Oracle Workflow Notifications

John Peters
JRPJR, Inc.
john.peters@jrpjr.com

07/19/04 NorCal OAUG Training Day, Paper 2.4

John Peters, JRPJR, Inc.

 How many of you have worked with Oracle Workflow? How many of you have modified Workflow Notifications? How many of you have a minimal understanding of PL/SQL
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What you should learn from this presentation: How does Oracle Workflow build a Notification Some tips for setting up the Workflow Notification mailer Some simple customizations you can perform on Workflow Notifications

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Versions Being Shown

All of my examples are Workflow 2.6.3 This is the version shipped with 11.5.9

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Presentation Emphasis
Primary emphasis of this presentation will be the changes to workflow notifications that are necessary for them to be sent outside of a company. The topics covered will be applicable even within a company if you want to personalize the notification messaging

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Notification Components
Notifications are comprised of:
- A Notification Activity - A Message - A Message Template - Optional Message Item Attribute(s)

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Notification Activity
Think of this as a container to hold and call the message from. This is what you will place on your workflow diagram. When inserting a Notification Activity on a workflow diagram remember to provide a value for the Performer. If you dont you will get a workflow runtime error about a NULL Performer.

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Notification Expand Roles

If you are sending the Notification to a Role (everyone with the System Administrator Responsibility) the Expand Roles is very important Checked, this will create a separate Notification to each person in the Role. If an action is expected every person has an opportunity to act on the Notification Unchecked, this will create a single Notification which is emailled to each person in the Role. The first person to act on the notification completes (or closes) it.

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Message
This is what contains the text you are going to send. You can format messages at Text or HTML Message Bodies can include Attributes (variables)

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Resulting Message
This is the result of the HTML message body Notice the extra line Oracle Workflow Notification (FYI). This came from the message template.

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Message Templates
Oracle comes seeded with Message Templates in the System: Mailer Item Type. In the PC Client Workflow Builder
Open the System: Mailer Item Type from the database The Internal Name is WFMAIL

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Open FYI Mail Template

Here is where that extra text comes from.

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You Can Customize Templates

Do not modify the Oracle Supplied Message Templates You can create custom Message Templates in the System: Mailer Item Type You can also create custom Message Templates in any Item Type, including the one you are customizing. Details are in:
Oracle Workflow Administrators Guide, RELEASE 2.6.3, Part No. B1028301

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My Customized Template

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How to Reference Customized Templates

Workflow Mailer Configuration using OAM

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How to Reference Customized Templates

Workflow Message Attributes Right mouse button on the Message Name Select New Attribute This Attribute must have an internal name of #WFM_OPEN_MAIL_FYI

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How to Reference Customized Templates

The value must be of the format: <ITEM_TYPE>:<MESSAGE NAME>

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Here is the result

Notice other possibly objectionable message components if the message is going external

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Message Attachments
Message Attachments are controlled by the User Preferences To suppress the Attachments choose HTML mail This can be done at the User level

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Message Attributes
Message Attributes allow you to modify features of a Workflow Notification, without having to create separate Workflow Mailers. There are dozens of Special Message Attributes. I am only showing two here. #WFM_FROM Changes the From Email address #WFM_REPLYTO Changes the Reply To Email See the following document for more information on Message Attributes:
Oracle Workflow Developers Guide, Release 2.6.3 Part No. B1028401

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Using #WFM_FROM
This message attribute will change the From Email Address in the Notification.

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Document Message Attributes

Document Attributes allow you to build a Message Body From a Query Document Type Attributes reference PL/SQL procedures to build a text stream Datatypes supported are:
VARCHAR2 32KB Size Limitation CLOB 4GB (possible limitations due to workflow engine limitation) BLOB 4GB (possible limitations due to workflow engine limitation)

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Create a Document Attribute

This will be a holder for a reference to the PL/SQL procedure and any required parameters Right mouse on Attributes Select New Attribute

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Create a Function
This Workflow function will set the Document Attribute values when the Workflow is run. Right mouse on Function Select New Function

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Create Workflow Process

I am going to build a new demo Workflow Process Right mouse on Process Select New Process

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Build the Workflow Process

Drag Functions in to Process Set Document Attribute, then Send Notification

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PL/SQL Code
I have removed exception handling and other constructs to make the code easy to read. The first procedure sets the Document Attribute The second procedure builds the Document text stream.

