Workflows for Background Portlet

Hello Experts,

Let’s say your customer has a requirement to have workflow for Background Portlet and to use this portlet in Talent Search feature. This requirement you may come across when we implement Employee Central with Talent Modules. Hence decided to write this short blog.

Scenario:

Customer is implementing Employee Central & Succession Management Module. They want Employees to input Portlets like Certifications, Honors/Awards Portlet and get approval from HR Manager. After Approval, HR Manager will use this Portlets in Talent Search for searching Successor or assigning them to Talent Pools

Current Limitation:

1. Currently, Background elements/Portlets such as Certifications, Honors/Awards Portlet do not support workflow.
2. Custom MDF Portlets can support workflow but do not support Talent Search feature.

Solution/Workaround:

We combined both Background & MDF Portlet features in order to overcome limitation. We configured Custom MDF Portlet to get approvals and then after approval sync the data to Background Portlet in order to use Talent Search feature.

How to Configure:

1. Create Background Portlet.
2. Create Custom MDF Portlet with Workflow
3. Sync Data from Custom MDF Portlet to Background Portlet

1. Create Background Portlet.

You can create Background Portlet with the customer requirement. Let’s say “Honors/Awards” Portlet

 2. Create Custom MDF Portlet with Workflow

Create Child Object with same fields as Background Portlet.

Create Parent Object

Create Association

Create Rule & Add under Save rule to trigger workflow

 3. Sync Data from Custom MDF Portlet to Background Portlet

You can sync data via Report Center, Integration Center or any Middle-ware. In the below example, we have used Report Center where Advanced Reporting is enabled in the Instance

i) Create Report via Advanced Reporting

Create report of MDF Portlet Data with Header row & Data format same as Import file of Background Portlet

Report Center -> Report Canvas -> List Report

Click “Edit Formatting” and “Export Report”

ii) Generate CSV file and Send to SFTP via Report Distributor

Click “View Schedules” and then click “Switch to the Legacy Report Designer Tool”

Click “New Bundle” & Create a Bundle

Select Bundle, click “Add CSV Table” & Select report from “Advanced Reporting” tab

Configure Destination & FTP Folder Setup as per your SFTP Details and Schedule it as per Customer Requirement

iii) Import Background Portlet Data via Provisioning Job

Login to Provisioning -> Manage Schedule Job -> Create New & Select “Live Profile Import” Job Type

There should be considerable time gap between Export & Import Jobs.

Results:

MDF Portlet: This is approved Data

Background Portlet: This data is replicated from MDF portlet and can be used for Talent Search

Talent Search:

Advantage:

1. Workflow can be defined for each Portlet
2. It supports Business Rules for any validation
3. It can be used in Talent Search

Hope this helps you. Looking forward for your Feedback & Questions.

Best Regards,

Vishwas N