This chapter describes how to administer users' notifications.
This chapter covers the following topics:
Use the Notifications administrator page to search for and access notifications sent to your users.
Note: You must have workflow administrator privileges to access other users' notifications in the Notifications page. If you do not have administrator privileges, you can only search for and access your own notifications. Workflow administrator privileges are assigned in the Workflow Configuration page. See: Setting Global User Preferences.
Note: If you want users to be able to search for their notifications through this page, you can give them access to this page from any responsibility you choose. See: Adding Worklist Functions to User Responsibilities.
If you take action on another user's notification, such as responding to, reassigning, or closing the notification or requesting more information, then Oracle Workflow updates the notification's action history to show that you performed that action.
Note: To respond to a notification that requires an electronic signature, you must be logged in as the intended recipient. You cannot respond to a notification that requires a signature when you are accessing another user's notifications, because in this case the user responding will not match the intended recipient, so authorization will fail.
However, if you need to act on another user's notifications for administrative reasons, you can reassign notifications that require signatures to yourself, and then submit responses to those notifications using your own signature.
To search for notifications
Navigate to the Notifications page by choosing the Administration tab in the Oracle Workflow administrator Web pages and choosing Notification Search in the horizontal navigation.
Search for the notifications you want to access. The following search criteria are available only if you have workflow administrator privileges:
Notification ID - Enter the numerical notification ID for a specific notification. Note that if you specify a notification ID, all other search criteria are ignored.
Owner - Select the role that owns the notifications.
Note: If an administrator has configured restrictions for the user list of values, then only the values to which you have access appear in the list. See: Configuring the Oracle Workflow User List of Values.
To - Select the role to which the notifications were sent.
Note: If an administrator has configured restrictions for the user list of values, then only the values to which you have access appear in the list. See: Configuring the Oracle Workflow User List of Values.
Note: Usually, the Owner role and the To role for a notification are the same. However, you can specify different roles in the Owner field and the To field to search for notifications that were reassigned in Delegate mode. See: Setting the WF: Notification Reassign Mode Profile Option.
The following search criteria are always available:
From - Select the role from which the notifications were sent. The From role for a notification is determined by the #FROM_ROLE message attribute. See: #FROM_ROLE Attribute, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.
Note: If an administrator has configured restrictions for the user list of values, then only the values to which you have access appear in the list. See: Configuring the Oracle Workflow User List of Values.
Status - Select the status of the notifications. You can search for notifications that are open, closed, or canceled, or to which an invalid reply was submitted, or choose All to display notifications in any status.
Workflow Type - Select the workflow item type to which the notifications belong. The display name for the workflow type you select populates the Workflow Type field, and the internal name for the workflow type you select populates the Type Internal Name field.
Type Internal Name - Enter the internal name of the workflow type to which the notifications belong, if you want to enter the internal name directly instead of selecting a value.
Subject - Enter the subject line of the notifications. This field is case-sensitive. You can use the percent sign (%) as a wildcard character to search for a partial subject line value.
Sent - Choose Today, This Week (last seven days), Last 2 Weeks (last fourteen days), Last 30 Days, Last 60 Days, or Any Time to specify when the notifications were sent. All the sent date ranges include the current date; for example, Last 2 Weeks includes today as well as the previous thirteen days.
Due Date - Choose Last 2 Weeks (last fourteen days), This Week (last seven days), Today, Next 2 Weeks (next fourteen days), Next 30 Days, Next 60 Days, or Any Time to specify when the notifications should be completed. All the due date ranges include the current date; for example, Next 2 Weeks includes today as well as the next thirteen days.
Priority - Select High, Normal, or Low as the notification priority, or choose All to display notifications of any priority.
Note: If you have workflow administrator privileges, you must enter at least one of the following criteria when you search in order to limit the size of the results list.
Notification ID
Owner
To
From
To view and respond to a notification, select the notification subject link in the Subject column, or select the notification and then select the Open button. See: To View the Details of a Notification, Oracle Workflow User's Guide.
To collectively reassign a group of notifications, select the notifications you want and select the Reassign button, the Delegate button, or the Transfer button.
The Reassign button appears if you have access to reassign notifications to another user either by delegating the notifications or by transferring complete ownership of the notifications.
The Delegate button appears if you only have access to delegate the notifications.
The Transfer button appears if you only have access to transfer ownership of the notifications.
See: To Reassign a Notification to Another User, Oracle Workflow User's Guide and Setting the WF: Notification Reassign Mode Profile Option.
Note: A workflow may include special logic to restrict reassignment of notifications. If any of the notifications that you selected are restricted in this way, Oracle Workflow displays an error message when you select the Reassign, Delegate, or Transfer button. In this case you should deselect the restricted notifications before performing the reassignment.
However, users with workflow administrator privileges can reassign even restricted notifications.
See: #HIDE_REASSIGN Attribute, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.
If a workflow administrator has enabled the Respond button on this page, you can respond to a group of notifications collectively. To do so, select the notifications you want and select the Respond button. The notifications must all belong to the same workflow type and message definition so that the response values you provide will match all the notifications in the group.
