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Suggestion: If you are making minor changes to the default process in your Account Generator item type, such as changing an attribute of a function activity, you can save time by modifying the default process itself. If you are making major changes, such as adding function activities and changing the flow of the process, then you should make a copy of the default process and modify the copy.

Attention: If you have modified the default Account Generator process directly, you should ensure that your customizations are not overwritten when you upgrade to a future release. For more information, see: Overview of Oracle Workflow Protection, Oracle Workflow Guide; and Creating Process Definitions in Oracle Workflow Builder, Oracle Workflow Guide.

Warning: You should never create a new item type as your Account Generator. Instead, start from the default Account Generator item type or a copy of it.

Attention: You cannot modify the attributes or functions given to you in your default Account Generator item type. That is, you cannot select an attribute or function within the Navigator window and modify it. You can, however, modify the attributes of a function activity that is part of a process.

Warning: Do not change the threshold level of the Oracle Workflow Engine. All of your Account Generator functions should have low costs, so you should never need to change the threshold level.

See Also

Create a New Attribute

After you create a new attribute, you need to set its value by adding a function activity to your process. For example, if the value comes from another code combination you could use the Get Value from Code Combination function activity from the Standard Flexfield Workflow.

Modify Attributes of a Function Activity

For example, suppose your default Account Generator process uses the standard function Copy Segment Value from Code Combination to copy a segment value from the default code combination. This function thus has "Default CCID" as the value for the attribute "Code Combination ID". However, suppose you want to use "Distribution CCID" instead of the "Default CCID". You would then change this value within the function activity node's process detail property page.

Add a Function Activity to a Process

For example, suppose that you are working within the Oracle Assets Account Generator item type. In your process, you want to check to see if any account is a Category Account. You would then add the Check Category Account function activity in the appropriate place in the process diagram. If a function requires values to be passed in as arguments, you need to ensure the proper values are set for the attributes of the function.

Warning: Oracle Workflow provides activities that you should never add to your Account Generator, namely, Notification and Block activities. Both of these activities halt the process, and you should never halt an Account Generator process before completion.

Warning: In general, avoid using parallel branches in your Account Generator process diagram. The Oracle Workflow Engine processes activities sequentially. If your process includes parallel branches that converge on a single function, you should ensure that that function is an AND function, so that all required activities are completed before the Engine continues to the next activity in the process.

Create a New Function Activity

Create a New Process

Select the item type that you want to create the process for. For example, for Oracle Assets you would choose the FA Account Generator item type. From the Edit Menu choose New Process. Within the property sheet that appears, specify an internal name, display name and description. The display name will appear in the Navigator window for the process, and it would be the name used in the Account Generator Process window. For the Result Type specify "Flexfield Result". If this is the top-level process that you will actually run, specify "Runnable".

Suggestion: Examine your product's default Account Generator process diagram first to see how a process works.

Your start activity for the top-level process must be the Start Generating Code Combination function activity, which you can copy from the Standard Flexfield Workflow item type.

You can then add activities to the process. See the Oracle Workflow Guide for details on how to add activities to a process, as well as details on standard Workflow activities.

See the section on the Standard Flexfield Workflow for generic Account Generator function activities you might want to add. For example, the activity Is Code Combination Complete? checks to see if all segments have values. The Validate Code Combination activity is useful for validating your combination after it has been generated. You can add the Abort Generation of Code Combination activity to terminate the process in the case of a fatal error. You should pass in an error message to this activity if you use it. This activity should be marked in the properties page as an "End" activity with the Result of "Failure".

In addition, your product's Account Generator may also contain function activities particular to your product that you may want to use. See your Oracle [Product] User's Guide for more information on these activities.

Once the combination has been generated and validated, your process should end with the End Generation of Code Combination standard flexfield workflow activity. This activity should be marked in the properties page as an "End" activity with the Result of "Success".

See Also

Overview of Oracle Workflow Builder: page Oracle Workflow Guide

Standard Activities: page Oracle Workflow Guide

Process Window: page Oracle Workflow Guide