SAP Workflow Customization Settings (How to do)

This document details the basic workflow customization that needs to be done in any SAP system before activating the workflow definitions.

Go to transaction SWU3. <For this demo, we have used an ECC 6.0 IDES system>

The description or the help for each of the above steps are available on the right side of the screen.

Configure RFC Destination

This can be done automatically or manually. If done automatically, as mentioned on the right side frame, the logical RFC destination WORKFLOW_LOCAL_XXX is created (if not available). XXX is the client number. Also the user WF-BATCH is also created if not already available.

The advantage of executing the above step manually is we can maintain another user and password as required.

Select the step “Configure RFC destination” and click on F9.

If you happen to get the following popup, click on Yes.  

Once the RFC destination, you can see the Green Tick mark beside “Configure RFC Destination” (as shown in the screenshot below)

Maintain Workflow System Administrator

Since the system being used for this demo is an IDES system, some user is maintained as workflow administrator. You can change this to the desired User using this step.

Select “Maintain Workflow System Administrator” and click on F8.

Now you can change the Userid to the desired one.

The steps “Maintain Active Plan Version”, “Classify Decision Task as General”, “Document Generation/Form Integration”, and “Maintain Time Units” are already in Green. If not in Green, select the corresponding step and click on F9. The automatic configuration would be done.

Schedule Background Job for Missed Deadlines

This is the job which checks if any work item has

Select this step and click on F8.

There are chances that you might encounter the following error:

To resolve this, you need to maintain the default printer in your user profile of WF-BATCH or change the printer to a valid one. Go to SWU1 and enter WF-BATCH. Navigate to tab “Defaults”.

In the above screenshot, the output device is maintained as LP01 which is not valid. Here I am modifying the same to LOCL. Also the check box “Output immediately” is marked ‘X’.

Save your entries.

Now let us go back to transaction SWU3 and the step “Schedule Background Job for Missed Deadlines”. Click on F8.

You would get the following screen:

Depending on the business requirements, we can change the interval to the desired level. However 3 minutes is the minimum duration the system accepts.

Click on “Save and Schedule”. You would get the prompt for the customization request.

Now similarly schedule the jobs – “Work items with errors” and “Condition evaluation”.

For the step “Schedule Background job for Event Queue”, click on F9 (Automatic execution).

See the screenshot below:

Now we can observe the green tick mark beside “Maintain Runtime Environment”.  

Now let’s move to “Maintain Definition Environment”

Maintain Prefix Numbers

All the objects related to workflow (standard task, workflow tasks and others) are assigned a eight digit number. The prefix number is used for the first 3 digits and the rest five is automatically assigned by the system (starting with 00001).

Select “Maintain Prefix Numbers” and click on F8.

Click on Display<->Change.

Click on create.

Enter a prefix number which is not allocated to any other client in the system.

Save your entries.

Now you can observe the green tick mark beside “Maintain prefix numbers”.

If you do not intend to work with HCM related workflows, the next step “Check Entries from HR Control Tables” is not mandatory.

To maintain this step, please visit http://www.saptechnical.com/Tips/Workflow/Customization/HRTables.htm.

After completion of the above step, we can now observe that the steps regarding “Maintain Runtime Environment” and “Maintain Definition Environment” are in green now.

Unless you plan to use the Guided Procedures, the above configuration should be fine to work with the workflows in SAP R/3.

Now to test the workflow configuration, click on “Start verification Workflow (F5)”. We would get the following popup message:

Now go to your SAP Inbox to check the work item (Transaction SBWP)

Execute the work item.

We can choose one of the two options to test the workflow configuration. Let us chose the first one.

You would now receive two emails in your SAP inbox:

This completes the workflow configuration.