Note: You can only use the Respond button to respond to notifications that are open, require a response, do not require a digital signature, and do not contain a request from another user for more information about another notification. To respond to notifications that require a digital signature or that contain a request for more information, you must access the notifications individually through the Notification Details page.
See: To Respond to a Group of Notifications, Oracle Workflow User's Guide and Setting the WF: Enable Bulk Notification Response Profile Option.
Note: If you select only one notification before choosing the Respond button, Oracle Workflow displays the Notification Details page for that notification rather than the Respond to Notifications as Group page. See: To View the Details of a Notification, Oracle Workflow User's Guide.
To collectively close a group of FYI notifications, select the notifications you want and select the Close button. In the confirmation page, choose Apply.
Note: You can only use the Close button to close notifications that are open and do not require a response.
Use vacation rules to handle notifications automatically when users are not available to manage their notifications directly, such as when they are on vacation. You can define rules to perform the following actions automatically when a notification arrives:
Reassign the notification to another user
Note: A workflow may include special logic to restrict reassignment of notifications. If so, Oracle Workflow does not apply any vacation rules to reassign those notifications, but simpy delivers the notifications to the worklist of the original recipient. See: #HIDE_REASSIGN Attribute, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.
Respond to the notification with a predefined response, or close a notification that does not require a response
Note: If this notification requires a password-based signature or certificate-based digital signature in the response, you cannot respond to the notification through a vacation rule. In this case Oracle Workflow simply delivers the notification to the worklist of the original recipient. The recipient must use the Notification Details page to submit a response and provide the required signature. See: To View the Details of a Notification, Oracle Workflow User's Guide.
Deliver the notification to the original recipient's worklist as usual, with no further action
Use the Vacation Rules administrator page to define rules for automatic notification processing for your users. Each rule is specific to a role.
Note: You must have workflow administrator privileges to define vacation rules for other users in the Vacation Rules page. Workflow administrator privileges are assigned in the Workflow Configuration page. See: Setting Global User Preferences.
A vacation rule can apply to messages of all item types, to all messages belonging to a specific item type, or to a specific type of message belonging to a specific item type. Each time a notification is sent to a user, Oracle Workflow tests the notification against that user's vacation rules. First Oracle Workflow checks whether the user has any active rules for that specific message type. If not, it checks whether the user has any active rules for that specific item type. Finally, it checks whether the user has any active rules for messages of all item types. As soon as it finds a match, Oracle Workflow applies the rule and discontinues any further rule matching.
If a rule reassigns a notification, Oracle Workflow performs rule matching again against the new recipient role's list of rules. Oracle Workflow maintains a count of the number of times it forwards a notification to detect perpetual forwarding cycles. If a notification is automatically forwarded more than ten times, Oracle Workflow assumes that a forwarding cycle has occurred and ceases executing any further forwarding rules, marking the notification as being in error.
To define vacation rules for a user
Navigate to the Vacation Rules page by choosing the Administration tab in the Oracle Workflow administrator Web pages and choosing Vacation Rules in the horizontal navigation.
Search for the role for which you want to define vacation rules.
Note: If an administrator has configured restrictions for the user list of values, then only the values to which you have access appear in the list. See: Configuring the Oracle Workflow User List of Values.
The list of existing rules for the selected role includes rules defined by the individual user as well as rules defined by an administrator for that user. A rule's active or inactive status depends on whether the current date falls within the rule's effective dates.
To update a rule, select the Update icon for that rule. See: To Create or Update a Vacation Rule, Oracle Workflow User's Guide.
To delete a rule, select the Delete icon for that rule.
To create a new rule, select the Create Rule button. See: To Create or Update a Vacation Rule, Oracle Workflow User's Guide.
Related Topics
Vacation Rules, Oracle Workflow User's Guide
Setting Up Notification Handling Options.
A notification can require that a user's response be signed electronically, either with a password-based signature or with a certificate-based digital signature. Use the Signature Evidence Store to review details about the electronic signatures requested or submitted for notifications that require signatures. For example, you can check the status of a signature request and review details that provide evidence of the signature.
You can also view some signature details in the Notification Response Details page in the Status Monitor. See: Viewing Responses.
You can only review signatures for notifications that have not been purged. To preserve electronic signature evidence for future reference, the Purge Obsolete Workflow Runtime Data concurrent program and the Oracle Workflow purging APIs by default do not delete any notifications that required signatures or their associated signature information. If you anticipate needing access to signature evidence after the associated workflow processes are complete, ensure that you choose to preserve signature data when purging. If you do not need to maintain signature evidence, you can choose to delete signature-related information when purging. See: Purging Workflow Data and Workflow Purge APIs, Oracle Workflow API Reference.
To review electronic signature details
Navigate to the Electronic Signature page by choosing the Administration tab in the Oracle Workflow administrator Web pages and choosing Signature Evidence Store in the horizontal navigation.
Search for the signatures you want to review. The search criteria are:
Notification ID - Enter the numerical notification ID for a specific notification that requires a signature. Note that if you specify a notification ID, all other search criteria are ignored.
Signature Policy - Select the policy that identifies the type of signature and signed text required by a notification, or select Any to display signatures for any policy.
