USING WF ATTRIBUTES (Variables)

Every program needs variables at different stages of programming.

In WF also we can define variables of various data type. (Date, Text, Number to name a few)

To create new Attribute, right click on Attributes in Navigator > select “New Attribute”

In all our messages we used an attribute named “REQ_NUM”

Define REQ_NUM as shown below,

READING ATTRIBUTE VALUES RUNTIME

&<VARIABLE_NAME> : will return value of the variable at run time. (Example &REQ_NUM in our case)

VIMP: In Order to use any variable(Attribute) in message body,

Once the variable is defined, drag and drop the Variable from Attribute section to Message section as shown below.

If you want to read values of 10 different attributes in message body, you will have to drag and drop all those 10 variables from ATTRIBUTE section to appropriate Message in which you are using these variables as a part of message body.

DEFINE WF COMPONENTS

DEFINE WORKFLOW COMPONENTS

To create any of the workflow component,

            In NAVIGATOR (left side of workflow builder) right click on any component you wish to define and

select “New ” , see examples below.

Lets recall the components required for our case.

·         Two “Notification” for sending notification to Approver to get his approval and to the employee in case of rejection of his requisition

·         Two “Messages” which will have the actual body/text of message to be conveyed to Approver and employee

·         One “Lookup” for the two options namely Approve and Reject

·         One “Function” for calling the procedure/function that will record requisition detail data in both the cases

NOTE: Every Notification is associated with its corresponding message

STEP 1

We will start creating a Notification and message for APPROVER.

1. In Navigator Right Click on Notification and select “New Notification”, a property box will open
2. Give name as per your business conventions        
3. Give Result Type as “Approval” (this will automatically set the notification to have Approve/Reject option)
4. Message field will have the corresponding Message name which we will define in following steps

STEP 2 Define Message

1. In Navigator right click on Message, select New Message
2. In property box fill in details in “Message” and “Body” tab as follows and click OK.

3. This will create a message for approver now the next step is to associate this message with notification.
4. In navigator right click on notification and select Properties, it will open Property Panel for it.
5. Select “Message for Approver” from drop down box of Message as shown below

Now go ahead and create two more messages and two notifications for customer which will be sent in case of Approval and Rejection of withdrawal by manager.

First the Messages

 

 

Now define the Notifications and associate respecting Messages created above with it.

 

 

WF DESIGN

WF DESIGN

Lets get started with our WF Process design.

I. Start WF Builder either by

OR type “WFBLDR” in Start >> Run

Workflow Builder will open.

Following screen shot is just to make you familiar with the look and feel of various workflow builder components.

S START WORKFLOW DESIGN

Select File >> Quick Start Wizard from Menu

You can change the Name information as per your requirement and then click OK.

A New Process with just a START and END activities will be left open as shown below.

This blank process is the place where we will design our business logic/process.

UNDERSTANDING WORKFLOW COMPONENTS

Lets see the mapping of various WF components with the tasks they can perform.

This will help us understand what workflow component will be needed to perform each task in business process.

Now we will summarize what are the components required to design and develop our WF process.

·         Two “Notification” for sending notification to Approver to get his approval and to the employee in case of rejection of his requisition

·         Two “Messages” which will have the actual body/text of message to be conveyed to Approver and employee

·         One “Lookup” for the two options namely Approve and Reject

·         One “Function” for calling the procedure/function that will record requisition detail data in both the cases

Database object required

1.       New Package and procedure which will have logic to insert data in staging table

2.       Custom Table to capture requisition detail along with requisition status (APPROVED/REJECTED)

BUSINESS SCENARIO

BUSINESS SCENARIO

- Consider a internal requisition transaction

- Employees raise requisitions for purchasing the required material

1. For any requisition above Rs. 1 Lac the workflow should trigger

2. A notification should then be sent to concerned manager asking for his APPROVAL to proceed

3. if the manager approves the requisition the data should be recorded in custom table with status “APPROVED”

4. Else a notification should be sent to Employee about the rejection of his requisition and

5. The data for that requisition should also be recorded in table with the status of “REJECTED”

6. Workflow should end

PAPERWORK

Take a piece of paper and start drawing literally a flow chart of the business process.

Believe me, your 60% work is done once you have enclosed the required business logic in a flow chart.

Following is the flowchart which depict our business scenario.

Just to give you an idea, our workflow diagram will look as follows.

You can see the resemblance of below WF diagram with the one we did on paper.

WF OVERVIEW

Workflow is a TOOL which allows you to create, view and modify you business process.It is very simillar to drawing a flowchart of what are all steps has to be followed once some standard event occures in the Oracle Application. This may be any event like creation of Purchase Order, Or entry of a sales order in Order Management.
First of all lets have a overview on the components of Workflow:
Following components all togather makes a tool called Workflow Builder.
# Workflow Engine: is embabed in Oracle database and is responsible to actually process the activities in workflow process one by one.
# Business Event System : is a application service which listens the standard event generated in an application. It uses the Event manager to register these events and allow you to provide a subscription to these events. Subscription may incluse a call to any procedure/function or may be a workflow name to be launched.
# Notification System : not only helps to include the valid users in your organization to whom workflow may need to send the notifications on any of the piont in the business flow but also it sends these notifications to these users whenever specified. Every notification is attached to a message which contains the required information to be deliverd at that piont of time in the flow.
# Workflow Monitor : This is a window embaded in Oracle Application supporting Java using which you can trace the execution of the workflow process.


And following is the details of all the components that we will use to create/build our Business process in WF Builder.

WORKFLOW......... why?

The INFORMATION and AUTOMATION is the blood of todays E-Business.
May it be any field of business you need to have INFORMATION being delivered to the RIGHT person in REAL TIME through proper ROUTE as per business processand according to the RULES and regulations of the company.

Here comes the need of such a tool which can fulfill all your requirement mentioned above.
And Oracle workflow does these things with perfection.
In tecnical terms you can say that the Oracle Workflow is a tool using which you can
DEFINE, DEVELOPE, MODIFY and most importatnt AUTOMATE the business process.
This business process once built in the form of workflow process will be launched [fired, triggerd]on occurance of some EVENT or situation. Once launched it will follow the path specified while designing.And will perform all the operations one by one, will deliver the appropriate information to approprate person as per the business requirement.