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Author's profile photo Christopher Solomon

HCM Processes & Forms: Launching Adobe forms, FPM forms or BOTH!

     There have been numerous forum posts clogging up and generally adding to the “noise” of the HCM spaces (yes, people will cross-post or “carpet bomb” posts in places that have nothing to do with HCM P&F….*gasp*) about “I can’t see my FPM process in my process list to start!” or “I can launch FPM processes but I can’t see our old Adobe ones!” and the like. Sooooo I thought I would throw together this quick, short (I promise!) blog about what is going on and where to find what you need.

AIF-based processes ONLY

    For simply launching Adobe Interactive Form (AIF) processes, we have the very old “ASR_PROCESS_EXECUTE” application. It is LONG since replaced. The newer version of this is the confusingly named “ASR_PROCESS_EXECUTE_FPM”. It has nothing to do with launching/starting FPM-based processes. It is just called that because the application itself is Floorplan Manager based. Dangit, SAP….why do you do this crazy naming thing all the time?!?!?! Anyways….THAT is the one to launch Adobe based proceses ONLY.

FPM-based processes ONLY

    At some point later when SAP released the FPM-based form option for HCM P&F, they gave us the application “ASR_PROCESS_EXECUTE_OVP” which in their documentation clearly states “This application is used to start HR processes and load their corresponding forms of type FPM Form”. For some crazy reason though, it seems no one on that product team had the foresight to think “hey, maybe people already have AIF-based processes in place and they would really like to have those processes listed and launched along with these.”. Nope. SAP dropped the ball. If you had existing AIF processes and new FPM processes, guess what? You had to use TWO iViews to “launch” them. Crazy, right?

BOTH (all) kinds together

     Thankfully, SAP rectified their oversight rather quickly. With the release of “HR Renewal 1.0 feature pack 5”, you can see two of the BIG features listed as:

  • New start application, which enables you to search for different object types (employee, position, organizational unit, or job) from a single search screen. You can also start both FPM-based and Adobe-based processes for the selected object.
  • New process browser application to track both FPM and Adobe-based processes

( HCM, Administrative Services 05 – Human Capital Management – SAP Library )

You can find the new “Start Application” discussed more here => Start Application – HR Administrative Services (PA-AS) – SAP Library

It is actually just “ASR_PROCESS_EXECUTE_OVP” enhanced to handle both (all) kinds of forms. In a nutshell though, if you want this *new* functionality, you must be at least on HR Renewal 10 feature pack 5.

Still having problems?

     If you have checked all the above and are using what you think is the right application but still not seeing your process listed, then you have other issues. This is most assuredly either….

  1. Process is not in the correct client (you built your configuration of your process in one client but can not see it in another). This is typical in development and you simply must SCC1 your transport to the correct client to test.
  2. Initiator Role is incorrect. You have either incorrectly configured the “initiator role” for your process or on the iView parameters, you are passing/using the wrong “initiator role”.
  3. Grouping is incorrect. Another possible configuration error….you set up your process groupings wrong or object grouping/filter. This can happen easily when setting up country specific groupings. I wrote another blog on this one….it is not fun!   ( HCM Processes & Forms: Bug Hunt – Incorrect/Wrong processes in the Process List )
  4. Other “process start” configuration…..check other possible issue…..validity dates…collisions…etc.
  5. Authorizations. Yep…this is usually what you should check first anyways just to get it out of the way…and be a pain to the security folks. (haha)

There you go. Short and sweet….as promised! Just hope it helps and cuts down on the repetitive questions in the forums.Trying to help as always. Till next time….

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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Christopher,

      Good Information!!! Thanks for sharing.

      However I've a doubt regarding the start application. Are you referring to the application ASR_PROCESS_START_OVP as start application?. I got confused. My assumption was ASR_PROCESS_EXECUTE_OVP is start application. I doubt the application ASR_PROCESS_START_OVP works for only HR Administrator (Role HRASRA)... If so then how it can be used for the process which runs by the Line Manager (Role HRASRB)? Please correct me if I am wrong.

      We are using HRMSS_HOMEPAGE app to show the team over view for the manager and customized launch pad to bring the form for launching. Can we make use of the application "asr_process_execute_ovp" and configuration "asr_process_execute_ovp_cfg" in launch pad for launching the adobe form in this case?

      I've raised a thread Launching of Adobe based HCM Process & Form... | SCN and got this blog as reference by Siddarth. But still not able to figure out the way. Your valuable suggestions could resolve my problem...

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Christopher!

      Are there any updates to this that have taken place since the original post?  Has anything changed since March of 2016 that would make FPM forms process browsing work without being at HR Renewal 1.0 Feature Pack 5?

      Author's profile photo Christopher Solomon
      Christopher Solomon
      Blog Post Author

      Sorry...not that I am aware of....SAP doesn't tend to "backport" things like this.

       

      Author's profile photo Amarnath Saraswat
      Amarnath Saraswat

      Hi Chris, Is there a way we can convert our existing Process which are created with adobe form to FPM form based process. Can we use the existing workflow and generic classes ?

       

      Author's profile photo Christopher Solomon
      Christopher Solomon
      Blog Post Author

      Too funny! This is exactly what I have been doing on my current project! Because Adobe Interactive Forms just do not work or not supported well in modern browsers as well as wanting to get off ADS (and licensing), I see this happening more now.

      In short.....there is no "easy mode" convert from one to the other (same issue for folks moving from FPM to Fiori). We were able to reuse some "elements"....like workflow and some generic services.....but at the same time (and as I have mentioned in other posts), moving from "X" to "Y" in HCM P&F is actually a great opportunity for the business to review their processes and possibly streamline them in areas (we did this a LOT!), so many things will possibly change.

      For the Adobe-to-FPM move, a lot of the basic/starting "conversion" work will be moving anything you had in scripts (client side for Adobe) over to the backend (via services and config) for FPM. For example, show/hide fields and other "interactivity" things of the forms.

      Author's profile photo Marius Smith
      Marius Smith

      Hi Christopher,

      Have you seen note https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2673872 and the guide/conversion to fiori  talked about there. We have used this guide  to convert our Adobe and FPM HCM Forms to Fiori. Very easy and simple . The workflow must be tweaked a bit and roles but otherwise a very simple process. Off course the look of adobe is still way better than fiori and FPM. Anyways we miss your in the Jam group mentioned in the note. Hope to see you there?

      Author's profile photo Christopher Solomon
      Christopher Solomon
      Blog Post Author

      I tried to find the Jam group but no luck. =)

      Author's profile photo Marius Smith
      Marius Smith

      Hi,

       

      You will have to ask the SAP guys in the note for access.

      https://jam4.sapjam.com/groups/O4QsJ4SUGbaW9nBBmHvdrn/overview_page/R17zu2FkwNLZxrfYwFbBxJ