PSIG_ONLY - This policy requires a password-based signature for signed response text that contains only the notification header information and the response values entered by the user.
PSIG_BODY - This policy requires a password-based signature for signed response text that contains the notification header information, the response values entered by the user, and the notification message body.
PKCS7X509_ONLY - This policy requires a certificate-based digital signature for signed response text that contains only the notification header information and the response values entered by the user.
PKCS7X509_BODY - This policy requires a certificate-based digital signature for signed response text that contains the notification header information, the response values entered by the user, and the notification message body.
Requested Signer - Select the user to whom the notification requesting a signature was sent.
Note: If an administrator has configured restrictions for the user list of values, then only the values to which you have access appear in the list. See: Configuring the Oracle Workflow User List of Values.
Status - Select the status of the signatures you want to review, or select Any to display signatures in any status.
Requested - Oracle Workflow has requested a signature from a user by sending a notification that requires a signature.
Signed - The user has submitted a signature with the notification response.
Verified - Oracle Workflow has verified that the signature was well formed, that it was created with a private key corresponding to the offered signing certificate, and that it is signing the plain text that it purports to sign.
Authorized - Oracle Workflow has confirmed that the user who submitted the signature is authorized to sign the notification by checking that the certificate is assigned to a user who is a member of the recipient role for the notification.
Validation Attempted - Oracle Workflow has attempted to confirm that the certificate used to create the signature was valid at the time the signature was received, meaning it had not expired or been revoked. To validate a certificate, Oracle Workflow checks that the certificate does not appear on a certificate revocation list (CRL) issued by the certificate authority after the time the signature was received. If the currently available CRL was issued before the time the signature was received, Oracle Workflow sets the signature status to Validation Attempted and checks the CRL again later.
Validated - Oracle Workflow has successfully validated the signature against a CRL issued by the certificate authority after the time the signature was received.
Request Failed - The request for a signature was not successfully created. An error may have occurred in notification processing.
Signature Failed - The user attempted to submit a signature but did not successfully complete the signature.
Signature Cancelled - The user or an administrator canceled the submitted signature. The notification may have been canceled.
Verification Failed - Oracle Workflow could not verify the signature because the signature was not well formed, it was not created with a private key corresponding to the offered signing certificate, or it did not sign the plain text that it purported to sign.
Authorization Failed - Oracle Workflow could not confirm that the user who submitted the signature was authorized to sign the notification, because the certificate used to create the signature was not assigned to a user who was a member of the recipient role for the notification.
Validation Failed - Oracle Workflow could not confirm that the certificate used to create the signature was valid at the time the signature was received. The certificate may have been expired or revoked.
Error - Oracle Workflow encountered an error in signature processing.
Creation Date - Enter the date when the request for a signature was created.
Signed Date - Enter the date when the user submitted the signature.
Verified Date - Enter the date when Oracle Workflow confirmed that the signature was well formed, that it was created with a private key corresponding to the offered signing certificate, and that it signed the plain text that it purported to sign.
Last Validation Date - Enter the most recent date when Oracle Workflow attempted to check that the certificate used to create the signature was valid at the time the signature was received.
Validated Complete Date - Enter the date when Oracle Workflow successfully validated the signature against a CRL issued by the certificate authority after the time the signature was received.
Note: You must enter at least one of the following criteria when you search in order to limit the size of the results list.
Notification ID
Requested Signer
Creation Date
Signed Date
Verified Date
Review the list of signatures that match your search criteria.
Related Topics
Setting Up for Electronic Signatures
#WF_SIG_POLICY Attribute, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide
Electronic Signatures, Oracle Workflow User's Guide
Use worklist flexfields to define specialized worklist views that display information specific to particular types of notifications. Worklist flexfields are columns in the notification table, WF_NOTIFICATIONS, in which you can store information from different message attributes for different notifications. Storing information in the notification table lets you display that information in a Personal Worklist view. Through such a view, users can quickly review important details about several notifications at once, without navigating to the Notification Details page for each notification. Users can also sort their worklists by the displayed message attributes.
For example, if an expense notification includes message attributes for the expense total and purpose, an administrator can map these message attributes to worklist flexfields. The administrator can then define a worklist view that includes only expense notifications and displays the expense total and purpose for each notification alongside standard notification properties, such as the subject line and sent date.
Note: Worklist flexfields are separate from the key flexfields and descriptive flexfields used in Oracle E-Business Suite. For information about key and descriptive flexfields, see the Oracle E-Business Suite Flexfields Guide.
Users must have access to the Personal Worklist to take advantage of a specialized worklist view. See: Adding Worklist Functions to User Responsibilities.
To define a specialized worklist view using worklist flexfields, perform these steps:
Define a worklist flexfields rule that maps message attributes from one or more workflow item types to worklist flexfields columns. See: Defining a Worklist Flexfields Rule.
Optionally define a securing function to secure access to your new worklist view. See: Defining a Securing Function.
Create a Personal Worklist view that displays the columns mapped by a worklist flexfields rule and that includes only notifications from the corresponding item types. See: Creating a Personalized View for the Personal Worklist.
