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Oracle Order Management Workflow ValidationWhite Paper for End Users of Oracle Applications 11i

May 2005

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Order Management Workflow Validation Page 1

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 2

OVERVIEW 3

VALIDATION IN THE TRANSACTION TYPES FORM 4

VALIDATION BY CONCURRENT PROGRAM 7

CONCLUSION 9

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Order Management Workflow Validation Page 2

Introduction

In Oracle Applications 11i, Oracle Order Management is closely integrated with OracleWorkflow. This relationship is a key factor in making OM more flexible and easier to

extend by its customers. Yet, the experience has been that extensions and customizations

sometimes lead to imperfect and faulty workflow designs that cause problems, errors, andeven data corruption which is not readily apparent and can only be corrected by data fixscripts provided by Oracle Support or, even more often, Oracle Development. To help

OM customers evaluate and validate their proposed workflow extensions andcustomizations before they are used in order processing, Development is introducing

functionality called OM Workflow Validation.

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Overview

Order Management validates assigned workflow processes in two of its modules: theTransaction Types form and the new concurrent program Validate OM Workflow.

The Transaction Types form is the logical place to enforce workflow validation,because this is where top-level (runnable, in Oracle Workflow terminology) workflowprocesses are assigned to transaction types, whether order or line types. Here, validation

fires:

1) When the operator enters a Fulfillment Flow different from the one saved in thedatabase and attempts to save or navigate out of the current record,

2) When the operator enters or changes the Navigation Flow and navigates out of thefield,

3) When, in the Line Workflow Assignments window of the form, a row is enteredor changed and the operator tries to save or navigate out of the current record.

Validation in the Transaction Types form is implicit and cannot be avoided. It does not,

however, check for all possible faults in workflow process design, but only those whichare serious enough and do not exact too high of a toll on performance in the form. In

addition, due to the potentially extreme complexity of workflow process design,automated validation may not be conclusive in the case of some subtle potential error

conditions, and hence not warrant preventing the operator from saving the workflowassignment. Because of these considerations, the complete workflow validation is only

done by the Validate OM Workflow concurrent program. The program can be startedeither by clicking on the new Validate Workflow button in the Transaction Types form,

or by submitting it from the Order Managements Run Requests window. It is seeded in

the request group OM Concurrent Programs and takes an optional parameter Order Type.

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Validation in the Transaction Types Form

The following errors are captured in the Transaction Types form:

1) "Activity &ACTIVITY_LABEL in process &PROCESS_NAME has no

OUT transition."

This means that an activity within the workflow process assigned to the order or line

type is missing the definition directing where the flow goes after that activity iscompleted. Suppose that the fulfillment flow @demo_Order Flow Generic assigned

to order type Order Only2 as shown in the screen shot above contains a subprocessDemo_Close Order defined as follows:

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The actual error reported in the form would read: "Activity WAIT in process

R_STANDARD_HEADER-8 (@demo_Order Flow Generic) has no OUTtransition."

The error message refers to runnable workflow processes both by their internal name

(R_STANDARD_HEADER-8), visible in Oracle Workflow Builder when View ->Developer Mode is turned on, and their display name (@demo_Order Flow

Generic). The latter is the same name displayed in the Transaction Types form.Activities within a workflow process are denoted by their internal name or the label

(WAIT) used for unique identification within the parent process.

2) Attributes of activity &ACTIVITY_LABEL in process

&PROCESS_NAME are incorrectly defined.

This error will be raised for activities assigned the standard API

Wf_standard.Waitforflow() which either are (1) missing activity attributesContinuation Activity or Continuation Flow, or (2) the Continuation Flow has the

value Detail in an OM Order Line (OEOL) workflow or the value Master in an OMOrder Header (OEOH) workflow. The same error will also be raised for activities

assigned the standard API Wf_standard.Continueflow() with missing attributesWaiting Activity/ Waiting Flow, or with incorrect values for those attributes.

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3) "Process &PROCESS1 is missing activity &ACTIVITY1, which is defined as

the waiting/continuation activity of activity &ACTIVITY2 in process

&PROCESS2."

This error also relates to activities assigned Wf_standard.Continueflow()/

Waitforflow() APIs. In this case, however, ACTIVITY1 is stated as the ContinuationActivity or Waiting Activity for ACTIVITY2 in PROCESS2, but is missing fromPROCESS1. PROCESS1 is an order header workflow, and PROCESS2 is an order

line workflow associated with PROCESS1 in the Transaction Types form, or viceversa.

4) "Process &PROCESS_NAME is missing activity

&FULFILLMENT_ACTIVITY referenced in activity &FULFILL_LINE."

The activity referenced in the attribute Fulfillment Activity Name of theFULFILL_LINE (Fulfill) activity does not exist in the parent process

&PROCESS_NAME.

5) "Process &PROCESS is incompatible with item type &ITEM_TYPE."

Like the previous one, this error is also only applicable to order line workflows. Someof the seeded line flows, such as Line Flow - ATO Item, Line Flow - ATO Model,

Line Flow - OTA Item, etc., are only compatible with certain Order Managementitem types (ATO item, ATO model, education (OTA) item, etc.). The error is raised if

the operator attempts to assign such a workflow to any other OM item type, or to allOM item types.

