Workflow Container 

Definition

Structure used to record data that is transferred from one process step to the next.

Use

You use a workflow container for a program in a process model. The program stores data in the workflow container so that it can be made available to other programs.

To use the workflow container, proceed as follows:

·        In the first process step, use the macros SWC_SET_ELEMENT and SWC_SET_TABLE to put the required program data into the workflow container. The macros are contained in include <CNTN01>. The macros use the following transfer parameters:

¡        Name of container

¡        Name of element or table

¡        Value or table contents to be transferred

If a program’s selection screen contains a selection criterion with the same name, the system automatically transfers all of the data from the workflow container to the selection screen. You are therefore advised to define the name of an element in the workflow container so that it corresponds to the name of a parameter or selection option on the selection screen of the program to which you want to transfer the element.

If you want to transfer the contents of a table to the selection screen, it must be declared with structure RSPARAMS.

·        The workflow container automatically transfers all of the data for which a selection criterion of the same name exists on the selection screen to the program in the next process step.

In the program’s selection screen, the system overwrites data that originates from the process model’s selection program with data that originates from the workflow container. It proceeds as follows:

·         The system first overwrites the data contained in the program’s variant with the data you specified when executing the selection program.

·         It then takes from the workflow container of the previous step all of the data for which a selection criterion of the same name exists on the selection screen, and inserts it in the selection screen. If the selection program has already written data to one of these fields, it is overwritten.

The system follows this sequence because data created during a process run is more up-to-date than the data you entered when creating the process model and starting the process.

·        If you require data from the workflow container for the program belonging to the subsequent step, and if a selection criterion of the same name does not exist for this data on the selection screen, call the workflow container at the start of the START-OF-SELECTION event by using function module HRPY_PUST_GET_CONTAINER. To import the data from the workflow container, use the macros SWC_GET_ELEMENT and SWC_GET_TABLE.

·        The program assigned to the subsequent step processes the data from the workflow container and changes it if necessary. If the selection screen includes a selection criterion for the data that has the same name, the workflow container automatically forwards the changed data to the next process step.

·        If you want to transfer additional data from a process step to the next step, you must store it in the workflow container by using the SWC_SET_ELEMENT and SWC_SET_TABLE macros.

At the end of a process step, data from the previous step that is not transferred back to the workflow container is not available to the subsequent step. However, this only applies to data for which no selection criterion with the same name exists on the selection screen.

If you do not transfer the workflow container to the subsequent step at all at the end of a process step – that is, if you do not specify it in the interface of function module HRPY_PROCESS_FIRE_EVENT – the data in the workflow container is not lost. Instead, the subsequent step uses the data from the process step prior to its previous step. If the subsequent step has just one previous step, it uses the data from the selection program provided that it uses the workflow container. If this is not the case, it means there is no workflow container that can be transferred to the subsequent step.