Workflow in SAP Travel management

[Former Member]

Hi all,

I am trying to explore travel management in ESS/MSS..

Can we use workflow's which are generating on Business workplace in MSS UML ?

For example:

if a person X creates travel request and Mr Y is receiving approve workflow in Business workplace and Can this person receive this on MSS for approval ?

we are using our customized workflow on R/3.

what i tried yet , created an standard iivew Travel & Expense: Trips for Approval  with object FITV_POWL_APPROVER but workflow is generating in R/3 but no in  MSS iview ( FITV_POWL_APPROVER)

Regards,

Muhammad Umer

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

You are mixing two concepts.

WebDynpro FITV_POWL_APPROVER is working without workflow - only with status from trip (like a report)

Workflow is using eventing and UwL or Business workplace in backend for receiving workflow items.

SAP is not so clear here. But FITV_POWL_APPROVER is from my opinion useless service which I have never implemented by customers. Maybe nice to play around.

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

Mostly agree with you, Siegfried!

I never understood why SAP "turned" the concept from UWL/Workflow "around" and created a technology which IMHO doesn't have a practical attitude at all.

I wrote "mostly agree" because I remember to have seen Siddarth Rajora in HCM ESS Forums propose for mixing these concepts as per a similar requirement of somebody alike to Muhammad's one, not entirely sure how this was supposed to work anymore.

@ Muhammad, if I were you, I'd use the UWL, i.e. probably configure some XML Files and use a custimized UWL-iView to configure things, if nessecary (this is what I did for our Travel Management and it works out very good). Since you already seem to have, as far as I understood, the items in SBWP, there wouldn't be much work left and it would be working "clean".

Cheers, Lukas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Siegfried,

Thanks now i could understand the purpose of FITV_POWL_APPROVER and also understood the purpose of not using the FITV_POWL_APPROVER ..

@ Lukas, by using UWL, do we need configure XML files , could you please explain or share some more details...  and is it done by technical or functional side ?

Regards,

Muhammad Umer

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

Hi Muhammad,

it's done on a technical side in my opinion (depends on the point of view). I would recommend accessing the UWL once to see whether it crashes or maybe just works out of the box. That put aside, here are some "guideposts" 😉

1. First of all, please take a look in your portal: System Administration --> System Configuration --> on left hand side detailed Navigation "Universal Worklist & Workflow" --> "Universal Worklist - Administration". Now you should see a table with several System aliases and connectors. Per default, there should be the alias SAP_ECC_HumanResources with a Webflowconnector. The start system should be SAP_WebDynpro_XSS and the Connector should be "connected" and registered. You need to verify this before you can go on with the next point.

2. Select the entry SAP_ECC_HumanResources. Further down there's a link below "Content Configuration of the UWL" that says something like "Click here to congifure item types and definition of iViews". Click it.

3. Now, here's the clue. There should be a configuration named "com.sap.pct.erp.mss.tra". If there is, and your customized workflow is a copy of the standard and uses the standard tasks, then it will work out of the box pretty much, because the XML-Configuration file is related to the standard tasks.

4. If your workflow isn't based on the standard with the respective tasks, you need to download this configuration file, alter it as per your requirements and upload it with a different name, but under the same namespace with a high priority. This way it will overwrite or rather overload the standard configuration , without touching the standard configuration (this means it's no modification).

Now, what I wrote is pretty practically oriented. To get a grip of the whole it's useful to take a look at the sap help.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70ehp1/helpdata/en/57/c223be82104792a15c2df11377b9ed/frameset.htm

If you need further help, don't hesitate asking.

Cheers, Lukas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Lukas,

Thank you for your detailed reply...

Now workflow is appearing on UML list but error coming on accessing

The URL call http://ecdsand1.descon.com:8000/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/BWWF_WI_DECI was terminated because of an error.

I know problem would be at point 4 which you have mentioned above..

My workflow have customized tasks and i have downloaded (com.sap.pct.erp.mss.tra) in zip from SAP_ECC_HumanResources..

I don't know how can i ALTER XML file it which you have advised ? (addition of customized tasks or workflow)

Again thank you for your time and dedicated efforts..

Regards,

Muhammad Umer

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

Mh...If the standard XML wouldn't recognize the task, the entries would not even pop up in the UWL. So maybe you can avoid having to alter the XML file. Doing this is only nessecary when you create completely new tasks which aren't the product of copying the standard workflow. On the other hand, you can customize a task within a copied workflow as much as you want, the UWL doesn't care and will still be able to select it because the task-ID does not change (except if you copied every single task which wouldn't make sense, though).

Muhammad Umer wrote:
Now workflow is appearing on UML list but error coming on accessing 

Do you mean you can see the workitems in the UWL iView? Do I understand this correctly? Or does it crash before you can see whether the work items are selected into the UWL at all?

Can you provide the full error message you get? There has to be an error cause description. If not initially shown, there should at least be something in the NWA monitoring default trace.

Cheers, Lukas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Lukas,

Thank you of your detailed response, and sorry for delaying feedback from my side... 

Yes you understood well that

Do you mean you can see the workitems in the UWL iView? Do I understand this correctly? Or does it crash before you can see whether the work items are selected into the UWL at all?

Problem was in package which need to to updated (one header file was not available).. which basis team had done so workflow is comining in UML as well approving...

