Oracle Workflow is embedded in Oracle E-Business Suite and is used by its modules to automate and streamline business processes. You can use Oracle Workflow Builder to easily modify an existing business process without changing its application's code. Oracle Workflow also allows you to extend your workflow processes as your business rules change and mature. Additionally, you can use the Event Manager to modify event and subscription definitions without changing application code.

Before you use Oracle Workflow to customize any predefined workflow process, event, or subscription, you should familiarize yourself with the following customization guidelines to ensure standard and safe design and development practices. By following these guidelines, you will be able to supply important information to Oracle Support Services in helping you resolve any issues that arise from your customizations.

1. Verify that all setup steps have been completed as documented in the Oracle Workflow documentation, and the product-specific User's Guides.

2. Test the unmodified seeded workflow, event, or subscription on a test database and ensure that it runs successfully with the setup and data specific to your environment.

3. Refer to the product-specific User's Guide and any documentation update, available on My Oracle Support, for the specific workflow, event, or subscription of interest. These documentation sources specifically mention what should NOT be modified. Oracle Support Services will not support modifications to any object that is specifically documented as not modifiable.

4. Gradually build in customizations step-by-step, and test the customized workflow or subscription after each step.

5. When creating PL/SQL procedures, conform to the standard PL/SQL API templates documented in the Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide. Be sure to handle exceptions in the event of an error so you can track down the procedure where the error has occurred.

6. Do not implement the customized workflow, event, or subscription in production without fully ensuring that it works successfully on a test database, which is a replica of your production setup.

7. To ensure that your customizations are handled appropriately in conjunction with the Online Patching feature introduced in Release 12.2, follow the instructions in Deploying Customizations in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2, My Oracle Support Document 1577661.1.

If you encounter a problem when customizing a seeded workflow, event, or subscription, you should:

• Provide the Support analyst with the modified workflow definition file or event or subscription definition, and where possible, identify the exact step where the problem occurred.

• Provide the Support analyst with results of running the unmodified seeded workflow or subscription.

The following types of customizations are not supported:

1. Modifying a workflow object that has a protection level that is less than 100.

2. Altering a workflow object's protection level if its original protection level is less than 100.

3. Modifying your access level to an unauthorized level of less than 100 for the purpose of modifying workflow objects that are protected at levels less than 100.

4. Customizations that are explicitly documented as being UNSUPPORTED in the seeded workflow's product-specific User's Guide or documentation update notes. This includes modifying processes, attributes, function activities, event activities, notifications, lookup types, messages, events, or subscriptions that are specifically documented as not to be modified.

5. Manual modification of Workflow tables with a prefix of WF_ or FND_ unless it is documented in the Oracle Workflow documentation or is required by Oracle Support Services.

6. Customizations to any predefined Oracle Workflow directory service view definitions, including any of the predefined implementations of the WF_USERS, WF_ROLES, and WF_USER_ROLES views, as well as the synchronization views provided by originating systems within Oracle E-Business Suite.

7. Customizations to any predefined versions of the Oracle Workflow PL/SQL security package, WFA_SEC.

The following types of customizations are supported:

1. Any customization that is stated as Required in the seeded workflow's, event's, or subscription's product-specific User's Guide or documentation update notes.

2. Customization examples documented in the product-specific User's Guide or documentation update notes. Any issues that arise are fully supported to resolution, to the extent that the customization example was followed as documented. Any deviation from what is documented amounts to a custom development issue that needs further evaluation. See number 3 below.

3. Customizations that are not explicitly stated as unsupported customizations, as required customizations, or as supported customization examples are supported to the extent that the customer must first isolate the problem following the customization guidelines discussed earlier. If upon evaluation, Oracle Support Services deems that the isolated problem stems from an Oracle product, Oracle will supply a solution. Otherwise, it is the responsibility of the customer to correct the custom development issue.