07/19/04 NorCal OAUG Training Day, Paper 2.4 John Peters, JRPJR, Inc.1 Oracle Workflow Notifications John Peters JRPJR, Inc. [email protected]

07/19/04 NorCal OAUG Training Day, Paper 2.4

John Peters, JRPJR, Inc. 1

Oracle Workflow Notifications

John PetersJRPJR, Inc.

[email protected]



• How many of you have worked with Oracle Workflow?

• How many of you have modified Workflow Notifications?

• How many of you have a minimal understanding of PL/SQL



• How does Oracle Workflow build a Notification

• Some tips for setting up the Workflow Notification mailer

• Some simple customizations you can perform on Workflow Notifications

What you should learn from this presentation:



• All of my examples are Workflow 2.6.3

• This is the version shipped with 11.5.9

Versions Being Shown



• Primary emphasis of this presentation will be the changes to workflow notifications that are necessary for them to be sent outside of a company.

• The topics covered will be applicable even within a company if you want to personalize the notification messaging

Presentation Emphasis



Notifications are comprised of:- A Notification Activity

- A Message- A Message Template- Optional Message Item Attribute(s)

Notification Components



Notification Activity• Think of this as a container to hold and call the message from.

• This is what you will place on your workflow diagram.

• When inserting a Notification Activity on a workflow diagram remember to provide a value for the Performer. If you don’t you will get a workflow runtime error about a NULL Performer.



Notification Expand Roles• If you are sending the Notification to a Role (everyone with the System

Administrator Responsibility) the Expand Roles is very important• Checked, this will create a separate Notification to each person in the Role. If an

action is expected every person has an opportunity to act on the Notification• Unchecked, this will create a single Notification which is emailled to each

person in the Role. The first person to act on the notification completes (or closes) it.



Message

• This is what contains the text you are going to send.

• You can format messages at Text or HTML

• Message Bodies can include Attributes (variables)



Resulting Message• This is the result of the HTML message body

• Notice the extra line ‘Oracle Workflow Notification (FYI)’. This came from the message template.



Message Templates

• Oracle comes seeded with Message Templates in the System: Mailer Item Type.

• In the PC Client Workflow Builder– Open the System: Mailer

Item Type from the database

– The Internal Name is WFMAIL



Open FYI Mail Template

• Here is where that extra text comes from.



You Can Customize Templates• Do not modify the Oracle Supplied Message Templates

• You can create custom Message Templates in the System: Mailer Item Type

• You can also create custom Message Templates in any Item Type, including the one you are customizing.

• Details are in:Oracle Workflow Administrator’s Guide, RELEASE 2.6.3, Part No. B10283–01



My Customized Template



How to Reference Customized Templates

• Workflow Mailer Configuration using OAM




• Workflow Message Attributes

• Right mouse button on the Message Name

• Select New Attribute …

• This Attribute must have an internal name of #WFM_OPEN_MAIL_FYI




• The value must be of the format: <ITEM_TYPE>:<MESSAGE NAME>



Here is the result• Notice other possibly objectionable message

components if the message is going external



Message Attachments• Message Attachments are

controlled by the User Preferences

• To suppress the Attachments choose ‘HTML mail’

• This can be done at the User level



Message Attributes• Message Attributes allow you to modify features

of a Workflow Notification, without having to create separate Workflow Mailers.

• There are dozens of Special Message Attributes. I am only showing two here.

• #WFM_FROM – Changes the From Email address• #WFM_REPLYTO – Changes the Reply To Email• See the following document for more information

on Message Attributes:Oracle Workflow Developer’s Guide, Release 2.6.3Part No. B10284–01



Using #WFM_FROM • This message attribute will change the From Email

Address in the Notification.



Document Message Attributes

• Document Attributes allow you to build a Message Body From a Query

• Document Type Attributes reference PL/SQL procedures to build a text stream

• Datatypes supported are:VARCHAR2 – 32KB Size LimitationCLOB – 4GB (possible limitations due to workflow engine limitation)

BLOB – 4GB (possible limitations due to workflow engine limitation)



Create a Document Attribute • This will be a holder for a reference to the PL/SQL

procedure and any required parameters• Right mouse on Attributes • Select New Attribute …



Create a Function • This Workflow function will set the Document Attribute

values when the Workflow is run.• Right mouse on Function • Select New Function …



Create Workflow Process • I am going to build a new demo Workflow Process

• Right mouse on Process

• Select New Process …



Build the Workflow Process • Drag Functions in to Process• Set Document Attribute, then Send Notification



PL/SQL Code

• I have removed exception handling and other constructs to make the code easy to read.

