Oracle Workflow Basics Part -1
Oracle
Workflow APIs in Detail...
Oracle Workflow APIs:1 WF_ENGINE
2 WF_CORE
3 WF_PURGE
4 WF_DIRECTORY
5 WF_PREF
6 WF_MONITOR
7 Oracle Workflow Views
8 WF_QUEUE
9 FND_DOCUMENT_MANAGEMENT
10 WF_NOTIFICATIONS
WF_ENGINE APIs:
The Workflow Engine APIs can be called by an application program or a workflow function in the runtime phase to communicate with the engine and to change the status of each of the activities. These APIs are
defined in a PL/SQL package called WF_ENGINE.
CreateProcess (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,process in varchar2 default );
Creates a new runtime process for an application item. For example, a Requisition item type may have a Requisition Approval Process as a top level process. When a particular requisition is created, an application calls CreateProcess to set up the information needed to start the defined process.
SetItemUserKey (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2, userkey in varchar2);
Lets you set a user–friendly identifier for an item in a process, which is initially identified by an item type and item key. The user key is intended to be a user–friendly identifier to locate items in the Workflow
Monitor and other user interface components of Oracle Workflow.
GetItemUserKey (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2) return varchar2;
Returns the user–friendly key assigned to an item in a process, identified by an item type and item key. The user key is a user–friendly identifier to locate items in the Workflow Monitor and other user interface components of Oracle Workflow.
GetActivityLabel (actid in number) return varchar2;
Returns the instance label of an activity, given the internal activity instance ID. The label returned has the following format, which is suitable for passing to other Workflow Engine APIs, such as CompleteActivity and HandleError, that accept activity labels as arguments: :
SetItemOwner (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,owner in varchar2);
A procedure to set the owner of existing items. The owner must be a valid role. Typically, the role that initiates a transaction is assigned as the process owner, so that any participant in that role can find and view
the status of that process instance in the Workflow Monitor.
StartProcess (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2);
Begins execution of the specified process. The engine locates the activity marked as START and then executes it. CreateProcess( ) must first be called to define the itemtype and itemkey before calling
StartProcess( ).
LaunchProcess (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,process in varchar2 default '',userkey in varchar2 default '',owner in varchar2 default '');
Launches a specified process by creating the new runtime process and beginning its execution. This is a wrapper that combines CreateProcess and StartProcess.
SuspendProcess (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,process in varchar2 default '');
Suspends process execution so that no new transitions occur. Outstanding notifications can complete by calling CompleteActivity( ), but the workflow does not transition to the next activity. Restart suspended processes by calling ResumeProcess( ). ResumeProcess(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,process in varchar2 default ''); Returns a suspended process to normal execution status. Any activities that were transitioned to while the process was suspended are now executed.
AbortProcess (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,process in varchar2 default '',result in varchar2 default eng_force);
Aborts process execution and cancels outstanding notifications. The process status is considered COMPLETE, with a result specified by the result argument. Also, any outstanding notifications or subprocesses are set to a status of COMPLETE with a result of force, regardless of the result argument.
CreateForkProcess (copy_itemtype in varchar2,copy_itemkey in varchar2,new_itemkey in varchar2,same_version in boolean default TRUE);
Forks a runtime process by creating a new process that is a copy of the original. After calling CreateForkProcess(), you can call APIs such as SetItemOwner(), SetItemUserKey(), or the SetItemAttribute APIs to reset any item properties or modify any item attributes that you want for the new process. Then you must call StartForkProcess() to start the new process. Use CreateForkProcess() when you need to change item specific attributes during the course of a process. For example, if an order cannot be met due to insufficient inventory stock, you can use CreateForkProcess() to fork a new transaction for the backorder quantity. Note that any approval notification will be copied. The result is as if two items were created for this transaction.
StartForkProcess(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2);
Begins execution of the new forked process that you specify. Before you call StartForkProcess( ), you must first call CreateForkProcess( ) to create the new process. You can modify the item attributes of the new
process before calling StartForkProcess().
If the new process uses the same version as the original, StartForkProcess() copies the status and history of each activity in the forked process, activity by activity. If the new process uses the latest version, then StartForkProcess() executes StartProcess().
If you call StartForkProcess() from within a process, any function activity in the process that had a status of 'Active' is updated to have a status of 'Notified.' You must call CompleteActivity() afterwards to continue the process.
StartForkProcess() automatically refreshes any notification attributes that are based on item attributes. Any open notifications in the original process are copied and sent again in the new process. Closed notifications are copied but not resent; their status remains remains 'Complete.'
Any Wait activities in the new process are activated at the same time as the original activities. For example, if a 24 hour Wait activity in the original process is due to be eligible in two hours, the new Wait activity
is also eligible in two hours.
