Oracle Workflow

Topics of Discussion

• Overview
• Components of workflow
• Notification Mailer Processing
• Setup of workflow
• Troubleshooting
 Overview of workflow

Oracle Workflow delivers a complete workflow management system

that supports business process based integration. It helps achieving
following tasks:

 Routing information
provides each person with all the information they need to act on

 Defining and modifying business rules

lets you define and continuously improve business processes using
process designer.
allows use of java and plsql to express any business rule that affects
a workflow process
 Overview of workflow contd.

 Delivering electronic notifications

lets people receive notifications of items awaiting their attention
via e–mail, and act based on their e–mail responses

 Integrating systems
Workflow lets you set up subscriptions to business events which
can launch workflows or enable messages to be propagated from
one
system to another when business events occur.
 Components of workflow

o Service Containers
o Agent Listeners/Service Components
o Background engine
o Workflow Directory Service
 Components of workflow

o Workflow Directory Service

Required by oracle workflow to retrieve information about users
and roles who may utilize workflow functionality and receive
email notifications.

Information retrieved from following views:

WF_USERS, WF_ROLES and WF_USER_ROLES

Views based on following tables:

WF_LOCAL_ROLES, WF_LOCAL_USER_ROLES

Bulk Synchronization needed to synch up data in the wf local

tables, with other application table’s data
 Components of workflow

o Background Engine
Used to run deferred,timed out and stuck activities. Activities in a
workflow process are marked as deferred if their cost exceeds 50
(by default).
Is an API - WF_ENGINE.BACKGROUND
Scheduled to run as a concurrent program

o Service Containers
Required to run the agents or service components
Three types of service component containers::
Workflow Agent Listener Service
Workflow Mailer Service
Workflow Document Web Services Service
Defined as concurrent managers
 Components of workflow

o Service Components
Workflow Deferred Agent Listener , runs on wf_deferred agent
Workflow Error Agent Listener, runs on wf_error agent
Workflow Java Deferred Agent Listener , runs on
wf_java_deferred agent
Workflow Inbound Notifications Agent Listener, runs on
wf_notification_in agent
Workflow Mailer Service

note: each agent has its own queue and queue table
 Components of workflow

What is an Agent ?
- named point of communication within a system
- communication within a system is achieved by sending messages between agents
- different agents for inbound,outbound communications
- oracle workflow provides default standard agents which are :
WF_CONTROL – Oracle Workflow internal agent, not for customer use
WF_DEFERRED – Standard agent for deferred subscription processing
WF_ERROR – Standard agent for error handling
WF_IN – Default inbound agent
WF_JMS_IN – Default inbound agent for JMS Text messages
WF_JMS_OUT – Default outbound agent for JMS Text messages
WF_NOTIFICATION_IN – Standard inbound agent for e–mail
notification responses
WF_NOTIFICATION_OUT – Standard outbound agent for
e–mail notifications
WF_OUT – Default outbound agent
 Components of workflow

Business Event System ?

- uses AQ to communicate events between systems
- consists of event manager and workflow process event activity
- event manager contains registry of business events,systems,named
agents within those systems, and subscriptions to those events
indicating those events are significant to the system.
- when an event occurs the subscribing code is executed.
- subscriptions can include following types of processing:
executing custom code on the event information
sending event information to a workflow process
sending event information to other queues or systems
Notification Mailer Processing

Outbound Notification Mailer Processing

Notification Mailer Processing

Inbound Notification Mailer Processing

 Setting up Workflow

o Background Engine
Conc. Program ‘Workflow Background Process’
Parameters:
item type -set it null
minimum threshold- min. cost ,set it null, default 0
maximim threshold- max. cost, set it null, default 100
process deferred - yes/no
process timeout - yes/no
process stuck -yes/no
Schedule to run every 3 mins
Schedule diff background engines for deferred and timed out
activities
 Setting up Workflow

o Workflow Mailer
SMTP server needed for outbound messages
IMAP4 compliant server needed for inbound messages
E-mail account needed on IMAP server
WF-<ENV_NAME> is the convention followed
Create PROCESS and DISCARD folder
Env. variables:
AF_JRE_TOP=/local/java/jdk1.3.1
AFJVAPRG=/local/java/jdk1.3.1/bin/java
AF_CLASSPATH=/local/java/jdk1.3.1/lib/dt.jar:/local/java/jdk1.3.1/lib/t
ools.jar:/slot02/appmgr/plmb9rwcomn/java/appsborg2.zip ………..
 Setting up Workflow

Configure WF Mailer through OAM-

login as sysadmin
workflow managerworkflow maileredit
enter inbound server name,username,outbound server name,
reply-to address.
check on ‘launch summary notifications’ if it is required

Ensure that job_queue_process<=10 and aq_tm_process>=1

Workflow Mailer Contd…

 Setting up Workflow

o Bulk Synchronization
Conc. Program with default parameters
Schedule to occur after every n hrs

o Control Queue Cleanup

Conc. Program with default parameters
Schedule to run daily
Can cause lots of enqueue
 TroubleShooting
? Notification mailer not coming up
- check if containers are running
- check wfmailer log files (oam/quick cm)
- if error is like outbound/inbound server unable to connect, then
check the configuration of wfmailer. If its proper, then file bug
against adevsrv.
- if error is something like this:

oracle.apps.fnd.cp.gsc.SvcComponentContainer.startBusinessEventListen
er()] :
BES system could not establish connection to the control queue after 180
seconds
Could not start Service Component Container …
- check if wf control queue cleanup conc. Program is scheduled and
runs successfully.
- check AF related env. variables
- try re-creating wf_control queue
- try to re-generate the jar files
 TroubleShooting
- if error is ‘no containers are running’ try bouncing the CM
- for other errors, search webiv

? Service Containers not coming up

- if status is ‘target/node queue unavailable’ run
update fnd_concurrent_queues
set node_name = (select node_name from fnd_concurrent_queues
where concurrent_queue_name = 'FNDICM'), control_code = NULL
where concurrent_queue_name like 'WF%' and enabled_flag = 'Y'
- if ‘activated’ but actuals and targets are not matching, bounce
the CM
if bouncing doesn’t help, then stop CM, run cmclean and restart
CM
- if status is ‘activating’ for a long time, check for errors in the wf
log files and alert log. If no errors then, stop the CM and drop and
recreate wf control queue and re-try.
 TroubleShooting
? Agent listener not coming up
- check the log files for any specific errors
- you may try running the command at sql prompt
exec wf_event.listen (‘&agent_listener');
 TroubleShooting
? Not receiving Email notifications
- check if mailer is running
- check whether email address and notification pref. for the user/role
expecting email, by querying wf_roles view. If no email, then report to
user.Also, ensure wf sycnh. conc. program runs periodically.
- you can get the details of a particular nid by running the file
$FND_TOP/sql/wfmlrdbg.sql.
- check wfmailer log files for any specific error and search webiv.
- ensure that test address is set to null by checking wfmailer details in oam.
- run wfver.sql file and check the output file for any invalid queue or invalid
pl/sql objects or improper setting of job_queue_process/aq_tm_process
- check whether events are being processed from wf_deferred queue by
giving the foll query:
SELECT msg_state, count(*)
FROM applsys.aq$wf_deferred a
WHERE a.user_data.event_name like 'oracle.apps.wf.notification.%'
GROUP BY msg_state;
 TroubleShooting
? Not receiving Email notifications
- if events are not being processed from wf_deferred queue, then
probably it needs
to be recreated.
- check wf_notification_out queue
SELECT msg_state, count(*)
FROM applsys.aq$wf_notification_out
GROUP BY msg_state;
- for logging bug: 174 product, jmailer component

? Not receiving System notifications

- check if background engine is scheduled and if it runs
successfully.
- run $fnd_top/sql/wfbkgchk.sql to see if events are being queued
in wf_deferred queue.
- it might be required to run ‘wfbkgbld.sql applsys’ to rebuild
background queue
- also, check if issue is user/role specific
 TroubleShooting
? Events not being processed from WF_JAVA_DEFERRED
queue
- check the job_queue_process and aq_tm_processes init para.
- bounce the service containers
- check if the queue is valid (wfver.sql)
- try recreating the queue

? Not receiving Summary Notifications

- check in OAM if it has been scheduled.
- Check if job_queue_process is set
- Check in dba_jobs
 Administrative Scripts
 To verify workflow setup
run $fnd_top/sql/wfver.sql

 To check notification details

run fnd_top/sql/wfmlrdbg.sql
copy the output to /edwdev/local/website/download
eg :
http://ap301sun.us.oracle.com:8000/download/wfmlrdbg40739.htm
l

 To drop and recreate wf_control/wf_notifiaction/wf_jms

queues
ensure CM is down
exec dbms_aqadm.drop_queue_table(queue_table=>
'APPLSYS.WF_CONTROL', force => TRUE);
sqlplus -s apps/apps @$fnd_top/patch/115/sql/wfjmsqc2.sql
APPLSYS <pwd>
sqlplus apps/apps $FND_TOP/patch/115/sql/afwfqgnt.sql apps
<pwd> applsys <pwd>
 Administrative Scripts
 To create FND_CP_GSM_IPC_AQTBL
dbms_aqadm.drop_queue_table(queue_table=>
'APPLSYS.FND_CP_GSM_IPC_AQTBL', force => TRUE);
sqlplus /nolog @$FND_TOP/patch/115/sql/aftcm049.sql APPLSYS
APPS

 To create WF_DEFERRED queue

exec dbms_aqadm.drop_queue_table(queue_table =>
'APPLSYS.WF_DEFERRED',force =>TRUE);
sqlplus apps/<pwd> @wfevquc2.sql APPLSYS <pwd>
WF_DEFERRED APPS
5 3600 86400
sqlplus apps/<pwd> @wfmqsubc.sql APPLSYS <pwd>

 To clean a particular queue

@$FND_TOP/sql/wfevqcln.sql WF_ERROR
 Administrative Scripts
 To create WF_ERROR queue
exec dbms_aqadm.stop_queue( queue_name => 'WF_ERROR', wait => FALSE);
exec dbms_aqadm.drop_queue(queue_name=> 'WF_ERROR');
exec dbms_aqadm.drop_queue_table( queue_table => 'WF_ERROR', force => TRUE);
sqlplus apps/apps @$FND_TOP/patch/115/sql/wfevquec.sql APPLSYS <pwd>
WF_ERROR APPS

 To update Service Component Parameters from backend

run $fnd_top/sql/afsvcpup.sql

 To check background engine activity

run $fnd_top/sql/wfbkgchk.sql

 To build background engine queue

run $fnd_top/sql/wfbkgbld.sql(requires cm and apache down)

• Purges the wf_notification_out outbound message queue and repopulates from the WF_NOTIFICATION table:

sqlplus usr/passwd@db @wfntfqup APPSusr APPSpw FNDusr

• Example Syntax:
• sqlplus apps/apps@db @wfntfqup apps apps applsys
• This script will move the oracle.apps.wf.notificaiton.send messages from the WF_ERROR queue to the WF_DEFERRED
queue for reprocessing. Substitute for Reset Failed in OWF G.
•
sqlplus usr/passwd@db @wfnequ APPSusr APPSpw FNDusr