The workflow PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents looks for documents that are incomplete, rejected, or in need of reapproval and sends notifications to the appropriate people of the document's status. You can view and respond to these notifications through the Notifications Summary window.
For information on the kinds of notifications sent by the Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents process, see: Viewing and Responding to Notifications.
In order for these notifications to be sent, you need to start the concurrent program process, Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents, and choose how frequently you want the process to run. See: Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents.
Use the Oracle Workflow Builder to customize workflows. When you customize a workflow, only those documents that are created after you customize it are affected by the customized workflow.
You can use the Workflow Monitor to follow where certain documents are in a workflow process. See: Overview of Workflow Monitoring.
To display the workflow in the Oracle Workflow Builder:
Choose Open from the File menu, and connect to the database.
See: Opening and Saving Item Types.
The Display name of the workflow is PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents. The name of its Workflow definition file is poxwfarm.wft.
Expand the data source, then the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents item type branch within that data source.
Expand the Processes branch within PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents branch, then double-click on its process activity to display the process diagram.
If you want to customize the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow, you must customize the default (original) workflow that Purchasing provides. Unlike the PO Approval, PO Requisition Approval, and PO Create Documents workflows in Purchasing, only one PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow can be called from the application itself. You can't select a separate customization, like you can with the other workflows in the Document Types window. Therefore, you need to make your customizations to the default workflow. You'll always have your backup to revert to, if you need, while you are testing your customizations.
There are no required modifications you need to make to the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow itself. However, for the workflow to work, you need to start the concurrent program process, Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents, if you didn't already start this process when you set up Purchasing. See: Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents.
Following is a discussion of what you can and definitely cannot modify in the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow. For those things you can modify, the discussion includes important guidelines that you need to be very careful of when making customizations.
For important information on how to customize workflows, see the Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.
To further help you with your customizations, refer to the sections later in this document, starting with The PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents Item Attributes. These sections describe the components of the automatic document creation processes in the workflow. If you haven't already, see also: Customization Guidelines.
Attention: If a particular Workflow object does not appear in the following sections on the lists of things you can customize, do not modify it, regardless of its access level.
You cannot modify any of the attributes in the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow.
If you modify a process, it is essential that the basic flow remain intact to maintain data integrity in the database:
Attributes that are set by default function activities in the default processes must also be set if you replace default function activities with ones of your own. That is, if a function activity in that process uses a SetItemAttr statement, then that function activity is setting an attribute to be used by another function activity later. Therefore, your new function activity must do the same. You should also preserve SetItemUserKey and SetItemOwner statements, if any. (Depending on your customizations, you may also want to preserve GetItemAttr statements.)
Any database state maintained by the default processes must also be maintained by processes you customize. That is, if a function activity in that process uses an Update or Insert Into statement, then that function activity is updating or inserting rows in the database. Therefore, your new function activity must maintain the same database state.
To get a list of the workflow function activities that use SetItemAttr, GetItemAttr, SetItemUserKey, SetItemOwner, Insert Into, or Update statements, run the PL/SQL script powfcust. For instructions on running this script, see: Customization Guidelines.
There is one process in the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow, and you can modify it as your business needs require, paying careful attention to the guidelines described above and in the following section, Function Activities:
PO Document Approval Reminder
You cannot modify any of the notifications in the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow.
You cannot modify any function activities in the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow.
However, you can replace some function activities with function activities of your own. When you replace a function activity, you are effectively modifying the process in which it is contained. See the guidelines for customizing the processes in the section Processes above.
If you substitute default function activities in a process with function activities that you create, you must remember the following:
The result type of your new function activity must match the result type of the default activity. That is, the Result Type of the function activity in the Workflow Builder needs to match the result type specified by that function activity's corresponding PL/SQL procedure-for example, a Result Type of Yes/No. It also means that if you have, for example, two results (such as Yes and No) in your function activity and corresponding PL/SQL procedure, you need to make sure that there are two corresponding transitions in the workflow diagram (one for Yes and one for No). If you change the result types and transitions in a process, be careful that you aren't deleting or bypassing any special transitions or checks.
Just as with Processes above, any attributes that were set by the default function activity must also be set by your customized function activity.
Just as with Processes above, any database state maintained by the default function activity must also be maintained by the customized function activity.
You can modify any of the messages in the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow, as your business needs require.
See: Message Result and To Create a Message.
You cannot modify any of the lookup types in the PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents workflow.
The notification sending process is associated with an item type called PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents. This item type identifies all notification workflow processes available. There is one workflow process associated with PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents: PO Document Approval Reminder.
