Process Chains (Enhanced) 

Technical Data

Function Is	Changed
In Release	Software Component ●      Component: SAP NetWeaver ●      Release: 7.0
Assignment to Application Component	BW-WHM Warehouse Management
Country Setting	Valid for all countries

Use

Several functions have been added to the process chain maintenance functionality:

●      Copy process chains

You find this function in the Process Chain menu and use it to copy the process chain you have selected, along with its references to process variants, and save it under a new name and description.

●      Client-specific display of process chains

If you are using process chains in a client-specific application, you use this function in the attribute maintenance of a process chain to determine the clients in which the chain can be used. You can only display, edit, schedule and execute the process chain in this client.

●      Flexible process path based on multivalue decisions

The workflow and decision process types support the event Process ends with complex status. When you use this process type, you can control the process chain process on the basis of multivalue decisions. The process does not have to end simply successfully or in errors; for example, the week day can be used to decide that the process was successful and determine how the process chain is processed further. With the workflow option, the user can make this decision. With the decision process type, the final status of the process, and therefore the decision, is determined on the basis of conditions. These conditions are stored as formulas.

●      Apply multiple start conditions in a process chain

With the process type Interrupt, you can interrupt the processing of a process chain until a given condition has been satisfied. In this way you can, for example, define conditions that need to be satisfied in addition to the start condition defined in the start process so that the entire process chain or parts of it can be processed.

●      Evaluate the output of system commands

You use this function to decide whether the system command process is successful or has errors. You can do this if the output of the command includes a character string that you defined.

This allows you to check, for example, whether a particular file exists in a directory before you load data to it. If the file is not in the directory, the loading process can be repeated at predefined intervals.

●      Display the process chain as a tree or network

You use this function, which you find in the Settings menu, to define whether the process chain is displayed as a tree or a network graphic.

●      Repair and repeat process chains

You use this function to repair processes that were terminated. You execute the same instance again, or repeat it (execute a new instance of the process), as long as this is supported by the process type. You call this function in the log view from the context menu of the process that has errors.

●      Execute process chains synchronously

You use this function to schedule and execute the process in dialog mode, instead of in the background. The processes in the chain are processed serially using a dialog process. With synchronous execution, you can debug process chains or simulate a process chain run.

●      Error handling in process chains

If you have scheduled a successor process Upon Errors or Always, you use this function in attribute maintenance of a process chain to classify all the incorrect processes of the chain as successful with regard to the overall status of the run. This function is relevant if you are using metachains. Where the successor of the subchain is scheduled Upon Success, this function allows you to continue processing metachains despite errors in the subchains.

●      Define the user that executes the process chain

You use this function in attribute maintenance of a process chain to define which user executes the process chain. The default setting is the BI background user.

●      Display mode in process chain maintenance

When you access process chain maintenance, the process chain display appears. The process chain is not locked and does not call the transport connection. In the process chain display, you can schedule the process chain without locking it.

●      Check the number of background processes available for a process chain

During the check, the system calculates the number of parallel processes according to the structure of the tree. It compares the result with the number of background processes on the selected server (or the total number of all available servers if no server is specified in the attributes of the process chain). If the number of parallel processes is greater than the number of available background processes, the system highlights every level of the process chain where the number of processes is too high, and produces a warning.

●      Alert with process chains

You use this function in the attribute maintenance of a process chain to send alerts if errors occur during process chain execution. You use alert management to send alerts. Exits that allow you to define alert categories flexibly are available.

●      Delete process chain logs

You use this function, which you find in the log view menu of a process chain, to delete the logs for a process chain and the processes that are dependent on it.

●      Authorizations

You use authorization checks in process chain maintenance to lock the process chain and the processes of the chain against actions by unauthorized users. For a process chain, you require authorizations on the new authorization object S_RS_PC.

Effects on System Administration

Set up authorizations so that the processes of a process chain, and the process chain itself, are protected against actions made by unauthorized users.