Setting Up Mass Triggers

This chapter provides an overview of mass triggers and discusses how to:

• Set up mass triggers.

• Process mass trigger action events.

See Also

Setting Up Triggers

Understanding Mass Triggers

This feature enables you to generate employee triggers based on changes to setup tables. Mass triggers can be established for specific records on specific components. A set of SQL objects defines the population affected by the setup table change. Once the affected employees are determined, you can review the trigger details before accepting the changes.

To set up mass triggers you must:

• Define the component/record and fields that activate the trigger on the Mass Trigger Definition page.

  See Defining Mass Triggers.

• Set up the SQL objects that will check the records to determine the population affected by the setup table change. You must define the SQL objects using PeopleTools and select them on the Mass Trigger SQL page.

  See Using SQL Objects.

• Set up your system so that the records used in the mass trigger definitions declare and call the function Generate_Triggers in one of their field's SavePostChange PeopleCode.

  See Declaring and Calling the Generate_Triggers Function.

The mass trigger event process occurs in three steps:

1. After saving the page containing the component/record and fields that activate the mass trigger, the event and the field values are stored in the mass trigger result table (GP_MT_TRIGGER). The event status is set to Unexpanded.

2. The system evaluates the SQL objects and writes the results to the mass trigger results table (GP_MT_RESULT), which records the impacted population. The event status is set to Expanded, if all objects expand successfully.

3. The system generates a list of retro and iterative triggers for the impacted population. Once completed, the event status is set to Triggers Generated.

You can view the events and their results on the Mass Trigger Events component. The system enables you to do the following:

• Delete a trigger event using the Mass Trigger Events page. This includes the mass trigger, the impacted population, and the generated payee triggers. Deletion cannot occur if any of the generated triggers have been processed.

  See Deleting an Event.

• Manually expand an event using the Affected Employees page. You may want to generate triggers after correcting an erroneous SQL object. Manually expanded triggers can do the following:

  • Generate the impacted population and the retroactive and iterative triggers for events that have a status of Unexpanded.

  • Generate retroactive and iterative triggers for events that have a status of Expanded.

  See Expanding an Event Manually.

Declaring and Calling the Generate_Triggers Function

Global Payroll trigger-generation logic is stored in the FUNCLIB_GP.TRGR_FUNCTIONS FieldFormula PeopleCode. In order for a record to generate triggers, the GENERATE_TRIGGERS function stored there must be declared and called from the record in SavePostChange PeopleCode. We describe this function in detail with supporting examples in the chapter on defining retroactive, segmentation, and iterative triggers. In this section, we summarize only the main setup steps.

Using Generate_Triggers PeopleCode

To declare and call the Generate_Triggers function:

1. Declare the function that generates triggers:

   Declare Function Generate_Triggers PeopleCode 
   FUNCLIB_GP.TRGR_FUNCTIONS FieldFormula;

2. Declare a local date variable as:

   Local date &L_DT;

3. Invoke the function as:

   Generate_Triggers(EMPLID, &L_DT);

The function Generate_Triggers is defined in FUNCLIB_GP.TRGR_FUNCTIONS.FieldFormula and needs two parameters when it is invoked. These parameters are:

• &P_EMPLID

  Identifies the EMPLID for which a trigger should be generated. Use field EMPLID for &P_EMPLID.

• &P_FIXED_DT

  Holds the value of the trigger effective date for records with a Trigger Effdt Type of Fixed Date. It is ignored for records with a Trigger Effdt Type of Effdt or Begin-End Date. Use &L_DT for &P_FIXED_DT.

The variable &L_DT needs to be assigned a value only in the case of Fixed Date type triggers.

See Also

Implementing Triggers

Setting Up Mass Triggers

This section discusses how to:

• Define mass triggers.

• Use SQL objects.

• View the SQL statement.

Pages Used to Set Up Triggers

Defining Mass Triggers

Access the Mass Trigger Definition page (Set Up HRMS, Product Related, Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Triggers, Mass Trigger Definitions, Mass Trigger Definition).

Trigger Event ID	Associate a Trigger Event ID with the record (table) to link the mass trigger to the retroactive process ID that processes the generated payee triggers.
Ignore Terminated Employees	Select to ignore terminated employees when processing the mass trigger.
Field Name	List the fields that cause the system to generate a mass trigger event. Fields used as input parameters on the SQL Objects page need not be listed here. The system inserts them after saving.

Using SQL Objects

Access the Mass Trigger SQL page (Set Up HRMS, Product Related, Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Triggers, Mass Trigger Definitions, Mass Trigger SQL).

SQL Object ID	Select any stand alone SQL object defined in Application Designer. These objects contain placeholders for input parameters.
View SQL Definition	Click to access the SQL Definition page.
Sequence number	Enter the number of the respective placeholders in the SQL object.
Field Name	Enter the fields used to fill the SQL object placeholders at runtime. Available fields prompt from the record listed above. Once saved, the system adds these fields to the Mass Trigger Definition page.

Viewing the SQL Statement

Access the View SQL Definition page (click the View SQL Definition link on the Mass Trigger SQL page).

Use this page to view a description of the SQL statement as well as view the actual SQL text.

Managing Mass Trigger Action Events

This section discusses how to:

• Delete an event.

• Expand an event manually.

• View retroactive triggers.

• View iterative triggers.

Pages Used to Process Trigger Events

Deleting an Event

Access the Mass Trigger Events page (Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Absence and Payroll Processing, Prepare Payroll, Review/Expand Mass Triggers, Mass Trigger Events).

Click the Delete button to delete an event before processing the trigger. This action deletes the event's results tables, thus removing the field values, the list of affected employees, the retroactive triggers and the iterative triggers generated for the event. Only the users who created the trigger event can delete it.

Expanding an Event Manually

Access the Affected Employees page (Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Absence and Payroll Processing, Prepare Payroll, Review/Expand Mass Triggers, Affected Employees).

Expand/Refresh Employee List	Select to manually expand an event. Once activated, the system deletes the current list and generates a new one. All related retroactive and iterative triggers are also deleted and regenerated. The refresh button can only be activated if none of the related triggers have been processed. Only the user who created the mass trigger event can activate it.
Employee ID	The system generates this list when storing the mass trigger event.
As of Date	The date as of which retroactive or segmentation processing occurs.

Viewing Retroactive Triggers

Access the Retro Triggers page (Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Absence and Payroll Processing, Prepare Payroll, Review/Expand Mass Triggers, Retro Triggers).

Trigger Effective Date	Corresponds to the As of Date on the Affected Employees page.
Trigger Status	Can either be Unprocessed, In Process, Processed, or Cancelled.
Calendar Group ID	This is the ID used for processing the retroactive trigger.

Viewing Iterative Triggers

Access the Iterative Triggers page (Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Absence and Payroll Processing, Prepare Payroll, Review/Expand Mass Triggers, Iterative Triggers).

When a mass trigger is expanded, an iterative trigger is generated for every affected employee and for every calendar group ID that is currently open. Click the Triggers by Calendar Group link to access the Calendar Groups page and view the calendar groups for which an iterative trigger has been created.