Creating Process Chains

• If you want to include a loading process (InfoPackage) in the process chain, you need to have already created the InfoPackage.

• You cannot load flat file data from a client workstation in the background. Therefore, you must store your data on an application server.

1. You can either create a process chain directly in the Data Warehousing Workbench or using a maintenance dialog box for a process:
   • If you are in the process tree in the Data Warehousing Workbench, work through the following steps:
     1. If required, create a display component in the context menu on the process tree's rood node or in the context menu for another display component.
     2. In the context menu for the display component, choose Create Process Chain.
   • If you are in the maintenance dialog box for a process that you want to add to the process chain, choose Process Chain Maintenance.
     Note

     If the process is already contained in a process chain, the system displays the process chain in question. If the process is used in more than one process chain, you can select the process chain to display.

2. A dialog box appears where you enter a technical name and a description for the chain that you want to create, and choose (Continue).

3. In the Add Start Process dialog box, insert a variant for the start process. To create the start process, perform the following steps:

   1. Choose (Create).

   2. A dialog box appears where you enter a technical name and a description for the start process that you want to create, and choose (Continue).

   3. On the Maintain Start Process screen, choose whether you want to schedule the chain directly or using a metachain.

   4. If you choose to schedule the chain directly, enter the start date value for the chain under Change Selections and save your entries.

      The Maintain Start Process screen appears again.

   5. Save your entries, go back to the previous screen and confirm your entries in the Add Start Process dialog box.

   The Plan View of the process chain maintenance screen appears. The left side of the screen contains a navigation area where the process types can be selected. On the right side of the screen, the process chain is displayed. The Settings menu allows you to specify whether the process chain is displayed as a network or as a tree.

   Note

   If you insert a process that is linked to other processes into the process chain, the corresponding process variants are generated and inserted into the process chain automatically. These variants are proposals that can be changed, replaced or removed from the chain as required. Variant maintenance is called when the change run insert processes automatically. Under  Settings  Default Chains , you can deactivate the option that allows the system to generate process variants and add them to the system.

4. Insert further relevant processes into your process chain. You have the following options:

   • Drag and drop from the process type overview in the process chain maintenance navigation area
   • Double-clicking on a process type in the process type overview
   • Drag and drop from an object tree in the Data Warehousing Workbench:

     Using the navigation window in Modeling in the Data Warehousing Workbench, you can switch from the process tree to another object tree and drag data transfer processes, InfoPackages or InfoProvider to process chain maintenance. The process types available for the InfoProviders are displayed in a dialog box.

5. When you add a process, you need to select a process variant or create a new variant. For collection processes, the system uniquely identifies the variants.

   Note

   Various functions for editing the process are available in the context menu:

   Context Menu Entry for a Process	Function Information
   Maintain Variant	With the exception of variants in the OR and EXOR collection processes, you can use this function to change all process variants.
   Exchange Variant	You can exchange the variant for an existing variant or a variant to be created.
   Link with…	You can use this function to link a process to a successor process. You can choose from the processes that are not yet linked to the current process. They are grouped according to process type in submenus.
   Display Scheduled Jobs	Once the process chain is active, you can use this function to display the jobs that have been scheduled.
   Display All Jobs	After at least one process chain run, you can display all of the scheduled jobs for a specific process and all of the jobs with which this process was run. The Job Overview appears and you can call the relevant job log.
   Create Message	You can also send success and/or failure messages to an application process belonging to the chain: Using the context menu for the process in question, create another process variant of type Send Message. When you edit a message, first specify whether you want it to be sent when the process has been completed successfully or unsuccessfully. Then choose Next. A dialog box appears where you can select an existing process variant or create a new one. If you create a new process variant, edit the document to be sent and specify a list of recipients. Note Note that you cannot add attachments to the message. Save your process variant and go back. The message process variant is now assigned to your application process. When the message is sent, the status information and the process log are also sent.
   Debug Loop	Only use this function to debug a process run. Specify how long (in seconds) you want the delay to be between one event being triggered and the next process starting. You can capture the process in the debugger by using transaction SM37 (Job Overview) or SM50 (Process Overview).
   Skip Process	If a data target has been affected by an error, and the error cannot be resolved before the next process chain run, the process chain run will fail. To avoid this, you can use this function to make the system skip the processes in question when running the chain until the original problem has been solved. These processes are not executed during the process chain run and are displayed in gray in the log view. The process status is SKIPPED, indicating successful execution. As a result, any subsequent processes that follow a successful event are also run. Once the error has been resolved, you can include the process in the process chain run again. To do this, choose Undo Skip Process.
   Remove Process	You use this function to remove a process from a process chain.
   Administrate Source	You can use this function to call the administration transaction for the source of process variants for certain process types.
   Administrate Target	You can use this function to call the administration transaction for the target of process variants for certain process types.

6. Hold down the left mouse button to connect the processes with events. A dialog box appears. Specify whether you want the event to be triggered after the previous process has been completed successfully or unsuccessfully, or whether you want the event to be triggered independently of the outcome of the process that precedes it. If the process that triggers the event has more than one option, choose the option after which you want the successor process to be run (see process type Decisions).

   Note

   If the process chain is shown as a network, first select the process underneath the row displaying the process type and then drag the cursor to the required process. When you select the process type row, the whole process is moved into the plan view.

   From the context menu for a link, you can display the event or remove the link again. To do this, select the link and right-click with the mouse.

7. If you did not create the process chain using a display component, assign it to a display component by choosing  Attributes  Display Component .

8. Define any additional process chain attributes required.

9. Check your process chain in the Check View and make any necessary corrections.

   Note

   • The Legend explains the meaning of the different colors used to display the processes and links.

   • From the context menu for a process, you can display the messages resulting from the check.

   During the check, the system calculates the number of parallel processes according to the structure of the chain (subchains are recursively taken into account here). The result is compared with the number of background processes on the chosen server (or the total 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. The system produces a warning for these levels.

10. Save and activate your process chain if it does not contain any errors.

Now your process chain can be scheduled and executed. Once it has been scheduled, the chain starts as defined in the start process. For example, if you scheduled the start process directly and chose Immediately as the start time, the chain run starts immediately after scheduling. In the plan view or check view, the Execute menu offers you additional execution modes (for example, simulation or synchronous execution) and the option to remove the chain from scheduling or stop a running chain.

In the Log View, you can display the messages for the chain runs.