Create and Edit Workflows

You can use the Product Management Search Workflows page to search for workflows such as change orders, change requests, problem reports, and corrective actions.

The workflow header attributes on the page header persist across all the tabs, providing context for the workflow. Here are some actions you can perform on the workflow.

  • Search across workflow attributes.
  • Use filter chips for header attributes, additional attributes, and extensible flexfields.
  • Use the spotlight to quickly navigate through the affected objects.
  • Redline the item directly in the change order context.
  • Drag and drop (select and move) items from the clipboard or spotlight to the Affected Objects tab.
  • Preview attachments.
  • View the workflow statuses and approvals in one table.
  • Manage participants for multiple statuses in the same page.
  • Use filter chips on tasks and relationships.
  • Click the workflow links in OTBI reports to open the workflow in Redwood.

You can also perform additional actions using the More Actions (...) button.

Create Workflow

You can create workflows in multiple ways:

  • Click the Add (+) icon from the Product Management Search pages for Workflow, Workflow Approvals, and Workflow History.
  • Use the links available in Actions on the Product Management home page.

    If you're editing an item that has a needs approval rule, you can either create a new change order or add the item to an existing change order.

    If you're editing an item, you can also use the Assign to action to assign the item to a new or existing change order, change request, problem report or corrective action.

Note:
  • The workflow deep links in the OTBI reports open the workflow in Redwood when profile option (ORA_ACA_WORKFLOW_REDWOOD_ENABLED) is set to Yes.
  • To create workflows with required descriptive flexfields, you must provide default values for the required descriptive flexfields.
The following header attributes are hidden by default for change orders and change requests, but you can display them using business rules:
  • Supplier Site
  • Reported By
  • Reported Date
You can access data in the following tabs on a workflow:
  • Attributes
  • Affected Objects
  • Attachments
  • Workflow and Tasks with sub-tabs
    • Activities
    • Tasks
  • Relationships
  • History

Attributes

You can search for attributes across sections, which can be accessed directly by selecting a filter chip. Includes filter chips for General Information, Additional Attributes and Extensible Flexfield pages:

  • Additional Attributes
    • Includes global descriptive flexfields followed by context sensitive descriptive flexfields.
    • Includes the Migrated attribute (Yes/No) that indicates if a workflow was migrated using import.
    Note: In the Main section of the Attributes tab, the visibility of the Source, Customer, Supplier and Manufacturer attributes depends on the workflow type.
You can create extensible flexfield attribute groups as pages if you want the filter chips to appear on the Workflow Attributes tab. Here's how:
  • Access the Manage Extensible Flexfields task in the Setup and Maintenance work area.
  • Search for the flexfield code EGO_CHANGE_EFF and edit the Change Extended Attributes.
  • In Change Type Details, select the Add (+) button to create a new page for the selected change type. You can edit the Display Name as you'd like it to appear in the filter chip.
  • In the table, use the Add (+) button to add your extensible flexfields to the newly created page.

Affected Objects

Here are some tasks you can perform on this tab.

  • Select affected objects using the Select and Add Items icon (the item picker).
  • Drag and drop (select and move) items from the clipboard or spotlight to the affected objects tab.
  • Search affected objects table to filter rows.
  • Edit the new revision, new lifecycle phase, and effective date directly inline.
    • You can also use copy and paste to edit these attributes.
  • Edit descriptive flexfields in a drawer (side panel).
  • Export all the affected object lines or just the selected ones.
  • Cancel lines.
  • Move lines.
  • Copy selected affected objects to the clipboard.
Notes:
  • If your administrator has set up an access control list for items, your access will depend on the permissions specified in that list.
  • When you click an affected object number link on a change order, change request, problem report, or corrective action, it appears in the workflow context, enabling you to view the affected object and easily return to the change request, problem report, or corrective action.
  • You must edit the affected object lifecycle phase and effective date separately.

Attachments

Here are some tasks you can perform on this tab.

  • Add attachments.
  • Preview attachments in a drawer (side panel).
    • Use the arrows to scroll through multiple attachments.
  • Search for and filter attachments.
  • Download attachments.

Workflow and Tasks

Displays the workflow statuses with the following color coding:

  • Green- Completed statuses
  • Blue- Current status
  • Gray- Future statuses

The current status is selected by default, or you can click the status to see the corresponding activity for that status.

Activity Subtab
  • By default, displays the activity for the current status. You can remove the status filter chip to see all statuses for the workflow in the activity table.
  • Use filter chips to refine the results.
  • Use the Manage Participants button to open a drawer where you can add participants for current or future statuses.
    • Select current or future status.

    • Enter participant names to get a list of users or roles with matching names and use checkboxes to select users.

      Use the checkbox or highlight a name to delete it.

Tasks Subtab

You can add and edit tasks using a drawer.
  • By default, displays all open tasks.
  • Supports filtering.
  • Includes Completed Date.

Relationships

You can create relationships using a drawer. You can add filters on:
  • Relationship Type
  • Object Type
  • Status
  • Revision (Item relationships only)

You can create rules between workflow objects.

  • Add rules in the drawer using the + icon.
  • View rules in the drawer using the eye icon.

History

You can add filters on:
  • Audit Type
  • Action Type
  • Status
  • Author
  • Date (using Date Range)
  • Action

You can also export all or selected history rows.

Workflow Actions

Here are some actions you can perform on the workflow:

Spotlight
  • Click More Actions (...) and select the Spotlight action to copy all affected objects to the spotlight tab of the Navigator.
  • Click the item number link in the Spotlight tab to see the item and its redlines in the change context.

For change requests, problem reports, and corrective actions, the affected items are in read-only mode, as you can't perform redlines.

Change Status
  • Use the More Actions (...) button to change the status of the workflow. You can also add participants while changing the status.

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