Again thanks for your support..

Regards,

Muhammad Umer

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

Hi Muhammad,

no need for apologizing . Interesting, so this was "just" a basis problem then? Glad, my advices could prove a bit useful nevertheless .

Cheers, Lukas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Lukas,

It was not a basis problem, actullay it was UWL configuration problem which i have configured as per your above given guidelines.. At the end, workflows are showing in my UWL list but problem was unable to opnen it in new window for approval.. which was resolved by basis team (upgrading package)...

Again Thank,

Regards,

Muhammad Umer

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Lukas

I find the FITV_POWL_APPROVER in MSS Add-on 1.0 quite useful, especially in the case when you have managers who need to select individual time registrations and do a bulk approval/rejection. I find that part much more user-friendly than the UWL.

With the help from a developer you can create new feeder classes, and decide on what kind of objects to be shown in the worklist, which buttons to be visible with the query, etc. You will need ABAP skills instead of XML, and I agree that that is a larger task than the UWL customisation.

Furthermore the FITV_POWL_APPROVER can run without JAVA which might not be of interest to so many customers just yet but is the way SAP goes.

Best regards,

Martin

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

Depends on the point of View of the Business Process eventually, but take for example this case:

You have fixed Org-Structures so managers are not allow to personalize their POWLs. No problem yet, the POWL queries can be predefined. In case there are different managers responsible for different tasks there's still now problem since you can distinguish with the Application ID. Once you have different approvers for the same business process dependant on certain parameters, POWL is evidently useless. It's not possible to define a scenario like this with POWL:

Travel Request of Employee A for manager X issued on 01.02.2012, needs to be dealt with until 05.02.2012.

Travel Request of Employee A for manager Y issued on 01.02.2012, needs to be dealt with until 12.02.2012.

Doesn't work. Manager Y and X would be able to see each other's tasks (Travel Requests in the example) which aren't meant for each other. In overlapping intervalls, the time restriction of the POWL doesn't help either, manager B wouldn't see the Request up until 06.02.2012 or manager A wouldn't see the request at all if time restriction would be in use. Only workflows help here, and then you're stuck with the UWL again.

I agree, it is good that SAP steps away from the JAVA stuff, since all Business Applications from Portal are migrated to WDA as well. I just wonder, why didn't they just migrate the UWL into a WDA Application?... This would not have been hard.

Still, POWL isn't useful for big companies with complex org- and approval structures, I hope SAP will realize this soon enough and implement a WDA UWL.

Cheers, Lukas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Lukas

Yes, I guess you can run into different scenarios where the POWL does not fulfil all your needs, especially if you would like one POWL for all HR tasks like I would.

In the end that might create a need for you to also integrate the workflow items too. But that could just be a bunch of seperate queries in the POWL. The queries could be like the ones from the application WF / Business Workflow Work Center that you can test in TCode POWL_COCKPIT through the "Launch POWL"-button.

Best regards,

Martin Søgaard

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Muhammad Umer, Lukas

We too have the same requirement as yours.

Our workflow consultant has designed the custom task for travel request workflow.

The work items are coming in our Portal  UWL inbox.

When we click on the work item , it will open a screen which contains travel request details  and "Approve"  , " reject "  and   " send for correction"  buttons..

After clicking the " reject " button, the manager should be able to enter comments , why he is rejecting.   But that is not happening in our case.  But from SBWP , a pop-up box appears after clicking the reject button , and there the manager can enter the comments for rejecting the travel request.

Please let me know , whether you are able to pass comments while rejecting the travel request.

And i want to see the look of the travel request form which you are using. If possible kindly please attach a screen shot of the Travel request form , which appears after clicking the workitem in the UWL inbox.

BR,

Harthi

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

This message was moderated.

[Lukas_Weigelt]

Hi Muhammad,

I'm confused with your post, please let's clear some things up first of all.

You are using FITV_POWL_APPROVER, i.e. Personal Object Worklist which basically works independent of workflows. I am unsure whether it's possible to combine workflows with POWL. As far as I understood you want to have Employee X to create a travel Request/Expense, then BUS2089 is fired and goes through your customized workflow and is sent to Approver Y's inbox (at this point you want the workitem in the Approver's POWL, do I understand this correctly?). Having achieved that, you could at this point use the Universal Worklist, which you probably don't want to.

Probably you can achieve your requirement, i.e. getting workitems from BWP/UWL into POWL by creating a POWL query or a POWL personalization dialogue; but per default, it's not provided that Workflow-items run into the POWL.

Cheers, Lukas

[Former Member]

Hi Lukas,

Thank you for your detailed reply...

I am sorry i could't cleared my problem but you understood well..

Yes you are right about below...

______________________________________________________

Employee X to create a travel Request/Expense, then BUS2089 is fired and goes through your customized workflow and is sent to Approver Y's inbox (at this point you want the workitem in the Approver's POWL, do I understand this correctly

______________________________________________________

I was using Webdypro FITV_POWL_APPROVER because my work item is not coming in UML (by default)..  if it is possible in UWL, then i would defiantly go with UWL.

Can system forward (by default) work item (work flow) in UML if it is available in your R/3 inbox ?? or still needs configuration required in portal level  (at UWL) or r/3 level?

Again Thank for your time!!

Regards,

Muhammad Umer