User decision with automatic note

Recently I was able to put my hands on a ECC 6.0 Ehp6. I read about the new functionalities available on SAP Business WF since the last year and I was curious to understand something more about the development described in note 1643764 – User decision with automatic note (available only via support package).

SETUP

I created a WF with three decision steps and the container element

The first question is “Can I write a note ?”

Note the “Justification” column in the Decision Option table. In this field you can decide if the note is “Required”, “Mandatory” or not needed for a specific alternative. In the Control tab, the binding is set as follow

The second decision is “Can I change a note ?”

In the Control tab, the binding is set as follow

The third question is “Does it work ?”.

Running the WF…

this is what you get.

If you answer “No” the WF goes on without asking anything. If you click on “Yes, you must” (note is mandatory) a pop up appears

If you press “Cancel”, you go back to the decision. If you press “Continue” without writing anything in the text box you get the error “Create a reason for the selected alternative”. If you specify a text and press continue, the WF goes on to the next question.

If, in the decision step, you click on “Yes” (note required) the same pop up appears but if you click on “continue” without writing anything, the WF goes on to the next activity.

Assuming we just wrote a note, this is the way the second question appears :

The previous note is shown as an attachment. The button “Create reference” is available in the tool bar (as a consequence of the binding defined in the WF). The right answer to the question is “No” but the button “Create reference” let you use an existing note as a template. You can update the message and save it as a new WF document (actually, this is not a new functionality).

Clicking on “No” the WF propose the last question… “Does it work ?”

Well, from a technical perspective the answer is “Yes”. It’s quick, easy to understand and easy to develop  but I can’t swear that my customers will appreciate it as  I do….