SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Which notification to use when – Where and how to configure

[Jocelyn_Dart]

TL;DR – Know where and how Key Users, Functional Consultants, and others configure each SAP Fiori notification technique - covers flexible workflow, classic workflow, situation handling, Smart Business KPI Alerts, and process-specific notifications.

A very common business requirement is to notify someone that something has happened and, if possible, get them started on responding to it. 

In this blog post - Part 3 - you will learn where and how you - as a Key User or Functional Consultant - configure notifications for different notification techniques. In this post the assumption is your ECS team or Administrator have already turned on the Notification Channel (which collects and distributes notifications) and the Notification Center (where users view and act on the notifications).  You will find some tips for administrators in Part 4. 

In this blog post you will learn what's involved in configuring the 4 major notification techniques delivered with SAP S/4HANA - i.e. notifications of workflow tasks (flexible workflow + classic workflow), notifications of situations, Smart Business KPI alerts, and process-specific notifications.

You will learn for each major notification technique: 

• Which notification provider you need and where to check ( with your administrator ) if the notification provider has been activated
• What SAP Fiori apps or transactions you need to configure the notification texts, quick actions, and email notifications (where available).

Other blog posts in this series: 

• Part 1 - SAP Fiori notification techniques available in SAP S/4HANA and when to use them; when to use email notifications to complement or supplement SAP Fiori notifications in SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Which notification to use when – Workflow, Situation Handling, KPIs, etc
• Part 2 - Where business users view notifications depending on the notification type, expected response, and which apps/frameworks have been made available to you in SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Which notification to use when – Impact on business users
• Part 4 - For Administrators and Developers, understand prerequisites such as the technical notification channel and notification provider in SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Which notification to use when – Notifications for Admins and Developers

Getting started with configuring notifications

Who configures notification types

Configuring notifications is a low-effort, no-code task that is typically given to a key user or functional consultant. These are the people who know the business users best, what texts business users should see to prompt them to act, and what - if any - quick actions may be appropriate. 

Prerequisites for configuring notification types

Every notification type has a notification provider. A notification provider can support multiple notification types. The notification provider is created by a developer and provides:

• Notification Type name shown in the SAP Fiori launchpad – User Actions - Settings – Notifications section where the user sets their notification preferences
• Subject text of the notification type
• Long text of the notification type
• Optionally, parameters that can be included in the text(s)
• Optionally, quick actions for the notification type
• Optionally, whether notifications of this notification type can be grouped 
• Optionally, whether notifications of this notification type can be echoed to email
• Optionally, version id for the notification type, if there are multiple versions

More than 80 notification providers are predefined as part of SAP S/4HANA. You can find the list of all notification providers in transaction /IWNGW/BEP_NPREG.

Important: If you need additional custom notifications, you can create custom notification providers. You will need a Developer to do this for you. For example, you might want additional process-specific notifications.

To use the notification types, the notification provider must be marked as active in transaction /IWNGW/VB_REG_P.  This is typically performed by your Administrator, alongside the other prerequisites for the notification channel.

You may need to ask your administrator to check the notification provider you need is active and/or activate it for you. 

Configuring Workflow Notifications

Workflow notifications can be raised for flexible workflows and for classic workflows. The configuration is the same for both types of workflows.  Notifications for workflow tasks are generated when the task is sent to the recipients. 

You can see a brief example below of configuring workflow notifications for the flexible workflow for Verify General Journal Entries. 

Configuring Workflow Notifications in transaction SWF_PUSH_NOTIF1

You can find additional information in the SAP Help – ABAP Platform – Workflow Reference Documentation - Enabling Push Notifications.

Before you start configuring, you will need to know the Workflow ID and Task IDs of your workflow.  Where Workflows are predefined by SAP, you will usually find these in the relevant SAP Help documentation.

For Flexible Workflows you will usually find this in or near the documentation of the relevant Manage Workflows app. For example, for the flexible workflow for Verify Journal Entries you find this in the SAP Help – SAP S/4HANA - Apps for General Ledger Accounting - Postings and Journal Entries - Verify General Journal Entries - Enabling and Extending Workflows - Customizing for Configuration - Expert - Back End Customizing

Prerequisites for workflow notifications:

• The SAP Business Workflow engine must be active
• The Workflow id must be active
• The workflow must contain dialog tasks (i.e. tasks sent to a recipient)
• The notification provider SWF_PUSH_NOTIF_PROVIDER must be active

You configure notifications in transaction SWF_PUSH_NOTIF1 - an example screenshot is provided below.  You can adjust these settings at any time for any workflow task. Any changes are applied to future notifications for those workflow tasks. 

You can configure for each workflow task:

• whether notifications are active by enabling the Active checkbox
• whether notifications are groupable by enabling the Groupable checkbox
• optionally quick actions, by selecting the button Actions
• optionally texts, by selecting the button Texts
• optionally navigation, by selecting the button Navigation

If texts, quick actions, or navigation have already been configured the button will show an active icon (green square).

Marking a Task ID as Groupable enables you to define mass actions. For example, a mass action for the user to approve tasks in the group. 

By selecting the Texts button, you can define subject texts, long texts for the body of the notification, and title for grouped texts. You can add parameters from the workflow task into the text using the Insert Expressions button or type them in and use the Check Expressions in Text button to check your typing.