If you secured access to the view with a securing function, restart Oracle HTTP Server. See: Restarting Oracle HTTP Server.
Some Oracle E-Business Suite products also provide seeded worklist flexfields rules and Personal Worklist views. For more information, consult your product-specific documentation or help.
Worklist flexfields rules can map both send and respond message attributes. If a respond message attribute has a default value, the corresponding worklist flexfield displays that value while the notification is open.
You can map message attributes with the following data types:
Text
Number
Form
Note: When displayed in a Personal Worklist view, a form attribute appears as a form icon that drills down to the specified Oracle E-Business Suite form or page. Users must use a responsibility with the appropriate security to open a linked form or Oracle Application Framework page.
URL
Note: When displayed in a Personal Worklist view, a URL attribute appears as a URL icon that links to the specified URL.
Date
Note: A message attribute of type date must have the following format to be used in a worklist flexfields rule:
dd-mon-yyyy hh24:mi:ss
The Personal Worklist requires date attributes to be stored in this format to display them properly according to each user's preference.
Worklist flexfields rules cannot map message attributes of type lookup, role, document, or event.
Worklist flexfields rules make message attributes available for display in the Personal Worklist. A worklist flexfields rule operates in combination with other rules that cover the same item type. The phase numbers and customization levels of the rules determine how their effects combine to produce a net set of available message attributes.
The phase numbers for worklist flexfields rules control the order in which rules for the same item type take effect. If two rules for the same item type map message attributes to the same worklist flexfield column, then the rule with the higher phase number overrides the rule with lower phase number in that column. Other column mappings from the lower-phase rule may still take effect if they do not conflict with any column mappings from higher-phase rules.
Rules seeded by Oracle E-Business Suite use phase numbers from 1 to 99. You can assign your rules phase numbers of 100 or higher.
Note: Do not assign the same phase number to more than one rule for the same item type. To ensure that the rules you want take effect, assign a different phase number to each rule for an item type.
The customization level for a rule determines which worklist flexfields columns the rule can map and whether you can update the rule definition. Oracle Workflow uses the customization level to protect Oracle E-Business Suite seed data and to preserve your customizations in an upgrade.
Rules seeded by Oracle E-Business Suite can have a customization level of Core or Limit. For rules that you define, Oracle Workflow automatically sets the customization level to User.
Core rules represent key Oracle E-Business Suite features. You cannot make any changes to the rule definitions. Core rules use a different set of worklist flexfields columns than limit and user rules, so core rules cannot override or be overridden by limit and user rules. However, a core rule with a higher phase number can override a core rule for the same item type with a lower phase number. Core rules use phase numbers from 1 to 99.
Core rules can map the following worklist flexfields columns.
| Data Type | Column Names |
|---|---|
| Text | PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE1 PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE2 PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE3 PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE4 PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE5 PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE6 PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE7 PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE8 PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE9 PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE10 |
| Number | PROTECTED_NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE1 PROTECTED_NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE2 PROTECTED_NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE3 PROTECTED_NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE4 PROTECTED_NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE5 |
| Form | PROTECTED_FORM_ATTRIBUTE1 PROTECTED_FORM_ATTRIBUTE2 PROTECTED_FORM_ATTRIBUTE3 PROTECTED_FORM_ATTRIBUTE4 PROTECTED_FORM_ATTRIBUTE5 |
| URL | PROTECTED_URL_ATTRIBUTE1 PROTECTED_URL_ATTRIBUTE2 PROTECTED_URL_ATTRIBUTE3 PROTECTED_URL_ATTRIBUTE4 PROTECTED_URL_ATTRIBUTE5 |
| Date | PROTECTED_DATE_ATTRIBUTE1 PROTECTED_DATE_ATTRIBUTE2 PROTECTED_DATE_ATTRIBUTE3 PROTECTED_DATE_ATTRIBUTE4 PROTECTED_DATE_ATTRIBUTE5 |
Usually, core rules map message attributes that appear in a seeded worklist view within a particular application. You can also include message attributes mapped by core rules in your own worklist views. If a core rule does not meet your requirements, you can choose not to include its message attributes in your views; however, Oracle Workflow still stores the message attributes in the mapped columns.
Limit rules represent optional Oracle E-Business Suite features. You can update the status of limit rules to Enabled or Disabled, but you cannot make any other changes to the rule definitions.
User rules are the custom rules that you define. You can update any property in the rule definitions.
Note: You cannot delete worklist flexfields rules. If you no longer want a rule to take effect, disable the rule.
Limit rules and user rules share the same set of worklist flexfields columns. However, limit rules use phase numbers from 1 to 99, while user rules use phase numbers of 100 or higher. Consequently, a limit rule can be overridden both by another limit rule for the same item type with a higher phase number and by a user rule for the same item type. However, a user rule can only be overridden by another user rule for the same item type with a higher phase number. A limit rule cannot override a user rule.
