka
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 4:55 PM
To: 'SAP Workflow Users' Group'
Subject: RE: Missing Workflow Container

Hi Sue,

This makes sense. If the deadline is being reached in your calling workflow
then the subworkflow will not be completed and no binding back to the
calling flow will be executed. 

Why does this make perfect sense? Simple: because the calling workflow with
the expiring deadline does not know what state the subworkflow is in. It
might be halfway through processing and contain some invalid or garbage
data. Therefore it definitely should not bind anything back if it is the
calling flow that terminates the subflow.  Another way to look at it is that
the subflow is the only one allowed to perform any binding. 

The answer to what you are trying to accomplish - getting a subflow
container element back to the calling workflow when a deadline is reached -
would be to put the deadline into the subworkflow.

Cheers,

Mike

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Sue Doughty
Sent: 10 December 2007 17:46
To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
Subject: Missing Workflow Container

We are on ECC 6.0.

I know I must be doing something really stupid, but I can't see it!!  

I have a workflow (WF-1) that calls a sub-workflow (WF-2).  The sub-workflow
(WF-2) has a Deadline on it.  The sub-workflow (WF-2) returns a multi-line
container (MISSINGDOCS) back to the calling workflow (WF-1).  When the
deadline is reached, the latest end path in the workflow (WF-1) executes a
BO SELFITEM, Task SENDTASKDESCRIPTION to send notification to a Personnel
clerk that shows which documents are missing.

The MISSINGDOCS container contains a list of the documents that are missing.
I can see the MISSINGDOCS container being returned from the sub-workflow
(WF-2), but the container is empty when sent into the notification step in
WF-1.

I have checked all the Import/Export parameters.  The task being executed
for the SELFITEM BO has the MISSINGDOCS container as an Import container.
The MISSINGDOCS container is used in the Text Description of the task.

When I look at the log, the task shows the MISSINGDOCS container as being
empty for the SELFITEM task.  I tried putting a container operation right
after the sub-workflow (WF-2) returns to the workflow (WF-1) (before going
to the SELFITEM task) to move the MISSINGDOCS container to another
container, but it is empty at that point also.

What am I missing????

Regards, 

Sue T. Doughty 
SAP Workflow Specialist

OLD DOMINION FREIGHT LINE, INC.

500 Old Dominion Way, Thomasville, NC 27360

Toll Free :(800)432-6335, ext.5189 
Phone :(336)822-5189 Fax :(336)822-5149 
sue.doughty at odfl.com

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