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Procedure to Set the Document Attribute

Document Attributes Values plsql:<procedure>/<document_identifier> procedure = PL/SQL Procedure document_identifier = usually a concatenation of ITEM_TYPE:ITEM_KEY This is the only way to pass parameters specific to the Workflow Instance.

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PL/SQL Code Set Attribute

-- Portion of the Package ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS PROCEDURE SET_NOTIF_ATTRIBUTES (p_itemtype in varchar2, p_itemkey in varchar2, p_actid in number, p_funcmode in varchar2, p_resultout out varchar2) IS BEGIN wf_engine.SetItemAttrText(p_itemtype, p_itemkey, 'EMP_TABLE', PLSQL:ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS.EMP_TABLE/ || p_itemtype || '| || p_itemkey); END SET_NOTIF_ATTRIBUTES;
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PL/SQL Code Build Document (1)

-- Portion of the Package ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS -- Procedure Call and Misc. Setup PROCEDURE EMP_TABLE (p_document_id p_display_type in varchar2, in varchar2, varchar2, varchar2)

p_document in out p_document_type in out IS v_itemtype varchar2(200); v_itemkey varchar2(200); NL VARCHAR2(1) := fnd_global.newline;

BEGIN v_itemtype := substr(p_document_id, 1, instr(p_document_id, '|') - 1); v_itemkey := substr(p_document_id, instr(p_document_id, '|') + 1, length(p_document_id) - 2);
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PL/SQL Code Build Document (2)

-- Portion of the Package ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS -- Procedure Create HTML Table Header if (p_display_type = 'text/html') then p_document := NL || '<P><B>'; p_document := p_document || 'Employee Table'; p_document := p_document || '</B>'; p_document := p_document || '<TABLE border=1 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=1>'; p_document := p_document || '<TR>' || NL; p_document := p_document || '<TH>' || 'EMPNO' || '</TH>'; p_document := p_document || '<TH>' || 'ENAME' || '</TH>'; p_document := p_document || '<TH>' || 'JOB' || '</TH>'; p_document := p_document || '</TR>' || NL;
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PL/SQL Code Build Document (3)

-- Portion of the Package ZZZZ_DEMO_WF_NOTIFICATIONS -- Procedure Create HTML Table Rows, Handle Text Document

for arec in (select EMPNO, ENAME, JOB from scott.emp order by 2) loop p_document := p_document || '<TR>' || '<TD nowrap>' || nvl(to_char(arec.EMPNO), '&nbsp') || '</TD>'; p_document := p_document || '<TD nowrap>' || nvl(arec.ENAME, '&nbsp') || '</TD>'; p_document := p_document || '<TD nowrap>' || nvl(arec.JOB, '&nbsp') || '</TD> || '</TR>' || NL; end loop; p_document := p_document || '</TABLE>'; else p_document := 'Text Document Not Implemented'; end if; END EMP_TABLE;
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Resulting Email Message

This is the same email with the message body showing the contents of the table scott.emp.

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Warnings about Message Modification

Workflow Messages are not versioned Notifications are versioned Adding new Attributes to a Message will affect all Workflows currently running immediately. If those Attributes are not derived you will get an error. You should make a copy of a Workflow Message if you will be adding Attributes to it.
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Workflow Versioning
Workflow 1 starts with Version 1 Workflow 2 starts with Version 1 If a message change is made in Version 2 it will affect both Workflows 1 & 2

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Workflow Notification Testing

Modify the Workflow Mailer Configuration using OAM Enter an email address for the Test Address This should be a common mail account or box that required users can view. User can then view this test email box to find notifications from the test instance. Dont create an email distribution list and assign the required users to it. This causes confusion since emails show up in your email box and you have to read them carefully to know if they are from PROD or not.
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Additional Reference Material

Here are other papers I have written on Oracle Workflow. They are available for download from my web site: http://www.jrpjr.com
Customizing Workflow: A technical perspective Oracle Alert and Workflow Comparison Oracle Workflow Tips and Tricks Requisition Approval Workflow Customizations

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 My contact information:
John Peters john.peters@jrpjr.com http://www.jrpjr.com

Additional reference papers can be found at:

http://www.norcaloaug.org

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