Limit rules and user rules can map the following worklist flexfields columns.
| Data Type | Column Names |
|---|---|
| Text | TEXT_ATTRIBUTE1 TEXT_ATTRIBUTE2 TEXT_ATTRIBUTE3 TEXT_ATTRIBUTE4 TEXT_ATTRIBUTE5 TEXT_ATTRIBUTE6 TEXT_ATTRIBUTE7 TEXT_ATTRIBUTE8 TEXT_ATTRIBUTE9 TEXT_ATTRIBUTE10 |
| Number | NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE1 NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE2 NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE3 NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE4 NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE5 |
| Form | FORM_ATTRIBUTE1 FORM_ATTRIBUTE2 FORM_ATTRIBUTE3 FORM_ATTRIBUTE4 FORM_ATTRIBUTE5 |
| URL | URL_ATTRIBUTE1 URL_ATTRIBUTE2 URL_ATTRIBUTE3 URL_ATTRIBUTE4 URL_ATTRIBUTE5 |
| Date | DATE_ATTRIBUTE1 DATE_ATTRIBUTE2 DATE_ATTRIBUTE3 DATE_ATTRIBUTE4 DATE_ATTRIBUTE5 |
The message attributes mapped by limit rules may appear in a seeded worklist view within a particular application. You can also include these message attributes in your own worklist views. If a limit rule does not meet your requirements and you want to override some of its mappings while allowing others to take effect, define a user rule that maps the attributes you want to the relevant columns in place of the attributes you do not need. If you no longer want any mappings from a limit rule to take effect, disable that rule.
Define user rules for any message attributes you want that are not made available by default through core or limit rules. While defining a rule, you can check whether its column mappings conflict with any existing rules for the same item type, and whether the new rule will override or be overridden by the conflicting rules. Review each conflict to decide whether to accept the current overrides or update the rule definitions to make a different rule take effect. See: To Create or Update a Worklist Flexfields Rule.
When you finish defining a worklist flexfields rule, Oracle Workflow submits the Denormalize Worklist Flexfields concurrent program (FNDWFDCC) once for each workflow item type in the rule. The program stores the message attributes for any currently open notifications from that item type in the mapped columns, except for columns overridden by another rule. Subsequently, whenever Oracle Workflow sends a new notification from an item type covered by the rule, the Notification System stores the message attributes for the notification in the mapped columns.
To review the net set of message attributes that are currently available for a particular item type, or for a particular message within an item type, perform a worklist flexfields rules simulation. The simulation results also let you drill down to review any overridden rules for each column and create or update rules if necessary. After you are satisfied with the available attributes, use the simulation results to choose the columns to include when you create a Personal Worklist view. See: To Simulate the Effect of Worklist Flexfields Rules.
Example - Worklist Flexfields Rules
This example demonstrates how worklist flexfields rules operate, using the sample Requisition item type. For more details about this sample item type, see: The Requisition Item Type, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.
Suppose a core rule named EXC01 is seeded for the Requisition item type with a phase of 50 and the following column mapping:
PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE1 column : Requisition Number attribute
Also, suppose a limit rule named EXL02 is seeded for the Requisition item type with a phase of 60 and the following column mappings:
TEXT_ATTRIBUTE1 column : Requisition Description attribute
NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE1 column : Requisition Amount attribute
You prefer to display the Note attribute instead of the Requisition Description attribute, and you also want to display the Monitor URL attribute. To do so, you define a user rule named EXU03 for the Requisition item type with a phase of 110 and the following column mappings:
TEXT_ATTRIBUTE1 column : Note attribute
URL_ATTRIBUTE1 column : Monitor URL attribute
These rules combine to produce a net set of four message attributes that you can display in a Personal Worklist view for the Requisition item type.
| Column | Message Attribute | Effective Rule |
|---|---|---|
| PROTECTED_TEXT_ATTRIBUTE1 | Requisition Number | EXC01 |
| NUMBER_ATTRIBUTE1 | Requisition Amount | EXL02 |
| TEXT_ATTRIBUTE1 | Note | EXU03 |
| URL_ATTRIBUTE1 | Monitor URL | EXU03 |
Defining a Worklist Flexfields Rule
To View and Maintain Worklist Flexfields Rules
Use a Web browser to navigate to the Worklist Flexfields Rules page, using a responsibility and navigation path specified by your system administrator. See: Oracle Workflow Administrator Navigation Paths.
Search for the rules you want to display. The search criteria are:
Rule Name - Enter the internal name of the rule. You can enter a partial value to search for rules whose internal names contain that value. This field is case-sensitive.
Display Name - Select the user-friendly name of the rule. You can enter a partial value to search for rules whose display names contain that value. This field is case-sensitive.
Phase - Enter the phase number that determines whether the rule overrides or is overridden by other rules.
Status - Select whether to display enabled rules or disabled rules.
Level - Select the customization level of the rule.
Workflow Type - Select a workflow item type that contains notifications to which the rule applies.
Message Attribute - Select a message attribute that the rule maps to a worklist flexfields column. If you specified a workflow type, you can only select a message attribute belonging to that workflow type. Otherwise, you can select a message attribute belonging to any workflow type
Column Name - Select a worklist flexfields column to which the rule maps a message attribute.
You must enter at least one of the following criteria when you search to limit the size of the results list.
Rule Name
Display Name
Level
Workflow Type
If you search only by the Level option or the Workflow Type option, you must select a specific value for that option. You cannot use one of these criteria with the Any value as your only search option.
