This chapter describes how to monitor the progress of a workflow process.
This chapter covers the following topics:
The Self-Service Monitor lets you view and administer workflows that you own. You can use the monitor to review the notifications sent by a workflow, check the progress of the workflow by viewing the status diagram, and review notifications sent by the workflow and participant responses.
If you have workflow administrator privileges, you can also perform administrative operations within the monitor to control the processing performed for a workflow or handle an error. You can cancel a workflow that you no longer want to run, or you can reassign a notification that you want to send to a different recipient. Workflow administrator privileges are assigned in the Workflow Configuration page. See: Setting Global User Preferences, Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide.
Note: If you intervene in a workflow process with an administrative operation such as reassigning a notification, then Oracle Workflow updates the audit trail for the process to show that you performed that operation.
When you access the Status Monitor, you can search for the workflows you want to review. You can only search for workflows that you own.
Conditional Action: If your Oracle E-Business Suite instance uses Java Web Start to launch Java applications including the Status Monitor, instead of using the Java Plug-in, then you may need to perform configuration steps specific to your browser. See: My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2188898.1, Using Java Web Start with Oracle E-Business Suite.
To Search for Workflows in the Status Monitor
Use a web browser to navigate to the self-service Status Monitor, using a responsibility and navigation path specified by your system administrator. When you initially navigate to the Status Monitor, the Workflows page is displayed by default. See: Oracle Workflow User Navigation Paths.
To locate specific workflows, enter search criteria in the Search region. The main search option is:
Status - Choose the status of the workflows you want to review, or choose Any Status to display workflows in any status.
In Process - Workflows that do not have an end date (including errored workflows)
Complete - Workflows that have an end date
Error - Workflows that do not have an end date and have at least one errored activity
You can also enter additional search criteria to search for workflows by other workflow characteristics. To show the additional options if they are hidden, select the Show More Search Options link. To hide these options if they are shown, select the Hide Search Options link. The additional search criteria are:
Workflow Started - Choose Today, This Week (last seven days), Last 2 Weeks (last fourteen days), Last 30 Days, Last 60 Days, or Any Time to specify the start date of the workflows you want to review. All the start date ranges include the current date; for example, Last 2 Weeks includes today as well as the previous thirteen days.
Workflow Type - Select the workflow type you want to review.
Workflow - Enter the identifier for the workflow you want to review. You can enter a partial value to search for workflows whose identifiers begin with that value.
Select the Go button to perform your search.
The Results region displays the workflows that match your search criteria. For each workflow, the list displays the status, workflow type, workflow identifier, start date, and completion date.
Select the Workflow Type, Workflow, or Started column heading to sort the list by that column.
To view the error details for an errored workflow, select the error icon or the error link in the Status column.
You can use the monitor buttons to drill down to additional information for a workflow.
To review the notifications sent by a workflow, select the workflow and select the Notification History button.
To view the status diagram for a workflow, select the workflow and select the Status Diagram button.
To review notifications sent by a workflow and participant responses, select the workflow and select the Participant Responses button.
Related Topics
Accessing the Self-Service Monitor
The Notification History page shows information about the notifications sent by a workflow. The page identifies the displayed workflow by its user key if it has one, or by its internal item key if it does not have a user key.
To send email to the recipient of a notification, select the user link in the Notification Recipient column.
Note: If more information has been requested for a notification, then the Notification Recipient column shows the user to whom the request for more information was sent, rather than the original recipient of the notification.
If you have workflow administrator privileges, you can reassign a notification that is not yet complete. Select the notification you want to reassign and select the Reassign button. See: To Reassign a Notification to Another User.
Note: You cannot reassign a notification from the Status Monitor if the Expand Roles option is selected for the notification.
Additionally, you cannot reassign a voting notification that tallies the recipients' responses. See: Voting Activity, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.
To view the status diagram for the workflow, select the View Diagram button.
If you have workflow administrator privileges, you can cancel a workflow that is not yet complete. Select the Cancel Workflow button. In the Cancel page, select Apply. The Workflow Engine sets the status of the workflow to #FORCE, and all processing for the workflow is canceled and cannot be restarted. You can also select the Cancel button to return to the previous page without canceling the workflow.
Related Topics
Accessing the Self-Service Monitor
The Status Diagram page shows the process diagram for a workflow, including graphical cues about the status of the workflow and its activities. The page identifies the displayed workflow by its user key if it has one, or by its internal item key if it does not have a user key.
The Current Status region displays the process title, diagram, and detail tabs for the workflow.
Process Title
The process title appears in the upper left of the Current Status region and displays the workflow process name, type, and identifier. If you drill down into a subprocess in the process diagram, the process title displays the subprocess name.
Process Diagram Window
The process diagram window is a scrolling canvas that displays the diagram of the workflow process or subprocess currently listed in the process title. This diagram is identical to the diagram created in Oracle Workflow Builder. Note, however, that you cannot use the Workflow Monitor to edit this diagram.
Note: The process diagram cannot be displayed in mobile browsers, nor in the Safari browser. You must use another supported desktop browser to view the diagram. See: Recommended Browsers for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 389422.1.
Your workflow administrator can configure the display size for the status diagram. See: Setting Global User Preferences, Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide.
