Workflow and PDF attachments

Tue Jan 13 19:22:41 EST 2009

Hi Jocelyn,

no quite there yet! 

There is a bit of information in the SDN about this subject - please find 
a list of some of the stuff I used

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/thread?messageID=6160963#6160963 
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/thread?messageID=6155106#6155106 
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/thread?messageID=4455619#4455619 
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/thread?messageID=4586358#4586358 
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/c0c139d3-3eae-2910-01a1-d253f2587b0e 

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/60ff6ad3-729b-2b10-6582-fedc82680a29 

There is a pretty good explanation from Jeff Gebo (a webniar on sending 
attachments) - we at the moment are trying to 'tweak' the code a bit so 
the Workflow sends the email on a SELFITEM.SENDTASKDESCRIPTION step - i.e. 
we want the code to simply return the attachment and then the workflow 
will use the attachment in the email step.  Jeff's sends the email from 
his code. 
For one of the Forms we are using (a Transfer Employee form), the 
attachment was 29KB - so not too bad at all.

Hope that helps,

Cristiana
_________________________________
Cristiana d'Agosto
IBM Global Business Services
Mobile:  +61 417 927 224
cristiana.dagosto at au1.ibm.com

"Dart, Jocelyn" <jocelyn.dart at sap.com> 
Sent by: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu
14/01/2009 10:39 AM
Please respond to
"SAP Workflow Users' Group" <sap-wug at mit.edu>

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Subject
RE: [LIKELY JUNK]RE: [LIKELY JUNK]RE: [LIKELY JUNK]Workflow and PDF 
attachments

Akshay, Whether you can take that approach depends upon the requirements 
of your customer.  However at this point it is clear this is no longer a 
workflow question, but rather an Adobe question - i.e. how do store and 
retrieve a pdf WITH it's digital signatures.  So you should try raising 
the question on the SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe forum on SDN. 

Cristiana - My impression was your issue is very similar - so if you have 
solved this or have found something useful on the SDN forums you might 
want to discuss that with Akshay - preferably via the Adobe SDN forum.

Regards,
Jocelyn 

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf 
Of akshay.bhagwat at wipro.com
Sent: Wednesday, 14 January 2009 1:43 AM
To: sap-wug at mit.edu
Subject: [LIKELY JUNK]RE: [LIKELY JUNK]RE: [LIKELY JUNK]Workflow and PDF 
attachments

Hi Jocelyn,

The requirement was a form should be sent for approvals and this form will 
have to be signed digitally at every approval.

Now as you have suggested, if I have to retrieve the form filled in by 1st 
approver,  I have a key number based on which I can retrieve the stored 
pdfsource data. Only problem was that I was not able to populate the form 
with the digital signature.

 So my actual doubt is related to point -4. Displaying the PDF form based 
on pdfSource data- because only problem is if I have to display the 
previous Digital signature as it is on the form.

Do you mean to say that we can just go on storing the PDF source at every 
approval , and during each approval just display the details of previous 
approval i.e. when it was signed etc on the form and not the actual 
signature?

Regards
Akshay Bhagwat

Akshay Bhagwat, Senior Specialist |  SAP Practice, Wipro Technologies | O: 
+91-20-22933700 Ext 3608 | M: +91-9881471909 | Email: 
akshay.bhagwat at wipro.com | Web: www.wipro.com 
P Please do not print this email unless it is absolutely necessary. Spread 
environmental awareness.

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf 
Of Dart, Jocelyn
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 9:19 PM
To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
Subject: RE: [LIKELY JUNK]RE: [LIKELY JUNK]Workflow and PDF attachments

Hi Akshay, 
Well if you are already storing your PDFSource data in a custom table then 
surely you would just:
1. Add a key to the custom table
2. Send the key to workflow 
3. Have workflow call the ABAP WD program passing the key
4. Using the key look up the table and import the pdfsource in your ABAP 
WD program and display it.
5. When the user updates the form with the digital signature, reimport it 
and update your custom table. 
6. You could use your ABAP WD program to read data from the form to pass 
to the workflow container, as well as reading the PDF in full, before 
closing.
(After all workflow probably doesn't need all the details of the digital 
signature - mostly it needs to know if it was signed at all.)
This would provide data for subsequent steps in workflow, rather than 
having to create an attachment or try and get the workflow to parse the 
file in background.  
Similarly if you were sending the form offline via email or uploading a 
returned from via email you would need the key as well as the PDF. 

