Explore practical exercises for programming in SAP Business Workflow Utilize step-by-step instructions for adapting data flows, agent determination, event definitions, and more Learn from examples, problem solutions, and tips and tricks for daily practice ABAP developers require special programming skills for workflow-related ABAP development, as well as very specific process knowledge. With this book, you will acquire both! You ll learn the aspects of the tools that are directly related to the developer s tasks, understanding when it is necessary to use custom code and how to write this code. In the many activities and tutorials this book provides, you'll discover how your work differs from the workflow engine of classic application development, as well as how to influence the behavior of a workflow with its own ABAP programs. Additionally, you'll learn how to customize the workflow environment beyond standard programming.

Table of Contents:
1 Introduction 11 2 Getting Started 15 2.1 Customizing the Workflow Engine 15 2.1.1 Implementing Customizing (Transaction SWU3) 15 2.1.2 System User WF-BATCH 17 2.1.3 Logical RFC Destination WORKFLOW_LOCAL_xxx 18 2.1.4 Checking the Customizing (Transactions SWU3 and SWUI_VERIFY) 19 2.2 Starting Workflows and Monitoring the Workflow Events 23 2.2.1 Monitoring Events (Transactions SWELS and SWEL) 24 2.2.2 Considering Workflow Definitions (Transaction SWDS) 27 2.3 Maintaining a Minimal Organizational Structure 32 2.3.1 Creating Organizational Units (Transaction PPOCW) 33 2.3.2 Editing Organizational Units (Transaction PPOMW) 35 2.3.3 Assigning SAP Users to Positions 38 2.3.4 Testing the Agent Determination (Transaction PFAC) 40 3 Compiling a Workflow Development Environment 43 3.1 Relevant Transactions 43 3.2 Workflow Development Process with Standard SAP Functions 44 3.3 Events 45 3.3.1 Event Type Linkage 46 3.3.2 Event Instance Linkage 47 3.4 Where-Used Lists in SAP Business Workflow 48 3.4.1 From Object to Standard Task to Workflow Template 48 3.4.2 From BOR Object to Standard Task (Classic) 49 3.4.3 From ABAP Objects Class to Standard Task (Classic) 50 3.4.4 From Standard Task to Workflow Template 51 4 Methods, Work Items, and Events 53 4.1 Types of Methods in the Workflow 53 4.2 Types and Statuses of Work Items 56 4.3 Events and Their Delivery 59 4.3.1 Check and Receiver Type Function Modules 61 4.3.2 Event Queue 64 5 Intervening in the Agent Determination 67 5.1 Creating a Workflow 67 5.2 Determining and Selecting the Agent Determination Dynamically 68 5.3 Testing the Workflow Template 72 5.4 Modeling the Agent Determination Using Task Groups 75 5.5 Agent Determination with Responsibilities 81 5.5.1 Creating Rules Based on Responsibilities 83 5.5.2 Integrating a Rule with the Workflow Template 86 5.6 Programming the Agent Determination 88 5.6.1 Creating Classic Function Modules for Agent Determination 89 5.6.2 Creating an ABAP Class for Agent Determination 94 6 Containers, Binding, and Conditions in the Workflow 97 6.1 Preparation 97 6.2 Container Location of the Data Used by a Workflow 98 6.2.1 Event Container 100 6.2.2 Workflow Container 100 6.2.3 Rule Container 101 6.2.4 Task Container 101 6.2.5 Method Container 102 6.3 ABAP-Coding with Containers (Macros) 102 6.4 ABAP Objects Classes for Handling Containers, Bindings, and Conditions 105 6.5 Coding Example for Containers, Bindings, and Conditions 107 6.5.1 Creating Container Elements 107 6.5.2 Creating Containers 109 6.5.3 Converting Containers 111 6.5.4 Creating Workflow Conditions 112 6.5.5 Defining the Binding 115 6.6 Advanced Functionality in the Binding 118 6.7 Programmed Binding 119 7 Sample Project Designing an ABAP Objects Class for the Workflow 123 7.1 Initial Situation 123 7.2 Specific Features in the Workflow Environment 125 7.3 Creating a Class, Integrating IF_WORKFLOW, and Defining Key Attributes 126 7.4 Managing and Creating Instances 128 7.5 The Little Persistence in Between 133 7.6 Troubleshooting with Exception Classes 138 7.7 Creating Workflow Events from ABAP Objects Classes 140 7.8 BOR Objects as Attributes in ABAP Objects Classes 143 8 Sample Project Designing a BOR Object for the Workflow 147 8.1 Initial Situation 147 8.2 Creating a New BOR Object 148 8.3 Creating Persistence for BOR Attributes 150 8.4 Creating Key and Other Attributes 151 8.5 Creating BOR Methods 159 8.5.1 Additional BOR Interfaces 161 8.5.2 Redefining the CREATE Method 161 8.5.3 Method Containers for Parameters 162 8.5.4 Redefining the DELETE Method 164 8.6 Exceptions and Errors 166 8.7 BOR Events 167 8.8 BOR Release Statuses 169 8.9 Default BOR Specifications 170 8.10 Inheritance and Delegation in BOR 172 Appendices 175 A Step Types and Sample Workflows 177 A.1 Step Types 177 A.2 Other Workflow Technologies 181 B Important Transactions 183 C The Author 187 Index 189