Missing Workflow Container

Tue Dec 11 12:46:13 EST 2007

Hi Mike,

Sorry about that....I had responded to Rick's message before I read
yours - which turned the light on!!  It makes sense.

I just don't know how I can move the deadline into the called
sub-workflow.  It is a loop that executes a method that determines the
MISSINGDOCS.  If there are any in the list, the user gets a "Documents
missing" decision work item.  They have the option of retrying (which
starts the loop again) or leaving the work item in their in-box.  So, if
a user kept retrying daily, it would create a new work item and we would
never get to the week deadline.

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: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 8:56 AM
To: 'SAP Workflow Users' Group'
Subject: RE: Missing Workflow Container

Hi Sue,

That contradicts what you just confirmed in response to Rick's message
:-)

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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