Setting Up Access to Pages
This section provides an overview of workflow activity guide page access, workflow activity guide mode, and step status.
The pages that are accessible through workflow activity guides are standard PeopleSoft pages that you access through the PeopleSoft portal. If you access the pages in a special workflow activity guide mode, you see the workflow activity guide functionality. If you access the pages using standard PeopleSoft menu navigation, the workflow activity guide functionality is invisible. This means that you can use the same pages in both the standard navigation and workflow activity guides.
The page itself is viewable in workflow activity mode or in regular page mode. For a user to access a workflow activity guide, the link that takes the user there must be specially constructed. So, the last task that you must perform when developing workflow activity guides is setting up that access, either by creating a worklist item or by constructing a custom link.
As you proceed through the steps, the icons and text in the workflow activity guide change to indicate the status of the step. Depending on how the activity is defined, up to four different statuses are possible, each with its own icon.
|
Status |
Link |
Comments |
|---|---|---|
|
Disabled |
Inactive |
You cannot yet start this step. Before you can start this step, you must complete the previous step. This status is used when you must complete the steps in sequence; it is used for future steps. |
|
Enabled |
Active |
You have not started the step, but you can start now. You normally see this status when:
|
|
In Process |
Inactive |
You are currently working on this step. |
|
Worked |
Active or inactive |
You have completed the step. If you are permitted to work the step multiple times, the link is active; if you are not permitted to work the step multiple times, the link is inactive. You can always return to a worked step using the Back button on the page. |
Worklist links are generated when a transaction triggers a workflow event that sends a routing to the worklist. The workflow event is part of a business process and activity that were defined when the workflow application was built.
In worklist links, the &ActName value is the name of the workflow activity where the event is triggered, not the name of the workflow activity guide that works the item. However, when resolving a worklist link (identifiable because the ICType=Worklist), PeopleSoft determines the name of the activity that works the event and, if that event is a workflow activity guide, puts the page in workflow activity guide mode.
Notice that you can direct users to workflow activity guides from their worklists. To do this, build a workflow application with a page on which the user initiates the workflow event. The user then receives a routing, either in a worklist or by email, with a link that takes the user to the workflow activity guide.
For example, you can create a page on which users update marital status. This page isn’t part of a workflow activity guide; it’s a regular PeopleSoft page accessible through regular portal navigation. Behind the page, you create a workflow application that is worked by the Marriage activity. If the Marriage activity is marked as a workflow activity guide, the workflow link that takes users to this activity enables users to see the page in workflow activity guide mode.
The advantage of using workflow to access workflow activity guides is that the necessary link is automatically created by standard workflow processing. You don’t need to create the link manually or understand the syntax of the link.
The disadvantage to using workflow to access workflow activity guides is that, from your users’ perspectives, there are two separate transactions involved: the one that triggers the workflow routing and, after the user has received the routing, the one that works the item.
If you don’t want to use a workflow application to provide access to a workflow activity guide, you must provide users with custom navigation that enables them to reach the page in workflow activity guide mode.
The advantage of using custom navigation is that users can complete all of the steps in one session. They don’t have to go from the PeopleSoft system to a workflow notification and back to the PeopleSoft system.
The disadvantage of using a custom link is that you can’t rely on PeopleSoft to create the link for you; you must understand the proper link syntax and manually code the link in PeopleCode.
The following procedure outlines one approach to creating custom links.
To transfer a user to a workflow activity guide:
Set up a component with a single blank page.
This page acts as a transfer point only; users accessing the page are automatically transferred elsewhere without ever seeing the blank page.
Add the component to a portal registry.
Transfer the user from the blank page to the workflow activity guide.