Demystifying UWL- Dynamic parameters and hide attachments in UWL

                           

Universal Work List or UWL as we popularly know it can be rightly referred to as the inbox of SAP NetWeaver Portal. UWL always seemed to be a black box to me until recently when I had to work on resolving an issue when I learned some cool stuff about it. This blog is not a guide on how UWL works but only contains the knowledge I gained while troubleshooting. I know a lot of information is available on SDN forums and SAP help, however I cannot help myself but write this blog , and hope it helps fellow practitioners.

So lets get going:

1. Pass dynamic parameter to a task in UWL: UWL can be used to show Workflow tasks from different ECC systems. The list of tasks from ECC system can be found in the transaction SWFVISU. SWFVISU is a very useful transaction when working with UWL and can hold the key to many of your requirements. In order to pass a dynamic parameter value to a task when it is launched from UWL, go to transaction SWFVISU –> Task Visualization and locate your task.

Open Visualization Parameter for this task. Let’s say you want the task to pick up the SYSTEM_ALIAS at runtime. To set this parameter dynamically enter the value for SYSTEM_ALIAS = ${item.systemId}. This way you can pass dynamic values for other parameters also.

Check the corresponding UWL XML file generated for the ECC client in portal at

System Administration –> System configuration –> Universal Worklist-Administration. Every time we make a change in backend for the task id make sure to re-register  the system alias in portal.

Enter Object Category (this can be ABAP Class or Business Object), Object Type which is the name of the class. Method name can be left blank, Visualization Type should be “Object Not Represented”.

Doing this will hide the Attachment for the work items in UWL which are based on the provided ABAP class.

The SAP Help link is useful and provides further info:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/45/a7863f445f4617e10000000a114084/frameset.htm

     3. Useful Transactions:

For tasks originating from ECC systems following transactions are useful:

– SBWP: This is the SAP Business Work Place. The work items of ECC system shown in UWL can also be found here.

– SWI1: Selection Report for Work Item- If you expect a work item in UWL from an ECC system but it does not show there, it might be a possibility that the workflow encountered some error. In this transaction you can find the status of work flow items and if it ended with some error.

– PFTC: Display Task details. In this transaction we can change the Work Item title text that appears in the description when a work item is clicked in the UWL. In the Description tab of this transaction we can also change the Description text that appears in the UWL view in portal when a work item is clicked.