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Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide
Release 2.6.4
Part Number B15852-05
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Administering Notifications

This chapter describes how to administer users' notifications in Oracle Applications.

This chapter covers the following topics:

Searching for Users' Notifications in Oracle Applications

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.

To search for notifications

  1. 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.

  2. Search for the notifications you want to access. The following search criteria are available only if you have workflow administrator privileges:

    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:

    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.

  3. To view and respond to a notification, select the notification subject link in the Subject column. See: To View the Details of a Notification, Oracle Workflow User's Guide.

    Note: 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.

Defining Vacation Rules for Users in Oracle Applications

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:

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

  1. 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.

  2. Search for the role for which you want to define vacation rules.

    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.

  3. To update a rule, select the Update icon for that rule. See: To Create or Update a Vacation Rule, Oracle Workflow User's Guide.

  4. To delete a rule, select the Delete icon for that rule.

  5. 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 Vacation Rule Options.

Defining Specialized Worklist Views with Worklist Flexfields

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 Applications. For information about key and descriptive flexfields, see the Oracle Applications 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:

  1. 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.

  2. Optionally define a securing function to secure access to your new worklist view. See: Defining a Securing Function.

  3. 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.

  4. If you secured access to the view with a securing function, restart Oracle HTTP Server. See: Restarting Oracle HTTP Server.

Some Oracle Applications products also provide seeded worklist flexfields rules and Personal Worklist views. For more information, consult your product-specific documentation or help.

Message Attributes in Worklist Flexfields Rules

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:

Worklist flexfields rules cannot map message attributes of type lookup, role, document, or event.

How Worklist Flexfields Rules Operate

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.

Core rules represent key Oracle Applications 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.

Worklist Flexfields Columns for Core Rules
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 Applications 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.

Worklist Flexfields Columns for Limit and User Rules
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:

Also, suppose a limit rule named EXL02 is seeded for the Requisition item type with a phase of 60 and the following column mappings:

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:

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.

Example Set of Available Message Attributes
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

  1. 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.

  2. Search for the rules you want to display. The search criteria are:

    You must enter at least one of the following criteria when you search to limit the size of the results list.

    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.

  3. To update a rule, choose the update icon for that rule. See: To Create or Update a Worklist Flexfields Rule.

  4. 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

  1. 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.

  2. Enter the internal name that uniquely identifies the rule and the user-friendly display name for the rule.

  3. Review the customization level for the rule.

  4. Select Enabled or Disabled as the rule status.

  5. 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 Applications 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.

  6. Enter an optional description for the rule.

  7. 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

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  1. 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.

  2. Optionally specify the data type of the message attributes to display in the Available list.

  3. 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, marked by a plus sign (+).

    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

  1. 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.

  2. To remove a message attribute from the column mappings for the rule, choose the remove icon for that attribute.

  3. To review any conflicts with other rules' column mappings, choose the Find Conflicts button.

  4. 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:

  5. To return to your rule definition, choose the Return to Pending Rule link.

  6. If you need to change this rule definition to resolve conflicts, return to the previous pages to make your changes.

  7. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. Specify the criteria for the simulation.

  3. Choose Go to perform the simulation.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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:

  7. To return to the simulation results, choose the Return to Worklist Flexfields Rule Simulation link.

  8. To update a rule, choose the update icon for that rule. See: To Create or Update a Worklist Flexfields Rule.

  9. 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 Applications (System Administrator: Application > Function) to define a function with the following properties:

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 Applications System Administrator's Guide, Overview of Menus and Function Security, Oracle Applications Developer's Guide, Form Functions Window, Oracle Applications Developer's Guide, and Adding Worklist Functions to User Responsibilities.

Creating a Personalized View for the Personal Worklist

Use Oracle Applications 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, please refer to the Oracle Applications Framework Personalization Guide, available from OracleMetaLink note 275880.1, Oracle Applications Framework Release 11i Documentation Road Map.

  1. Log in as a user for whom the Personalize Self-Service Defn profile option is set to Yes.

  2. 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.

  3. In the Create View page, define the properties of your view.

    For more information, see Create/Update/Duplicate View Page,Oracle Applications 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 Applications System Administrator's Guide - Conguration.

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.

Embedding the Personal Worklist in an Oracle Applications Framework Page

If you have Oracle Applications Framework set up in Oracle JDeveloper for custom development, you can embed the Personal Worklist as a region in an Oracle Applications 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 Applications Framework page, refer to OracleMetaLink note 275880.1, Oracle Applications Framework Release 11i Documentation Road Map.

To Embed the Personal Worklist in an Oracle Applications Framework Page

  1. Create the Oracle Applications 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.