Workflow Processes (Oracle Workflow Help)


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Workflow Processes

Oracle Workflow manages business processes according to rules that you define. The rules, which we call a workflow process definition, include the activities that occur in the process and the relationship between those activities. An activity in a process definition can be an automated function defined by a PL/SQL stored procedure or an external function, a notification to a user or role that may optionally request a response, a business event, or a subflow that itself is made up of a more granular set of activities.

A workflow process is initiated when an application calls a set of Oracle Workflow Engine APIs. The Workflow Engine takes over by driving the relevant work item defined by the application, through a specific workflow process definition. According to the workflow process definition, the Workflow Engine performs automated steps and invokes appropriate agents when external processing is required.

The following diagram depicts a simplified workflow process definition that routes a requisition to a manager or set of managers for approval.

What this image depicts is fully described in the text, and requires no further elaboration for the visually impaired.

We refer to the whole drawing as a process or process diagram. The icons represent activities, and the arrows represent the transitions between the activities. In the above example, new items are created for the process when a user creates and submits a requisition in the appropriate application.

This process contains several workflow activities implemented as PL/SQL stored procedures, including:

Select Approver--to select, according to your business rules, who should approve the requisition.

Verify Authority--to verify that a selected approver has the spending authority to approve the requisition.

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