The Workflow Type, Message Attribute, and Column Name search options only list values for which a rule exists.
To update a rule, choose the update icon for that rule. See: To Create or Update a Worklist Flexfields Rule.
To create a new rule, select the Create Rule button. See: To Create or Update a Worklist Flexfields Rule.
To Create or Update a Worklist Flexfields Rule
To Enter General Properties
Navigate to the Create Worklist Flexfields Rule: Enter General Properties page or to the Update Worklist Flexfields Rule: Enter General Properties page. The Create Worklist Flexfields Rule pages and the Update Worklist Flexfields Rule pages are identical, except that the fields in the Update Worklist Flexfields Rule pages are populated with previously defined information for the selected rule.
Enter the internal name that uniquely identifies the rule and the user-friendly display name for the rule.
Review the customization level for the rule.
Core - You cannot make any changes to the rule definition. This level is used only for rules seeded by Oracle E-Business Suite.
Limit - You can update the rule status to Enabled or Disabled, but you cannot make any other changes to the rule definition. This level is used only for rules seeded by Oracle E-Business Suite.
User - You can update any property in the rule definition. This level is automatically set for rules that you define.
Select Enabled or Disabled as the rule status.
Enter a phase number for the rule to specify the order in which rules for the same workflow item type take effect. Rules with a higher phase number override rules with a lower phase number. Rules seeded by Oracle E-Business Suite use phase numbers from 1 to 99. You can assign your rules phase numbers of 100 or higher.
Note: Do not assign the same phase number to more than one rule for the same item type. To ensure that the rules you want take effect, assign a different phase number to each rule for an item type.
Enter an optional description for the rule.
Identify the application that owns the rule by entering the application name in the Owner Name field and the application ID in the Owner Tag field.
To Select Filter Criteria
Search for the workflow item types that contain the notifications to which the rule should apply. You can enter a partial value in the Workflow Type field to search for item types whose display names begin with that value. This field is case-sensitive.
Select the item types you want in the Available Filter Criteria list and move them to the Selected Filter Criteria list.
Select an item type in either list to view its description.
If you perform a new search to show different item types in the Available Filter Criteria list, Oracle Workflow still preserves the item types that you already added to the Selected Filter Criteria list.
To Select Message Attributes
To remove a workflow item type from the filter criteria for the rule, choose the remove icon for that item type in the Selected Filter Criteria list.
When you remove an item type, Oracle Workflow removes any message attributes belonging to that item type from the Available list and the Selected list.
Optionally specify the data type of the message attributes to display in the Available list.
Select the message attributes to map in the Available list and move them to the Selected list. You can select a maximum of ten text attributes, five number attributes, five form attributes, five URL attributes, and five date attributes.
The lists show the display name and data type for each message attribute. Select a message attribute in either list to view in the Description field the display name and internal name of the message to which the attribute belongs.
If multiple messages in the selected workflow item types have a message attribute with the same internal name, display name, and data type, that message attribute appears only once in the lists. In this case the Description field indicates that the message attribute occurs in multiple messages
Note: Oracle Workflow treats all message attributes with the same internal name and data type as the same attribute for purposes of worklist flexfields column mapping. Although attributes with different display names appear separately in the Available and Selected lists, if you select at least one attribute with a particular internal name and data type, all attributes that share that internal name and data type will be included in the column mapping.
If you display message attributes of a different data type in the Available list, Oracle Workflow still preserves the message attributes that you already added to the Selected list.
To Map Attributes to Columns
For each message attribute, select the worklist flexfields column in which to store the attribute value. The Mapped Column field for each attribute displays only columns that match the attribute data type. You can use each column only once in a rule.
If multiple messages in the selected workflow item types have a message attribute with the same internal name and data type, that message attribute appears only once. However, if any of the repeated message attributes have different display names, the list shows all the display names.
To remove a message attribute from the column mappings for the rule, choose the remove icon for that attribute.
To review any conflicts with other rules' column mappings, choose the Find Conflicts button.
In the Find Worklist Flexfields Rule Map Conflicts page, review the columns that other rules map to different attributes for the same workflow item types. The Conflict field indicates whether the current rule overrides or is overridden by the other rule, based on the rule phase numbers.
Note: Check that no two rules for the same item type have the same phase number. To ensure that the rules you want take effect, each rule for an item type must have a different phase number.
To resolve a conflict:
If you want a worklist view to display the mapped attributes from all rules simultaneously, change the column mappings for one of the rules to use separate columns for the different attributes.
If you no longer want any column mappings from a particular rule to take effect, disable that rule.
If you want to override some column mappings from a particular rule while allowing others to take effect, either decrease the phase number for that rule or increase the phase number for the overriding rule.
If the appropriate rules already override any others, accept the existing rule definitions.
To return to your rule definition, choose the Return to Pending Rule link.
If you need to change this rule definition to resolve conflicts, return to the previous pages to make your changes.
To complete the rule definition, choose Finish. Oracle Workflow submits the Denormalize Worklist Flexfields concurrent program (FNDWFDCC) once for each workflow item type in the rule. The program stores the message attributes for any currently open notifications from that item type in the mapped columns, except for columns overridden by another rule. Use the displayed concurrent request IDs to track the progress of these requests.