6) "Process &PROCESS may be incompatible with item type &ITEM_TYPE.Please make sure that is not the case before saving this assignment."

This is similar to the previous situation, but is reported for workflows with namessimilar to the seeded names of the specialized workflows mentioned there, which

makes it likely that they were derived from them and therefore still incompatible withother OM types. This message, however, is only a warning. The operator is still able

to save such an assignment after acknowledging it.

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Validation by Concurrent Program

As mentioned earlier, the new concurrent program can be started by clicking on theValidate Workflow button in the Transaction Types form, in which case it is submitted

only for the transaction (order) type of the current record. If there are unsaved changes in

the form at the time, the system will require them to be saved before submitting theconcurrent request. The request id is displayed after the submission. The job will performa complete validation of all OM Order Header (OEOH), OM Blanket Header (OEBH),

OM Negotiation Header (OENH) and OM Order Line (OEOL) processes associated withthe particular order type.

Of course, Validate OM Workflow can also be submitted independently, just like most

other OM concurrent programs. If no value is given for the parameter Order Type, thenall active order types are validated. If a specific Order Type parameter is stated, it is

validated even if it is currently not active.

In addition to the errors already mentioned in the previous paragraph, the concurrentprogram also reports the following conditions:

1) "Activity &ACTIVITY in process &PROCESS defers workflow with zero

delay within a processing loop, which is not allowed."

This message is reported for standard WAIT (Wait) or Defer Thread (DEFER)activities placed inside a loop in the workflow process definition. The Wait activity

has Wait Mode of Relative Time and Relative Time specified as zero (or null). Such adefinition may cause infinite loops in Workflow Background concurrent programs

processing runtime workflows and they may appear never to complete.

2) "Please verify that the value for attribute WAIT_RELATIVE_TIME of

activity &ACTIVITY in process &PROCESS is greater than the average

time it takes Workflow Background Process to complete."

Similar to the previous case, Workflow Background process for deferred activitiesoperates in a loop that dequeues activities from the deferred activity queue as long as

there are any available. If a WAIT activity is defined in a loop within its parentprocess, and if there are only a few activities in the loop with it, they may all

complete very quickly, and the same WAIT activity will be enqueued again in thedeferred activity queue. If the Relative Time (for the Wait Mode of Relative Time) of

the activity is short enough, it is plausible that the time will have expired before thatvery same Workflow Background process is done processing all other deferred

activities ahead in the queue. In that case, it will process the WAIT activity again. Ifthere are enough active workflow items in the same situation, it can lead to the

infinite loop and the concurrent program never completing, just like in the previousscenario.

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3) "Please verify that activity &ACTIVITY1 precedes &ACTIVITY2 in process

&PROCESS_NAME."

It is near impossible to programmatically establish with absolute certainty, in every

conceivable workflow design, if a particular activity comes before another one. The

users are therefore prompted to make sure of that in some cases.

4) "Process &PROCESS_NAME is missing activity &ACTIVITY_NAME."

This condition is checked for OM Order Header activities BOOK_ORDER (Book)

and CLOSE_HEADER (Close), and OM Order Line activities FULFILL_LINE(Fulfill) and CLOSE_LINE (Close). For most OM implementations, all of these are

required.

5) "Please verify the value specified for attribute WAIT_ABSOLUTE_DATE in

activity &ACTIVITY of process &PROCESS_NAME."

Using the WAIT activity with Wait Mode of Absolute Date has a very limited usage,

and is most likely an error, rather than elaborate design. That is why this warning isdisplayed whenever such an activity is encountered.

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Conclusion

As mentioned above, only a subset of workflow validation is enforced while assigningworkflows to transaction types in OM Transaction Types form. Further, it is possible that

workflow processes and definitions can be altered using Oracle Workflow Builder after

they have already been assigned. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that OrderManagement users do the following:

1) Run the Validate OM Workflow concurrent program using the ValidateWorkflow button whenever adding or changing workflow assignments (whether

for fulfillment flows, negotiation flows or line flows) in the Transaction Typesform.

2) Schedule Validate OM Workflow to run periodically for all order types (no

parameters specified).

For both operations, check the output of the program carefully. Correct all reported errorsand heed all warnings. It is well worth it, because it may prevent many of the runtime

data corruption errors which may be hard to fix and even harder to detect on time.

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Oracle Order Management Work Flow ValidationMay 2005

Author: Srecko Bartl

Oracle CorporationWorld Headquarters

500 Oracle ParkwayRedwood Shores, CA 94065

U.S.A.

Worldwide Inquiries:Phone: +1.650.506.7000

Fax: +1.650.506.7200Web: www.oracle.com

This document is provided for informational purposes only and the information herein is

subject to change without notice. Please report any errors herein to Oracle Corporation.Oracle Corporation does not provide any warranties covering and specifically disclaims

any liability in connection with this document. Oracle is a registered trademark, andoracle Order Management (are) a trademark(s) or registered trademark(s) of Oracle

corporation. All other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.Copyright Oracle Corporation 2000

All Rights Reserved