Using Longview Workflow on the web

Your System administrator uses Longview Workflow Designer to set up an approval process. He or she determines the scope, the Data Areas, the Owners, and the Approvers for each step.

When the approval process is activated by your System administrator, the process appears on your web page.

If you are a System administrator, it is important for you to understand how the users in your company use the approval process that you have created in Longview Workflow Designer.

In this chapter, you can find information on these main topics:

• “Starting to work on an approval process”
• “Understanding Longview Workflow status”
• “Changing approval status”

Starting to work on an approval process

After your System administrator has activated the approval process, the process appears on your Longview home page. When you sign on to your Longview home page, alert messages display, depending on the user role assigned to you, the tasks you must complete, and the process status.

To access Longview Workflow on the web, click on the name of the approval process or on the alert message.

You can also filter the view by Owner or status. To do so, click the To Filter View button.

Understanding Longview Workflow status

You can see the approval process on your screen.

Before you work in Longview Workflow on the web, you need to input data. Then, in Longview Workflow on the web, change the status of the approval step.

There are several approval statuses, each represented by an icon:

Changing approval status

After you complete the data in an approval step, you are ready to change its status. For the completion of an approval process, the status of each Longview Workflow step must go through the cycle of Not Started through to Approved.

To change status, follow these steps.

1. On your Longview home page, click on the name of the approval process, or the alert message. The process view appears.
   
2. Click on the step name. The Step View appears.
   
3. To view previous actions related to this approval step, click the Status History tab.
   
4. For Status, select the new status.
5. For Comments, type a comment to provide further details, if necessary.
6. For Visibility, select Visible or Invisible.

   Note: The system attribute SWFUseVisibility must be set to TRUE in order for you to change visibility. For more information, see “Changing data visibility”.

7. When you’re ready to submit your status change, click Update. A Confirm Status Change dialog appears.
   
8. Click OK. A Status Change Result appears, informing you whether or not the status change was successful.
9. To return to the process, click Continue. The status change displays in the Status History tab.
   
10. If you are working on a hierarchical approval step, you can also change the status of dependent steps simultaneously. To do so, click the Dependent Steps tab.
    
11. In this view, you can change the status of multiple child steps at the same time.
    • To select individual steps for status change, click beside the name of the individual step.
    • To select all steps for status change, click beside the name of the Approval Step heading.
12. When you are ready to submit your status change, click Update. A Confirm Status Change dialog appears.
    
13. Click OK. The A Status Change Result appears, informing you whether or not the status change was successful.
14. To return to the process, click Continue.

Certifying data in an approval process

If you added a certification process to the approval process in “Adding a certification definition to an approval process”, certification options display in the Step View dialog.

To certify data in an approval process, follow these steps.

1. On your Longview home page, click the workflow process with a certification definition. The process view appears.
   
2. Click on the step name. The Step View appears.
   
3. For Certification, click Set Certification. Optionally, you can enter a comment regarding the certification in the Comments field before you click Set Certification. The Certification Statement dialog appears.
   
4. Select Agree if you agree with the certification statement or select Disagree if you disagree with the certification statement. Click OK or click Cancel to return to the Step View without setting certification.

   Note: The agree button, disagree button, and certification statement text are set in “Adding a certification definition to an approval process”.

5. The certification, as defined in the Certification Statement dialog, appears in the Certification field in the step view. Click the Reset Certification button to set the Certification field to “Required”.

   Note: The Reset Certification button is only available for Workflow Approvers.

   
6. When you are ready to submit your data, click Update. A Confirm Status Change dialog appears. The Certification Statement specified in the creation of the approval process displays above the Approval Step.
   
7. Click OK. A Status Change Result appears, informing you whether or not the status change was successful.
8. To return to the process, click Continue. The status change displays in the Status History tab.
   
9. If you are working on a hierarchical approval step, you can also certify the data of multiple dependent steps simultaneously. To do so, click the Dependent Steps tab.
   
10. In this view, you can certify the data of multiple child steps at the same time.
    • To select individual steps for data certification, click beside the name of the individual step.
    • To select all steps for data certification, click beside the name of the Approval Step heading.

    Note: You cannot certify a child step when the status of the parent step is “Submitted for approval” or “Approved”. The status of the parent step must be changed before the child step certification status can be.

11. When you’re ready to submit your data, click Update. A Confirm Status Change dialog appears.
    
12. Click OK. A Status Change Result appears, informing you whether or not the status change was successful.
13. To return to the process, click Continue.