To Simulate the Effect of Worklist Flexfields Rules
A worklist flexfields rules simulation lets you review the net effect of the enabled rules for a particular item type, or optionally for a particular message. The simulation shows which message attributes are available in which worklist flexfields columns after all relevant rules are applied, with higher-phase rules overriding lower-phase rules wherever they conflict.
Perform a Core Rules simulation to learn which message attributes are already available in worklist flexfields columns by default. Although you cannot change these rules, you can use the simulation results to avoid duplicating the mapped attributes in user rules.
Perform a Limit and User Rules simulation to verify that any other message attributes you require are available in worklist flexfields columns. If necessary, you can adjust the rules' effect by enabling or disabling limit rules and creating, updating, enabling, or disabling user rules.
After you are satisfied with the net set of message attributes available for the item type, use the simulation results to choose the columns to include when you create a Personal Worklist view.
Use a Web browser to navigate to the Worklist Flexfields Rules Simulation page, using a responsibility and navigation path specified by your system administrator. See: Oracle Workflow Administrator Navigation Paths.
Specify the criteria for the simulation.
Select the workflow item type to review.
Optionally select a message within that item type to review.
Select the customization level to review, either core rules or limit and user rules together.
Choose Go to perform the simulation.
Review the list of mapped attributes and columns, which shows the net effect of the enabled rules for the selected item type and customization level. If you specified a message, the list shows only mapped attributes belonging to that message.
The list displays only the rule that takes effect for each column. To view any overridden rules that also map to that column, choose the overridden rules icon.
In the Find Worklist Flexfields Rule Conflicts page, review the columns that overridden rules map to different attributes than the effective rule. The Conflict field indicates that the effective rule overrides the other rules, based on the rule phase numbers.
Note: Check that no two rules for the same item type have the same phase number. To ensure that the rules you want take effect, each rule for an item type must have a different phase number.
To resolve a conflict:
If you want a worklist view to display the mapped attributes from all rules simultaneously, change the column mappings for one of the rules to use separate columns for the different attributes.
If you no longer want any column mappings from a particular rule to take effect, disable that rule.
If you want to override some column mappings from a particular rule while allowing others to take effect, either decrease the phase number for that rule or increase the phase number for the overriding rule.
If the appropriate rules already override any others, accept the existing rule definitions.
To return to the simulation results, choose the Return to Worklist Flexfields Rule Simulation link.
To update a rule, choose the update icon for that rule. See: To Create or Update a Worklist Flexfields Rule.
To create a new rule, select the Create Rule button. See: To Create or Update a Worklist Flexfields Rule.
Defining a Securing Function
If you want to secure access to your specialized worklist view, define a securing function to associate with the view. Use the Form Functions window in Oracle E-Business Suite (System Administrator: Application > Function) to define a function with the following properties:
Type: Subfunction
Context Dependence: Responsibility
Add both the securing function and the Personal Worklist function (WF_WORKLIST_CUSTOM) to a menu, and assign the responsibility associated with that menu to your users. Your specialized worklist view will appear in the list of views only when users access the Personal Worklist from that responsibility.
You can associate several worklist views with the same securing function if you want those views to be available through the same responsibility.
If you do not secure your specialized worklist view, it will appear in the list of views whenever any user accesses the Personal Worklist from any responsibility.
See: Overview of Function Security, Oracle E-Business Suite System Administrator's Guide - Security, Overview of Menus and Function Security, Oracle E-Business Suite Developer's Guide, Form Functions Window, Oracle E-Business Suite Developer's Guide, and Adding Worklist Functions to User Responsibilities.
Creating a Personalized View for the Personal Worklist
Use Oracle Application Framework Personalization to create a Personal Worklist view that displays the worklist flexfields to which you mapped message attributes. To make the view available to your users, create it as an administrator-seeded user-level personalization.
Worklist flexfields rules are connected to a Personal Worklist view through the item types they both reference. You do not need to associate rules directly with a view. Rather, to display meaningful information in a view, limit the view to include only related item types that are covered by worklist flexfields rules, and add only worklist flexfields columns that are mapped by those rules.
For more information about creating personalizations, see: Personalization, Oracle Application Framework Personalization Guide.
Log in as a user for whom the Personalize Self-Service Defn profile option is set to Yes.
Navigate to the Personal Worklist and choose the Personalize Page global link or the Personalize region link for the "Customizable and searchable worklist" region. In the Page Hierarchy Personalization page, select the Seeded User Views icon for the "Table: Customizable and ..." item. In the Personalize Views page, select the Create View button.
In the Create View page, define the properties of your view.
If you defined a securing function for the view, specify the function in the view's general properties.
Select the columns to display in the view, including the worklist flexfields columns that are mapped to message attributes. Rename the columns as appropriate to identify the attributes stored in them.
A view can include worklist flexfields columns that are mapped by different rules. However, to display meaningful values in the view, you should select columns that are mapped by rules for the same item types.
