Locking issue with UWL work item after page crash

[parag_parikh]

I would like to share an interesting issue I encountered with UWL.

After opening a HCM Process and Form adobe form from UWL work item , my internet explorer crashed with an error. I opened the work item again and received a message stating that the work item was locked by my ID.  There were no entries in SM12 for my user ID.

Thinking that the work item will be unlocked once I log off, I logged of from portal and logged in again and was surprised to see same error. SWI1 showed status of this dialog work item as "Started".

Next option that I tried was to resubmit the work item from UWL which did not resolve the problem as I was asked to select a future date to resubmit the work item and even after specifying the future date, the work item was still in the status Started. Forwarding the work item to other user as admin was not a good option as work item already in "Started" status would have returned same error to the user who received forwarded work item.

When I tried Replace Manually option from SWIA, it changed the work item status back to READY resolving the issue. :smile:

However I am still unable to understand after crash of the web browser when I logged in again, shouldn't system allow me to relaunch the work item again from UWL? Even if the status was Started, the option to resubmit the work item from my UWL should force work item back to ready status.   :???:

From end user perspective it would not be very intuitive and faster solution to drop a note to workflow admin in case of browser crash. 

Would like to hear more from others on possible solutions or any steps that I have missed and it would surely be a good learning for me. :smile: