Supplying initial values for obligatory container elements changed?

[romanweise]

Hi all,

after upgrading some servers to WebAS 700 SP 20 for Basis and ABA the workflow runtime refuses to accept initial values for supplying obligatory workflow container elements. As a result the event link for the workflow is deactivated.

In detail. I have workflows which process the status change of objects. For the workflows I need the object key and the status value. Both are parameters of the workflow event and moved via data flow into the workflow container where the elements are marked obligatory. Due to the way sap implemented the application the initial status key is a valid value and has to be processed. This has never been an issue and has been working in some cases since basis 640 and for around 4 years. Now the basis upgrade seems to have changed the workflow runtime and the workflows are switched off as soon as an event with status equal initial value appears.

As a hot fix I took out all obligatory flags for any container element which could have an initial value on runtime. This is very bad implementation style and bad for future support but at least working for the moment. Furthermore we will discuss this with SAP in every case.

My problem is that the upgrade started from SP 11 so it is very difficult to identify the SP which caused the change. I could not find any note which describes this change. Does anyone know when this change was applied? I have more than a dozen projects running similar workflows which have to checked for sp level.

Many thanks for your help in advance

Roman

[former_member185167]

Hello,

I don't have a solution, but surely if it's accepting initial values then it shouldn't be marked as mandatory?

How does it make a difference if you mark it as non-mandatory?

regards

Rick Bakker

Hanabi Technology

[romanweise]

Hello Rick,

sorry for the delay, we are still discussing this problem with sap support. Trouble is that someone implemented the module the workflows run in in a way the the central object status are NUMC fields with value 0 being a valid value within the business process. So several workflows are triggered when the value changes to 0.

For me it is an important difference if an initial value is supplied or no value is supplied. ABAP is handling both cases different, too. I can pass an initial value to an obligatory method parameter while passing no value will result in a syntax error.

Of course there is no big difference if the workflow container element is set obligatory or not - its more a question of neat style. The bigger problem is that there are probably thousands of workflows out there which will stop working w/o notice when customers date their systems up!

I'll post an update once I am done negociating with sap support. ;o)

Kind regards

Roman