Technical Articles
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:
- Currently, Background elements/Portlets such as Certifications, Honors/Awards Portlet do not support workflow.
- 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:
- Create Background Portlet.
- Create Custom MDF Portlet with Workflow
- 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:
- Workflow can be defined for each Portlet
- It supports Business Rules for any validation
- It can be used in Talent Search
Hope this helps you. Looking forward for your Feedback & Questions.
Best Regards,
Vishwas N
good one Viswas... nicely explained and documented.
Nicely put ! concise..
Good one Vishwas. Very well explained
Excellent work Vishwas...
Really useful Vishwas...!!
Informative and reusable !! Thanks Vishwas
Nicely explained Vishwas. Informative!!
Very nice and informative Vishwas... thank you
That's really a good piece of info...thanks for sharing.
Much Appreciated ?
Good one Vishwas. Nice blog !!!
Well explained. Thanks for sharing.
Informative and fully explained.. Thanks for sharing!
Nicely explained. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent job putting this together Vishwas!!The requirement for an approval mechanism for the background elements has been common across many engagements thanks for addressing this.
Thanks for sharing. Great info!
Do you have this working? What happens when data is deleted from the MDF portlet?
Hi Iqbal,
Yes we have implemented this and it is working fine.
If data is deleted in MDF, it will get deleted in Background Portlet.
Basically everyday we are importing Background portlet with As of Today records by overwriting the existing records.
Regards,
Vishwas
Very Informative Vishwas! I am building this for one of the customer now 🙂
Very Nice Buddy. Keep it up!!!
Nice Blog!!
This is a nice workaround for a common problem. Better still to fix the underlying root cause, and there is an enhancement request defined for this already, for consideration. Please vote for the idea https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#/idea/43889
Hello Vishwas,
Hi Alexandra,
Thanks for your feedback.
Awards can be created directly via MDF Portlet in People Profile ( I have missed to explain how to create UI & add in Configure People Profile). Once Data is approved, it will get sync to Awards Portlet (Background Element) which can be used in Talent Module.
Regards,
Vishwas
Hello Vishwas,
This is the useful information! However, in my understanding, the data of MDF Object cannot be exported by Canvans report. Could you tell me your assumption?
Regards,
Hi Takuya,
Thanks for your Feedback.
You can export the MDF Data via Report Distributor. Please check Step 3 in the blog.
Regards,
Vishwas
Top this Blog!
Hello Vishwas
Good job!
Thank you so much to share this workaround.
Congrats!!!
Hello Vishwas,
This is the useful information. I'm trying this setting, but output files have following lines at the top of the file.
I cannot import the output file because of this. Do you have any workarounds?
Regards,
Hi Takuya Ebisawa ,
I also faced this challenge while scheduling the report.
Please follow the above steps 3 (i) & (ii) carefully. You need to go to “Edit Formatting” and “Export Report”. Then while adding report in Bundle, Select report from “Advanced Reporting” tab not from Query Workspace.
This will remove time stamp from the file.
Regards,
Vishwas
Hi Vishwas,
Thank you for your advice. This was solved!
Regards,
Thank you Vishwas, it's a great idea, But I wonder where the link between MDF and Background portlet , where you determine the target background portlet .
Thanks
Ahmed Tohamy
Hi Ahmed,
Thanks for the feedback.
You can link it via Background Element ID.
In the able example refer steps 3 (i), you can find 2nd Column in the report is defaulted to "awards" which is Background Element ID for Honors/Awards Portlet.
Regards,
Vishwas
Very useful information, Vishwas. Neatly explained.
Hi Vishwas,
Thank you for sharing insightful blog. I have one query, why is it necessary to create a parent and child custom MDF portlet and then create the association? Isn't it possible to create a single custom MDF object and assign workflow?
Hi, I tried this but when I generate the report the CSV output comes with a header at the top which says 'exported on date' and then a blank row. Mine is a live data detailed report and not advanced report
H Vishwas/All,
How multiple records in the custom MDF appear as same as in the Background Elements. How to configure this in the Config UI so we can have the MDF portlet to look as same as the Background elements? Anyone help please. Thanks in advance.
This is very helpful indeed. I will be able to use this for an enhancement I am working on. The only issue is I dont have access to Provisioning. Is there an alternative way? thanks