Action Box 

Use

When you process quality notifications, maintenance notifications, or service notifications, you can use the action box to execute follow-up functions. Follow-up functions can help you process a notification problem and are documented as an activity or task for the notification header after being executed. Depending on your settings in Customizing for Notification Processing, the follow-up functions in the action box can include functions that you can execute:

Follow-up functions in the action box are different from task-related follow-up actions. Both follow-up functions and follow-up actions call function modules. With a follow-up action, however, the system executes the corresponding function module when you save a quality notification. With a follow-up function, the system executes the corresponding function module as soon as you execute the follow-up function in the action box. Also, when you process follow-up functions, you enter information in a dialog box. This is not possible with follow-up actions.

Integration

You can link the follow-up functions that are documented as tasks to the functions of the SAP Business Workflow component. This allows the system to trigger certain workflow tasks, once a function has been executed and the notification has been saved.

The action box contains follow-up functions that support the following business processes:

Prerequisites

The follow-up functions delivered in the standard system are ready for use. If you do not need a particular follow-up function, you can delete it in Customizing for Notification Processing. If you want to include your own, self-programmed functions in the action box, you must define them in Customizing for Notification Processing.

Features

Function

What you should know

Appearance of the action box

In the standard system, the action box is displayed as an overview tree. In this mode, the follow-up functions are displayed in a list in different colors. The colors have the following meaning:

  • Blue:
    The follow-up function is active and can be executed.
  • Black:
    The follow-up function is inactive and cannot be executed (yet).
  • Gray:
    The follow-up function has been executed and cannot be executed again.

If you set the Action box: Table indicator in the user default values, the system displays the action box as a table. In this mode, the system only displays the follow-up functions that can be executed (without the color coding).

Standard follow-up functions

The action box contains several follow-up functions that have been predefined in Customizing for Notification Processing. For more information about these functions, see:

Business transactions

You can also assign a business transaction to each follow-up function in Customizing for Notification Processing. The business transaction determines whether an activity or task resulting from a follow-up function can be executed, based on the current status of a notification.

Authorization check

Each follow-up function is assigned a code group in Customizing for Notification Processing. When you process a notification, the system automatically checks whether you are authorized to access the code groups assigned to the various follow-up functions. If you do not have authorization for a particular code group, the corresponding follow-up function does not appear in the action box. This means that you can only use the follow-up functions for which you have authorization.

Activities

To execute a follow-up function in the action box, click the text or double-click the symbol for a follow-up function that is displayed in blue. A dialog box appears, in which you can enter the data that is required to execute the function.

You can only execute a follow-up function if you select it from the action box. If you create an activity or task in the notification using the possible entries help for a catalog, the system will not execute a follow-up function.

The system executes the selected function and documents it as an activity or task for the notification header.