• The first procedure sets the Document Attribute

• The second procedure builds the Document text stream.



Procedure to Set the Document Attribute

• Document Attributes Values plsql:<procedure>/<document_identifier>

• procedure = PL/SQL Procedure• document_identifier = usually a concatenation of

ITEM_TYPE:ITEM_KEY

• This is the only way to pass parameters specific to the Workflow Instance.



PL/SQL Code – Set Attribute-- Portion of the Package ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS

PROCEDURE SET_NOTIF_ATTRIBUTES (p_itemtype in varchar2, p_itemkey in varchar2, p_actid in number, p_funcmode in varchar2,

p_resultout out varchar2)IS BEGIN wf_engine.SetItemAttrText(p_itemtype, p_itemkey, 'EMP_TABLE', PLSQL:ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS.EMP_TABLE/‘ || p_itemtype || '|‘ || p_itemkey); END SET_NOTIF_ATTRIBUTES;



PL/SQL Code – Build Document (1)-- Portion of the Package ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS-- Procedure Call and Misc. Setup

PROCEDURE EMP_TABLE (p_document_id in varchar2, p_display_type in varchar2,

p_document in out

varchar2, p_document_type in out varchar2)IS v_itemtype varchar2(200); v_itemkey varchar2(200); NL VARCHAR2(1) := fnd_global.newline;

BEGIN v_itemtype := substr(p_document_id, 1, instr(p_document_id, '|') - 1);

v_itemkey := substr(p_document_id, instr(p_document_id, '|') + 1, length(p_document_id) - 2);



PL/SQL Code – Build Document (2)-- Portion of the Package ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS-- Procedure Create HTML Table Header

if (p_display_type = 'text/html')then p_document := NL || '<P><B>'; p_document := p_document || 'Employee Table'; p_document := p_document || '</B>'; p_document := p_document || '<TABLE border=1

cellpadding=2 cellspacing=1>'; p_document := p_document || '<TR>' || NL; p_document := p_document || '<TH>' || 'EMPNO' || '</TH>'; p_document := p_document || '<TH>' || 'ENAME' || '</TH>'; p_document := p_document || '<TH>' || 'JOB' || '</TH>'; p_document := p_document || '</TR>' || NL;



PL/SQL Code – Build Document (3)-- Portion of the Package ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS-- Procedure Create HTML Table Rows, Handle Text Document

for arec in (select EMPNO, ENAME, JOB from scott.emp order by 2) loop p_document := p_document || '<TR>' || '<TD nowrap>'

|| nvl(to_char(arec.EMPNO), '&nbsp') || '</TD>'; p_document := p_document || '<TD nowrap>' || nvl(arec.ENAME, '&nbsp') || '</TD>'; p_document := p_document || '<TD nowrap>' || nvl(arec.JOB, '&nbsp') || '</TD> || '</TR>' || NL; end loop; p_document := p_document || '</TABLE>';

else p_document := 'Text Document Not Implemented'; end if;

END EMP_TABLE;



Resulting Email Message • This is the same email

with the message body showing the contents of the table scott.emp.



Warnings about Message Modification

• Workflow Messages are not versioned• Notifications are versioned• Adding new Attributes to a Message will affect

all Workflows currently running immediately. • If those Attributes are not derived you will get an

error.

• You should make a copy of a Workflow Message if you will be adding Attributes to it.



Workflow Versioning

• Workflow 1 starts with Version 1• Workflow 2 starts with Version 1• If a message change is made in Version 2 it will

affect both Workflows 1 & 2

Workflow Loaded Ver 1 Workflow Loaded Ver 2

Workflow Instance 1

Workflow Instance 2

Time



Workflow Notification Testing• Modify the Workflow Mailer Configuration using OAM

• Enter an email address for the Test Address

• This should be a common mail account or box that required users can view. User can then view this “test” email box to find notifications from the test instance.

• Don’t create an email distribution list and assign the required users to it. This causes confusion since emails show up in your email box and you have to read them carefully to know if they are from PROD or not.



Additional Reference Material

Here are other papers I have written on Oracle Workflow. They are available for download from my web site: http://www.jrpjr.com– Customizing Workflow: A technical perspective

– Oracle Alert and Workflow Comparison

– Oracle Workflow Tips and Tricks

– Requisition Approval Workflow Customizations



• My contact information:

John [email protected] http://www.jrpjr.com

• Additional reference papers can be found at:http://www.norcaloaug.org

Documents

07/19/04 NorCal OAUG Training Day, Paper 2.4 John Peters, JRPJR, Inc.1 Oracle Workflow Notifications John Peters JRPJR, Inc. [email protected]