On the HCM P&F configuration side of things, we always had a way on the "backend" to mark a process as not requiring an "object" (employee, org, position, etc) to start it. Prior to EhP4, you simply would have links in your portal straight into the process/form's initial step by passing the process name as a parameter to the Start Application. But users wanted a way to get to those kinds of processes through their usual "process selection" view and some did not want all the clutter on their portal page of extra links.....nor the obvious confusion of having to think "ok, I click this link to go to New Hire but then I click this other link to go to all my other processes". So, with EhP4, SAP provided the ability for users themselves to say "I do not have an object to select, so skip that and just take me to the processes that I can start without knowing the object yet". They did this by allowing us to make settings which will then show the user a "skip" option right on their Start Application object selection view.
You might have seen an older blog I did where I discussed how it's possible to start process without selecting an employee (such as for "new hire"....since there is no employee yet). I talked more about setting up the process that "how" you get to it. ( http://scn.sap.com/community/erp/hcm/blog/2009/08/03/hcm-processes-forms-start-objectwe-dont-need-no...)
You might also have seen screenshots and/or marketing material showing a nice little "skip" checkbox on the Start Application's first page and wondered "why doesn't my Start Application look like that?!?!". Well, I am now going to clear up that mystery.
You might recognize this page as you launch the "StartApplication" for HCM P&F.
You can clearly see, it wants us to select an employee and then select our process. In fact, if you try to skip this by clicking "Select Process", you get a nice reminder.
So how do we make that "skip" option magically appear for us?!?!?!
The secret is so simple, I almost dare not say. ...but then again, it might be good for a laugh once you see how easy it really is.
Go to transaction SM34 - Maintain view cluster -> HRASR00OBJPROCPRP
Then click "Object Properties" on the left side panel. You might not have an entry. Make one if not.
You should notice that we can make this setting perinitiator role (yes, to be ever-so-more confusing as SAP seems to love to be, they call it "Agent Role"). That means we might show the "skip" option to HR Admins (HRASRA role by default) but not to managers (HRASRB role by default). The important thing here is to check the "box" for "Is Skip Visible". The "Is Skip Visible" checkbox is what will show/hide the checkbox on the Start Application employee selection view!
Save your entry.
Now, launch the Start Application again and you should see:
Next, we can select the "skip" option which disables the employee search and allows us to select process selection.
Now, the process selection view is equally as smart as well. It now only lists for us the processes that were "marked" inconfiguration (remember how we did that?) to be started without a start object.
That's how the "magic" happens. Just that simple! Now you can do that with the other object types (Org, Position, Job) as well but since they are PD related and require a "lead object" in order to "behave correctly", I am not so sure I would go messing around with those......but feel free to try it yourself and come back to blog your findings!
As always....hope this helps....and till next time...
- SAP Managed Tags:
5 Comments