Note: Perform a worklist flexfields rules simulation to review the worklist flexfields column mappings that are in effect for a particular item type. See: To Simulate the Effect of Worklist Flexfields Rules.
Specify the columns by which to sort the view, including worklist flexfields columns if appropriate.
To display only notifications from the relevant item types, add the Type parameter or the Type Internal Name parameter to the search query for the view, and specify the item type display name or internal name, respectively. You can add multiple instances of these parameters to include multiple item types in the view. In this case, select the Search results where each may contain any value entered option.
If you do not limit the item types included in the view, then the view may display notifications from other item types with blank values or unrelated values in the worklist flexfields columns.
For more information, see: Create View, Update View, and Duplicate View Pages, Oracle Application Framework Personalization Guide.
Restarting Oracle HTTP Server
If you associated a securing function with the view, you must stop and restart Oracle HTTP Server after completing the menu updates and saving the view, to make the changes take effect. See: Administering Oracle HTTP Server Powered by Apache, Oracle E-Business Suite System Administrator's Guide - Configuration.
Users must then access the Personal Worklist through a responsibility that includes the securing function for the view to appear in their list of available views.
If you have Oracle Application Framework set up in Oracle JDeveloper for custom development, you can embed the Personal Worklist as a region in an Oracle Application Framework page. In this way you can provide users access to the worklist from within your own application.
For more information about building and personalizing an Oracle Application Framework page, refer to the Oracle Application Framework Developer's Guide, available from My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1087332.1, Oracle Application Framework Release Notes, Release 12.1.3.
To Embed the Personal Worklist in an Oracle Application Framework Page
Create the Oracle Application Framework region definition for the top-level page in which you want to embed the Personal Worklist.
The Personal Worklist and all its subsidiary pages use their own application modules and controllers. However, you must use a separate application module and controller for your top-level page.
Define page features specific to your application, including branding, headers, and footers. The subsidiary pages accessed from the Personal Worklist will have the same features you define here for the top-level page.
Add the Personal Worklist by creating a new region in the page and setting the Extends property to the following value:
/oracle/apps/fnd/wf/worklist/webui/FullWorklistPG.FullWorklistRN
The Personal Worklist code automatically provides a link to let users return from the worklist pages to your application.
To personalize the embedded Personal Worklist region, create a personalization for the top-level page at function level or at responsibility level. For example, you can filter the worklist to display only notifications from item types owned by your application, or use a specialized view to display message attributes specific to your application.
Note: Before you can access the Workflow Mailer URL Access Tester page, your system administrator must add it to the menu for an Oracle E-Business Suite responsibility that is assigned to you. See: Adding Worklist Functions to User Responsibilities.
When a notification mailer sends a notification that contains an embedded Oracle Application Framework region, the mailer makes an HTTP request to the Web tier to fetch the Oracle Application Framework content. The Workflow Mailer URL Access Tester page lets you test whether that content can be generated correctly in the context that the notification mailer uses to access the content. You can test either the notification details for a single notification, or the notification summary of all open notifications for a particular role.
The page provides a test URL that can generate the same content that would be generated for an e-mail notification by the notification mailer. First, establish a browser session with the same context values as those that are set for the notification mailer in the Framework User, Framework Responsibility, and Framework Application ID parameters in the notification mailer configuration wizard. For example, the default values for these parameters are as follows:
Framework User - SYSADMIN (0)
Framework Responsibility - System Administrator (20420)
Framework Application ID - System Administration (1)
See: Message Generation.
Then, in this browser session, navigate to the test URL and view the generated content. If the content does not appear correctly, adjust the code for your Oracle Application Framework region to ensure that it does not depend on the user session context.
To Test Mailer URL Access
Navigate to the Workflow Mailer URL Access Tester page, using a responsibility and navigation path specified by your system administrator.
Select the region type to test, either Notification Details or Notification Summary.
For a Notification Details region, specify the following parameters:
Notification ID - Specify the unique ID for the notification to test.
Content Type - Specify whether to test the notification content in HTML format or as plain text.
Language - Select the language in which to display the notification content.
For a Notification Summary region, specify the following parameters:
Recipient Role - Select the type of role for which you want to test the notification summary. Then select the role you want within that type.
Note: The role types correspond to the originating system partitions in the Oracle Workflow directory service. See: Setting Up a Directory Service for Oracle Workflow.
Content Type - Specify whether to test the notification summary content in HTML format or as plain text.
Choose Go. Oracle Workflow displays the test URL to generate the notification content that you specified.
Establish a browser session with the same context values as those that are set for the notification mailer in the Framework User, Framework Responsibility, and Framework Application ID parameters in the notification mailer configuration wizard.
In this browser session, navigate to the test URL and verify that the generated content appears correctly.
Note: The test URL provided by the Workflow Mailer URL Access Tester page contains an nlsCalendar parameter that is set according to the preferences of the recipient role for the notification content that you are testing. When you navigate to the test URL, your Oracle E-Business Suite session switches to the calendar preference setting specified in this parameter, if it is different than your current setting, and displays any pages you subsequently visit according to that preference setting. To return to your own calendar preference setting, log out of Oracle E-Business Suite after using the Workflow Mailer URL Access Tester page, and then log in again.