Background (itemtype in varchar2,minthreshold in number default null,
maxthreshold in number default null,process_deferred in boolean default TRUE,process_timeout in boolean default TRUE);
Runs a background engine for processing deferred and/or timed out activities using the parameters specified. The background engine executes all activities that satisfy the given arguments at the time that
the background engine is invoked. This procedure does not remain running long term, so you must restart this procedure periodically. Any activities that are newly deferred or timed out after the current background engine starts are processed by the next background engine that is invoked. You may run a script called wfbkgchk.sql to get a list of the activities waiting to be processed by the next background engine run. If you are using the standalone version of Oracle Workflow, you can use one of the sample background engine looping scripts described below or create your own script to make the background engine procedure loop indefinitely. If you are using the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications, you can use the concurrent program version of this procedure and take advantage of the concurrent manager to schedule the background engine to run periodically.
AddItemAttr (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,aname in varchar2);
Adds an empty item type attribute variable to the process. Although most item type attributes are defined at design time, developers can create new attributes at runtime for a specific process.
SetItemAttrText(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,aname in varchar2,avalue in varchar2);
SetItemAttrNumber(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,aname in varchar2,avalue in number);
SetItemAttrDate (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,aname in varchar2,avalue in date);
Sets the value of an item type attribute in a process. Use the correct procedure for your attribute type. All attribute types except number and date use SetItemAttrText.
SetItemAttrDocument(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,aname in varchar2,documentid in varchar2);
Sets the value of an item attribute of type document, to a document identifier.
GetItemAttrText(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,aname in varchar2) return varchar2;
GetItemAttrNumber(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,aname in varchar2) return number;
GetItemAttrDate(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,aname in varchar2) return date;
Returns the value of an item type attribute in a process. Use the correct function for your attribute type. All attribute types except number and date use GetItemAttrText.
GetItemAttrDocument(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,aname in varchar2) return varchar2;
Returns the document identifier for a document–type item attribute.The document identifier is a concate- nated string of the following values:
DM::: is the node ID assigned to the document management system node as defined in the Document Management Nodes web page. is the document ID of the document, as assigned by the document management system where the document resides. is the version of the document. If a version is not specified, the latest version is assumed.
GetItemAttrInfo(itemtype in varchar2,aname in varchar2,atype out varchar2,subtype out varchar2,format out varchar2);
Returns information about an item type attribute, such as its type and format, if any is specified. Currently, subtype information is not available for item type attributes
GetActivityAttrInfo(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,actid in number,aname in varchar2,atype out varchar2,subtype out varchar2,format out varchar2);
Returns information about an activity attribute, such as its type and format, if any is specified. This procedure currently does not return any subtype information for activity attributes.
GetActivityAttrText(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,actid in number,aname in varchar2) return varchar2;
GetActivityAttrNumber (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,actid in number,aname in varchar2) return number;
GetActivityAttrDate (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,actid in number,aname in varchar2) return date;
Returns the value of an activity attribute in a process. Use the correct function for your attribute type. If the attribute is a Number or Date type, then the appropriate function translates the number/date value to a text string representation using the attribute format.
Note: Use GetActivityAttrText for Form, URLs, lookups and document attribute types.
BeginActivity (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,activity in varchar2);
Determines if the specified activity can currently be performed on the process item and raises an exception if it cannot. The CompleteActivity() procedure automatically performs this function as part of its validation. However, you can use BeginActivity to verify that the activity you intend to perform is currently allowed before actually calling it.
CompleteActivity(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,activity in varchar2,result_code in varchar2);
Notifies the workflow engine that the specified activity has been completed for a particular item. This procedure can be called for the following situations:
To indicate a completed activity with an optional result—This signals the Workflow Engine that an asynchronous activity has been completed. This procedure requires that the activity currently has a status of 'Notified'. An optional activity completion result can also be passed. The result can determine what transition the process takes next.
To start and create a new item—Call CompleteActivity for a START activity to create a new item. START activities are designated as the beginning of a process in the Workflow Builder. The item type and key specified in this call must be passed to all subsequent calls that operate on this item.
Note: You can call CompleteActivity instead of StartActivity when you want to start a process with an activity node that is mid–stream in a process thread and not at the beginning of a process thread. The activity node you specify as the beginning of the process must be set to Start in the Node tab of its
property page or else an error will be raised.
AssignActivity(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,activity in varchar2,performer in varchar2);
Assigns or reassigns an activity to another performer. This procedure may be called before the activity is transitioned to. For example, a function activity earlier in the process may determine the performer of
a later activity. If a new user is assigned to a notification activity that already has an
outstanding notification, the outstanding notification is canceled and a new notification is generated for the new user by calling WF_Notification.Transfer.
HandleError (itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,activity in varchar2,command in varchar2,result in varchar2);
This procedure is generally called from an activity in an ERROR process to handle any process activity that has encountered an error.
SetItemParent(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,parent_itemtype in varchar2,parent_itemkey in varchar2, parent_context in varchar2);
Defines the parent/child relationship for a master process and a detail process. This API must be called by any detail process spawned from a master process to define the parent/child relationship between the two
processes. You make a call to this API after you call the CreateProcess API, but before you call the StartProcess API for the detail process.
ItemStatus(itemtype in varchar2,itemkey in varchar2,status out varchar2,result out varchar2);
Returns the status and result for the root process of the specified item instance. Possible values returned for the status are: ACTIVE, COMPLETE, ERROR, or SUSPENDED. If the root process does not exist, then the item key does not exist and will thus cause the procedure to raise an exception.
