Resolution - Error when defining successor for node

[Carolyn Fuller]

Hi,

A couple of people asked that I update folks on the resolution of  
this problem. It has been resolved.

This problem was really caused because a web application for the  
"Procurement Card Inbox" was handling workflow manually once the  
approver had approved the credit card charge.

Since the task is an asynchronous task it is not necessary to handle  
workflow manually because the event POSTED will automatically  
successfully
complete the worklow.

For some reason the MIT ERP2005 production environment caused this  
redundant code to create hundreds of workflow errors every day. In  
4.6c the redundant code created maybe a half dozen errors a week.

Carolyn

It turns out that the problem was caused by a web

> MIT has a custom FIPP workflow created under 4.6c that has been  
> running in production since 2001. There is an asynchronous step  
> with three possible outcomes. Under 4.6c, this step would  
> successfully post the document and yet end in error  about 1 time  
> out of 500 times with message WL 411 (Workflow '&' work item &: No  
> successor defined for event '&').
>
> After upgrading to ERP2005 (ECC 6.0) the message has changed to SWP  
> 009 (Error when defining successor for node &1) and instead of  
> happening once in 500 times, it is happening 1/3 of the time which  
> results in 300+ errors a day that the workflow administrator must  
> logically delete.
>
> Clearly it is a problem that must be addressed now. We can't  
> reproduce it in any environment except our production environment  
> which is running on several application servers. We turned the  
> Event Trace on for FIPP. The workflow error occurred for document  
> 200950337 at 14:45:37. The event, POSTED, occurred and was  
> successfully received for this document at 14:45:34. There is no  
> other event between 14:45:34 & 14:45:57. The 14:45:57 event is for  
> a different document and a different workflow.
>
> When I examined the event log for a document whose workflow  
> completed with no errors and a document whose workflow ended in  
> error, there is absolutely no differences.
>
> Help! Any ideas on why this is happening?

---
Carolyn Fuller
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Information Services and Technology
Administrative Computing
Senior Analyst/ Programmer
(617) 253-6213
http://fuller.mit.edu/