Approvals

[jonathan_77]

I currently have a process that is using a workflow to drive approval requests.   The requests are being generated on the sysapproval_approver table.   I am trying to understand how this approval is getting kicked off.   Is it just because the "Approval - User" activity is being used in this step of my workflow?   I can't see any other way it would be happening.  

The reason I am trying to understand this is because I have a process using this type of approval request.   However there are a few strange things occurring.   When you open "My Approvals", everything is working as it should except when you scroll down to see the "Summary of Item being approved", every field that exists on this particular table is showing.   I have client scripts written on this particular table to control what fields are displayed based off of the reason this form is being submitted.   When I am on the table that these client scripts exist on, they work fine, it's just when you view the record form the sysapproval_approver table they the client scripts are not working.  

The approval also seems slightly disconnected from the record.   In the "Approval for" field, it is blank.   On the Change requests that use this process, the change number shows in this field, as it should.   The Request is also showing active = false when it isn't.   I am not sure if all of these issues are connected or not.  

I hope this makes sense, it's difficult to explain.

[williamsun]

1. yes, the approval records are being generated by the Approval - User activity

2. the Approval for field is a reference to the task table and it's children, are you running approvals for another table that is not task or task-derived?

3. Not sure why the Request.Active would be false, unless your workflow is bypassing this and then ending.

Check your record's workflow and workflow context to determine where it might be going wrong.

[Nia McCash]

The Summary of Item being approved is displayed via an Approval summarizer formatter which is a UI Macro.   As such, it doesn't run the client scripts that you created.  

See if this thread helps you: Show/Hide fields in approval summarizer based on Category of change

[jonathan_77]

William,

Yes, I am running approvals that are not a task or task driven.   They approvals in question are being driven off of a custom table that I created.   Do you think that is why I am having some of these issues?  

I will have to look into the Workflow more but I can say that the Workflow is stopping and waiting on an Approved or Rejected response before moving on.   So the workflow is still active when it is showing "False" on the approval request.

Thanks,

Jonathan

[williamsun · Accepted solution]

Yes, many of the automated items in approvals work for records that are on a task "type" (child) table, which is why the Approval for field is a reference to the task table, and it will interact with task record fields.

If you intend on leaving this table non-task-child, you will need to manage the record's values through another workflow activity, like a set values or a script activity, where you are actually moving it along.

As for the workflow, you will need to look into those workflows as they are working on the record.   I know the "Show workflow" UI Action link at the bottom of RITM's, for example, only appear on some tables, and they are all task child tables, you might be able to add this link to another non-task table, but I have not done this before.

Another way around this, if you are not in too far, is to re-create the table as a child to the task table, or move it (The Wrong Parent... ) then some of your issues would go away.