The PO Send Notifications for Purchasing Documents item type also has many attributes associated with it. These attributes reference information in the Purchasing application tables. The attributes are used and maintained by function activities as well as notification activities throughout the process.
| Display Name | Description | Type | Length/ Format/ Lookup Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acceptance Due Date | Date acceptance is due | Date | |
| Acceptance Past Due | Indicator that the acceptance due date has passed | Text | 25 |
| Agent Display Name | Buyer's name as displayed in Purchasing | Text | 250 |
| Agent ID | Unique identifier for the buyer | Number | |
| Agent User Name | Buyer's user name | Text | 100 |
| Document ID | Unique identifier for the document submitted to this workflow | Number | |
| Document Number | Document number for the document submitted to this workflow | Text | 80 |
| Document Subtype | Document subtype | Text | 80 |
| Document Type | Document type | Text | 60 |
| Document Type Display | Document type as displayed in Purchasing | Text | 250 |
| Forward From Display Name | Name of the person who forwarded the document, as displayed in Purchasing | Text | 250 |
| Forward From ID | Unique identifier of the person who forwarded the document | Number | |
| Forward From User Name | User name of the person who forwarded the document | Text | 250 |
| Forward to Display Name | Name of the forward-to person as displayed in Purchasing | Text | 250 |
| Forward to ID | Unique identifier for the forward-to person | Number | |
| Forward to ID Old Value | Item attribute for internal use that keeps track of the previous forward-to person | Number | |
| Forward to User Name | User name of the forward-to person | Text | 250 |
| Never Approved Message | Text message that shows the document was never approved | Text | 500 |
| Note | Note text | Text | 240 |
| Open PO Form Command | Command that Purchasing sends to open the purchase order from the notification | Form | |
| Open Quotations Form Command | Command that Purchasing sends to open the quotation from the notification | Form | |
| Open Release Form Command | Command that Purchasing sends to open the release from the notification | Form | |
| Open Req Form Command | Command that Purchasing sends to open the requisition from the notification | Form | |
| Open RFQ Form Command | Command that Purchasing sends to open the RFQ from the notification | Form | |
| Org ID | Unique identifier for the operating unit | Number | |
| Quotation Status | Quotation status such as In Process or Active | Text | 25 |
| Quote End Date Active | Quotation expiration date | Date | |
| Quote Type Display | Quotation type as displayed in Purchasing | Text | 250 |
| Quote Warning Delay | Number of days prior to the expiration of the quotation that you want to be notified | Number | |
| Release Revision Number | Document revision number | Number | |
| Requires Approval Message | Text for the Requires Approval message | Text | 500 |
| Requisition Rejected Message | Text for the Requisition Rejected message | Text | 500 |
| Requisition Returned Message | Text for the Requisition Returned message | Text | 500 |
| Response Forward To | Forward-to response | Text | 250 |
| RFQ Close Date | Date the RFQ will be closed | Date | |
| RFQ Reply Date | Date the supplier replied to the RFQ | Date | |
| RFQ Status | RFQ status such as In Process or Active | Text | 25 |
| Wrong Forward to Error Message | Text for "wrong forward-to" message | Text | 500 |
The following is a description of each activity listed by the activity's display name. You can create all the components for an activity in the graphical Workflow Builder except for the PL/SQL stored procedures that the function activities call. All function activities execute PL/SQL stored procedures which you must create and store in the Oracle RDBMS. The naming convention for the PL/SQL stored procedures is:
<PACKAGE>.<PROCEDURE>
<PACKAGE> is the name of the package that groups all of the procedures. <PROCEDURE> represents the name of the procedure.
To view the package and procedure names used by the PO Document Approval Reminder process, view the Properties page for each function activity. For example, the function activity Set Document Type uses the <PACKAGE>.<PROCEDURE> name PO_APPROVAL_REMINDER_SV.SET_DOC_TYPE.
You can use the Item Type Definitions Web page to view <PACKAGE>.<PROCEDURE> names. See: Item Type Definitions Web Page.
This is a Standard function activity that simply marks the start of the process.
This function activity determines the document type: quotation, RFQ, requisition, purchase order, purchase agreement, release, or a purchase order or release that requires acceptance.
This is a standard Workflow comparison activity that provides a standard way to compare two numbers, dates, or text strings. See: Comparison Activities.
This activity sends a notification to the document preparer that the quotation requires completion because its status is still In Process.
This activity sends a notification to the document preparer that the quotation is nearing expiration. That is, the quotation is Active, and the current date is between the Effectivity end date on the document and the Quote Warning Delay date in the Purchasing Options window.
This activity sends a notification to the document preparer that the RFQ is nearing expiration. That is, the RFQ is Active, and the current date is between the Due Date and the Close Date on the RFQ.
This activity sends a notification to the document preparer that the RFQ requires completion because its status is still In Process.
This activity sends a notification that acceptance is required if Acceptance Required is selected for the release in the Terms and Conditions window, and the release has not been entered as accepted in the Acceptances window.
If the Acceptance Require By date for the release indicates that acceptance is overdue, this activity sends a notification that acceptance is past due.
This activity sends a notification that acceptance is required if Acceptance Required is selected for the purchase order in the Terms and Conditions window, and the purchase order has not been entered as accepted in the Acceptances window.
If the Acceptance Require By date for the purchase order indicates that acceptance is overdue, this activity sends a notification that acceptance is past due.
This activity sends a notification that the requisition requires approval because it is incomplete, rejected, or in need of reapproval.
This activity sends a notification that the purchase order requires approval because it is incomplete, rejected, or in need of reapproval.
This activity sends a notification that the release requires approval because it is incomplete, rejected, or in need of reapproval.
This function activity checks if the person responding to the notification has provided a forward-to approver and, if so, if the forward-to approver is a valid approver.
This is a standard Workflow activity. Here, it is used to simply return to the previous activity, the reminder notification, if the forward-to approver is not valid. See: Noop Activity.
If the notification is answered with Approve, and the forward-to approver (if any) is valid, this function activity launches the appropriate approval workflow.
This function activity marks the end of the process.