The approach would be much the same regardless of what storage area you 
use. 

The point is to get away from thinking of workflow as the carrier of the 
document. Rather workflow handles the communication needed to complete the 
process.  It's the ABAP WD program that accesses the PDF document.  So all 
you need is for the workflow and the ABAP WD to agree on some way of 
uniquely identifing a document. 

Please look at the Adobe tutorials on SDN.

Regards,
Jocelyn 

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf 
Of akshay.bhagwat at wipro.com
Sent: Tuesday, 13 January 2009 12:57 PM
To: sap-wug at mit.edu
Subject: [LIKELY JUNK]RE: [LIKELY JUNK]Workflow and PDF attachments

Hi Jocelyn,

Thanks for the inputs.
But I am not able to visualize how can I use the retrieved data?
e.g. In my case As this is custom application, we had created a custom 
table and stored the data from PDFsource of context in custom table as 
Xstring. However, problem is how to use this data for displaying again as 
PDF?
Another issue is how to reproduce the digital signatures from this data? 
Even though it's stored inside XSTRING  ,,,
So I thought of using the form getting manually saved on Front end when 
use digitally signs it.
Then create attachment of it - then use it for further purpose inside 
workflow.

Now the issue was how to create attachment in background step of workflow.

Please suggest.

Regards
Akshay Bhagwat

Akshay Bhagwat, Senior Specialist |  SAP Practice, Wipro Technologies | O: 
+91-20-22933700 Ext 3608 | M: +91-9881471909 | Email: 
akshay.bhagwat at wipro.com | Web: www.wipro.com 
P Please do not print this email unless it is absolutely necessary. Spread 
environmental awareness.

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf 
Of Dart, Jocelyn
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 6:37 PM
To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
Subject: RE: [LIKELY JUNK]Workflow and PDF attachments

Hi Akshay, 
Ok well if that is the scenario you might want to approach the problem in 
a different way.  Rather than pass attachments around, which is always a 
pain when you have to convert between different formats, why not just pass 
a reference number ?  i.e. assign some sort of id to the form.    Your 
actual binary data representing the current known form would be stored 
somewhere in SAP.  Some applications such as SAP HCM Workforce Process 
Management have used Records Management (transaction SCASE) to store the 
binary/XML data of the form and then assign a GUID as the reference that 
is passed throughout the workflow.  Then your ABAP WD application uses the 
reference to read/update the pdf.  It's not particularly important where 
you store it from workflow's point of view - so long as you can use your 
form id to find the form data. 

Trying to use SOFM - which is really only intended for creating and 
displaying attachments -  will be very restrictive. Also passing around a 
large attachment in the workflow is likely to have other implications - 
e.g. sizing issues. 

You might also want to look at the many Adobe tutorials on SDN.  There are 
various approaches to handling incoming PDF forms. 
Regards,
Jocelyn

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf 
Of akshay.bhagwat at wipro.com
Sent: Saturday, 10 January 2009 12:55 PM
To: sap-wug at mit.edu
Subject: [LIKELY JUNK]Workflow and PDF attachments

Hi All,

I know this topic is discussed a lot, still posting the questions as I am 
not able to achieve the requirement.

Just to elaborate the scenario, we are using Web dypnro for ABAP to host 
Interactive form .
This Form in turn triggers the workflow, as this form is to be approved 
using workflow process. i.e. UWL will be used to launch the form when 
executing the work items.

As the form includes Digital signatures, we are not able to read the same 
from contexts (e.g. using UWLs dynamic parameters such as WI_ID.) So we 
have decided to use attachments i.e. send this form as an attachment 
inside workflow, since saved PDF file has all the data intact.

Now the issue is: 
How this form in Webdynpro is to be saved as PDF file automatically and 
then send as an attachment in workflow?

1. I have tried using SAP Office function modules such as SO_OBJECT_UPLOAD 
to create PDF files in SOFM object. However the problem is these FM s can 
not be used from Webdynpro as Front end services are unavailable.
2. Same is the issue If I use background step for creating SOFM document 
so that it can be used as an attachment.

Can any body please suggest what approach can be taken so that from 
webdynpro , attachment can be created and passed to workflow seamlessly?

Any inputs are appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Regards
Akshay Bhagwat

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