To prepare a workflow diagram, double-click on the process activity.
In our example, double-click on the NEW PO Approval Process. The Process window
will appear. The Process window shows the graphical representation of your
workflow process. Initially, the Process window is blank. Drag and drop
activities from the Navigator into the Process window. Between activities,
define transitions by drawing arrows using the right mouse button. If the
result code of the source activity is None, the transitions will not have a
label. If the result code of the source activity is not None, label the
transition arrow with the result code that will initiate the transition.
To diagram the NEW PO Approval process, create the item attributes for a NEW PO. To do this, copy the item attributes from the PO Approval item type and paste them to your NEW PO item type. Press ctrl-C on the PO Number from the PO Approval item type. Then press ctrl-V to paste the PO Number to your PO item type. Repeat the same copy-and-paste step for the PO Amount, the Requestor Name Line1, and the Approver User Name (see Figure 16).
To diagram the NEW PO Approval process, create the item attributes for a NEW PO. To do this, copy the item attributes from the PO Approval item type and paste them to your NEW PO item type. Press ctrl-C on the PO Number from the PO Approval item type. Then press ctrl-V to paste the PO Number to your PO item type. Repeat the same copy-and-paste step for the PO Amount, the Requestor Name Line1, and the Approver User Name (see Figure 16).
Figure 16: Item Attributes
for NEW PO item type form
You must then
create the function that selects the approver, which is the next manager in
H.R. Create a PL/SQL stored procedure that will search out the next manager
based on the requestor and tie the stored procedure to a function activity. In
this review question, you can assume that the stored procedure will always
retrieve a valid manager. In this case, the result type of the function activity
can be None and the function activity is NEW Get Next Manager in H.R.
Create
notifications that allow the manager to approve or reject the PO and that send
a reminder if the notification timed out. You do this by creating a message
that asks the manager to approve or reject the PO. Use NEW_APPROVE as the internal name and New Approval as the display name. You can type a message body like
the one in Figure 17.
Your message must have a Respond message attribute.
Use NEW_RESULT as the internal name.
Since the display name becomes the prompt, use Approve as the display name. Enter Please either approve or reject the PO as the description. Select
Lookup as the type and, since you are soliciting a response, select Respond as
the source. Select Approval as the lookup type. This will allow the user to
respond with either Approve or Reject (see Figure 18).
Figure 17: Exercise Message
Body form
Figure 18: Exercise Message
Attribute form
Once you have created the New Approval message, attach the
message to a notification activity called NEW_APPROVE_PO.
Use a display name of NEW Approve PO.
Select the same result type as your message, which is Approval, and select New
Approval as the message. Click on the Details tab to change the Timeout field
to 3 days. Create a reminder notification in the same way. Now you are ready to
create the workflow process diagram.
You should start the workflow process with the Start function
activity. You can find the Start function activity from the Standard item type.
Drag and drop the Start function into the Process window. You are assuming that
this NEW PO Process is initiated by a CreateProcess API and StartProcess API
with the correct attributes: PO Number, PO Amount, Requestor Name Line1, and
Approver User Name.
The Start function
activity will be your source activity. The destination activity, NEW Get Next Manager
in H.R., will retrieve the appropriate manager. Create a transition by
right-clicking the mouse and dragging a line between the Start function
activity and the NEW Get Next Manager in H.R. function activity. Since the
result code is None, there will be no need to select a result code. Your next
activity will be NEW Approve PO notification activity. Drag and drop the NEW
Approve PO notification activity into the Process window. Since the result code
from NEW Get Next Manager in H.R. function activity is None, you can just
connect the NEW Get Next Manager in H.R. function activity to the NEW Approve
PO notification activity.
You must identify the performer for the NEW Approve
PO notification activity. The performer is the role receiving the notification.
In your case, select the item attribute Approver User Name as the performer. To
select a performer, double-click on the notification activity in the Process
window and select the performer. You can only do this if you invoked the
Notification Activity Property window inside the Process window; you cannot do
this if you invoked the Notification Activity Property window in the Navigator
(see Figure 11-19).
You can use the Attribute Values tab to specify a value for
any selected attribute in this tab. You do not need this feature for this
review question.
Figure 19: Notification
Activity Property Window (Process Window) form
The manager can
ignore the notification, approve the PO, or reject the PO. Treat all three
conditions with three different transitions. If the manager approves or rejects
the PO, the workflow process is considered completed. In this case, it must
flow to the End function activity. To show the Or condition, you can use the Or
function activity. Both the End and Or function activities can be found under
the Standard item type. If the manager chooses to ignore the notification, you
must send a reminder to the manager and branch back to resend the NEW Approve
PO notification activity.
To make sure that the NEW Approve PO notification can
be resent, make sure that Loop Reset
is not checked. When you create a transition between the NEW Approve PO
activity and the Or activity, a window appears and asks which result code
should be tied to this transition. Your choices are Approved, Rejected,
<Default>, or <Timeout> (see Figure 11-20). The <Default>
transition is used if result codes other than any selected result codes are
returned.
Choose Approved for the transition. Repeat the same step and create a transition for Rejected between the NEW Approve PO activity and the Or activity. Create a transition between the NEW Approve PO activity to the NEW PO Reminder activity and select <Timeout> for the transition. Since you want to route back from the NEW PO Reminder activity to the NEW Approve PO activity, you must create a transition from the NEW Approve PO activity to the NEW PO Reminder activity.
Choose Approved for the transition. Repeat the same step and create a transition for Rejected between the NEW Approve PO activity and the Or activity. Create a transition between the NEW Approve PO activity to the NEW PO Reminder activity and select <Timeout> for the transition. Since you want to route back from the NEW PO Reminder activity to the NEW Approve PO activity, you must create a transition from the NEW Approve PO activity to the NEW PO Reminder activity.
To see labels, which are display names in the Process
window, you can either execute Designer’s View | Show Label | Display Name menu
command, or right-click on the Process window and execute the Show Label |
Display Name menu command. See Figure 11-21 for the complete process you have
created.
Figure 20: Result codes for
transition
Figure 21: Complete PO
Workflow Process form
Other options in the Process window include copying diagrams,
printing diagrams, and displaying an Overview window. All of these options are
found when you click the right mouse button in the Process window. You can
verify your workflow process by executing the File | Verify menu command.
Review Questions
1.
When will you need to select a label for a transition?
2.
What is the purpose of the <Timeout> label?
3.
How will your NEW PO Process be invoked?
4.
What is a performer and how do you specify a performer for a notification
activity?