The process diagram window provides graphical cues about the status of the process and its activities.
An activity icon may be highlighted with a colored box to indicate that it is in an "interesting" state. The following table shows what state each color indicates.
Color of Box | State | Possible Status Code |
---|---|---|
Red | Error | ERROR |
Green | Active/In Progress | ACTIVE, NOTIFIED, DEFERRED |
Yellow | Suspended | SUSPEND |
<none> | Normal | COMPLETE, WAITING, NULL |
Any transition (arrow) that has been traversed appears as a thick green line, while an untraversed transition appears as a thin black line.
Click an activity icon in the diagram to select it and update the detail tab window to display information about the activity.
Click any empty space in the diagram to deselect the currently selected activity icon and to refresh the detail tab window to display information about the current process as a whole.
Double-click an activity icon that represents a subprocess to drill down to the diagram for the subprocess. This action automatically updates the process title to reflect the name of the subprocess and updates the detail tab window to display information about the subprocess as a whole.
Alternatively, you can select the subprocess activity and choose Zoom In to drill down to the diagram for the subprocess. Choose Zoom Out to navigate back to the higher level process.
Detail Tab Window
The detail tab window, which appears below the process diagram, is a vertically scrollable display area that provides information about a selected process or activity. The information appears as follows for each tab.
Definition Tab
Current Location - Process display name/activity display name
Item Type - Workflow type display name
Activity Name - Activity display name
Description - Activity description
Activity Type - Process, Notice, Event, or Function
Result Type - Result type display name
Usage Tab
Current Location - Process display name/activity display name
Start/End - No, Start, or End
Performer - Role name or item attribute internal name
Timeout - Timeout value in minutes or item attribute internal name
Status Tab
Current Location - Process display name/activity display name
Status - Activity status
Result - Activity result
Begin Date - Date activity begins
End Date - Date activity ends
Due Date - Date activity is due to time out
Assigned User - Role name or item attribute internal name
Error Message - Error message (shown only if activity status is 'Error')
Notification Tab
Current Location - Process display name/activity display name
Recipient - Recipient of notification
Status - Notification status
Begin Date - Date notification is delivered
End Date - Date notification is closed
Due Date - Date activity is due to time out
Note: If the selected activity is a notification activity where Expand Roles is selected, but no response is required, then the recipient shown is simply the role, rather than the individual users in the role.
Related Topics
Accessing the Self-Service Monitor
The Monitor Responses page shows information about notifications sent by a workflow and responses from workflow participants. For example, you can use this page to view individual responses to a voting activity. The page identifies the displayed workflow by its user key if it has one, or by its internal item key if it does not have a user key.
Specify the type and status of the notifications you want to view.
Select the Response Notifications option to view response-required notifications, the FYI Notifications option to view information-only (FYI) notifications, or both.
Select the Closed Notifications option to view only closed notifications of the selected type. Deselect this option to view both open and closed notifications.
Then review the notification list.
To send email to the recipient of a notification, select the user link in the Recipient column.
To view details about a notification and the recipient's response, select the details icon in the View Response Details column.
Viewing Notification Response Details
The Notification Response Details page displays the following details about the selected response:
Notification Subject - The subject line of the notification.
Respondent - The user who responded to the notification. To send email to the respondent, select the user link.
Original Recipient - The user to whom the notification was originally sent. If the original recipient is different than the respondent, then the original recipient reassigned responsibility for replying to the respondent. To send email to the original recipient, select the user link.
Notification Sent - The date and time when the notification was sent.
Response Received - The date and time when the response was received.
Response - The response value that is the result of the notification.
The Signature Details region specifies whether the notification required an electronic signature, and if so, the signature type, either a password-based signature or a certificate-based digital signature. For a notification that required a signature, the region also displays the following information:
Signature ID - The numerical identifier for the signature request. This information is shown only for certificate-based signatures.
Signature - The text string representing the signature created using the signer's certificate. This information is shown only for certificate-based signatures.
Actual Signer - The user who submitted the signature.
Creation Date - The date when the request for a signature was created.
Signed Date - The date when the user submitted the signature.
The Additional Response Information region lists any further response values requested in the notification in addition to the result response.
Note: For information-only notifications or open response-required notifications, the Notification Response Details page only shows details about the outbound notification.
Related Topics
Accessing the Self-Service Monitor
Reviewing Electronic Signature Details, Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide
The Error Summary page shows error information for an errored workflow.
The page shows the workflow identifier, which is the workflow's user key if it has one, or its internal item key if it does not have a user key. Then the page shows these error details:
Failed Activity - The name of the activity that encountered an error.
Activity Type - The activity type, either Function, Notification, Event, or Process.
Error Name - The internal name of the error.
Error Message - The error message describing the error.
You can optionally display the error stack, which provides context information to help an administrator locate the source of the error. To show the error stack if it is hidden, select the Show Error Stack link. To hide the error stack if it is shown, select the Hide Error Stack link.
Note: If you navigated to the Error Summary page from an error status link for a workflow, the page shows details for each errored activity within the workflow. If you navigated to the page from an error status link for a single errored notification activity, the page shows details for only that activity.
Related Topics