Hint: You may notice that there are different text boxes for sensitive versus non-sensitive texts.  Your Administrator controls centrally whether sensitive texts can be used in a Secure Store and Forward (SSF) scenario, for example when federating notifications to internet websites such as SAP Build Work Zone. This depends on your cybersecurity requirements. SSF will be mentioned in blog post Part 4 - For Administrators and Developers, understand prerequisites such as the technical notification channel and notification provider 

By default, notifications for workflow tasks navigate to SAP Fiori app F0862 My Inbox - All Items. You only need to define navigation if you want the notification to take the user to a different app.

You define an alternative navigation by referencing a logical intent i.e. Semantic Object + Action pair, and any parameters to be passed from workflow to the app.  In the launchpad content, the intent is mapped to the relevant target app. You can find out more about intents in SAP Help - SAP Fiori Launchpad - Administration Guide - Setting Up Launchpad Content - About Launchpad Content - Intent-Based Navigation

Important: Make sure you have discussed navigating to the target app with your security administrator, so that the recipients of the workflow task also have access to the target app, otherwise the notification will refuse the navigation - i.e. will not navigate and/or will give a navigation error when the notification is selected. 

Important: You may need to ask your UX Architect, launchpad content administrator, or security administrator which Object + Action to use and what parameters to pass. If you have access to the Launchpad Content Manager Client-Specific ( transaction /UI2/FLPCM_CUST ) you can find this by searching for the target app in the Tiles/Target Mappings tab. 

You can see an example of the Navigation dialog in the screenshot below. 

Quick actions are selected from the available actions on the related workflow task. You can add a semantic color to quick actions if you wish to guide the recipient. For example, for approval tasks you can assign Positive to Approve, Negative to Reject, and any other actions to Neutral. If the notifications are groupable, you can define a mass action text.  You can also mark any actions as hidden if you do *not* want them to appear as quick actions, for example, a Rework action. You can see an example of the Actions dialog in the screenshot below. 

Workflow notification configuration changes can be made cross-client or client-specific in your Development environment. To make client-specific changes:

1. Select the Customizing checkbox on the entry screen of transaction SWF_PUSH_NOTIF1
2. Select the row with the Workflow Task you want to configure and then select Override Workbench Item 
3. A new row will be created for the Workflow Task for the settings you want to make in the current client.

Your changes can be transported by your administrator through to your Quality Assurance environment ready for final testing.  Once tested your changes are transported to your Production environment.

Hint: Some flexible workflows include dedicated email tasks which are directly sent to email recipients, such as external contacts who need to be informed. These workflows may use additional techniques for creating dedicated email notification texts, such as SAP Fiori app F1306 Maintain Email Templates. For example, for the Verify General Journal Entries workflow refer to SAP Help – SAP S/4HANA - Apps for General Ledger Accounting - Postings and Journal Entries - Verify General Journal Entries - Enabling and Extending Workflows - Setting up Email Notification for Verification Workflow

Configuring Situation Notifications

Situation notifications can be raised for standard situations and extended situations.

• Standard situations  are predefined object-based situations provided by SAP. 
• Extended situations can be used for predefined or custom message-based situations - i.e. situations triggered by error messages.
• You can also use Extended situations to create your own custom object-based situations.  A complete demo situation is provided for developer’s to reference in the app F5697 Situation Handling Demo. 

You can find all the predefined use cases in SAP Help - SAP S/4HANA - Cross Components - Process Management and Integration - Situation Handling - Use Cases for Situation Handling

If you want to create custom situations, you can refer to SAP Help – SAP S/4HANA - Situation Handling - Extended Framework and to the blog series by Angelika Salmen:

• How to Start with Custom Situations: High-Level Design of the Use Case (1/4)
• How to Start with Custom Situations: Detailed Design of the Use Case (2/4)
• How to Start with Custom Situations: Design the Situation Object (3/4)
• How to Start with Custom Situations: Define Your Scenario (4/4)
• Custom Situation Cases: Configure Your Own Use Cases (1/6)
• Custom Situation Cases: Model Your Own Situation Objects (2/6)
• Custom Situation Cases: Create Your Own Situation Scenarios (3/6)
• Custom Situation Cases: Configure a Simple Use Case (4/6)
• Custom Situation Cases: Configure an Escalation Case (5/6)
• Custom Situation Cases: Configure a Complex Use Case (6/6)

Prerequisites:

• The situation type must be active
• The notification provider must be active

Notification providers for situations are:

• SIT_NOTIF_PROV – for standard Situations
• SIT_NOTIF_PROV_EXT - for standard Situations (email capabilities)
• SIT2_NOTIF_PROV – for extended Situations

You configure notifications for situations as part of configuring the situation type. 

• For standard situations, you will need SAP Fiori app F2947 Manage Situation Types
• For extended Situations, you will need SAP Fiori app F5437 Manage Situation Types – Extended

To configure situations based on predefined Use Cases for Situation Handling, you copy the predefined Situation Template to create a Situation Type.  You adjust your situation type by completing filter conditions, adjusting notification texts, assigning recipients, etc.. Notifications are configured in the Situation Display section of the situation type. 

In app F2947 Manage Situation Types, a standard Situation Template provides predefined notification texts.  You can adjust these before activating the Situation Type. 

In app F5437 Manage Situation Types – Extended you have further options in the Situation Display. For example, for message-based triggers you can optionally aggregate multiple messages to a single notification.

And for Object-based situations you can trigger separate notifications for each event-based trigger or batch-based trigger.

You only need to configure the notification texts.  There is no need to configure quick actions for situations because the Situation Type also defines what actions can be taken by the recipient. 

Hint: Because the recipients of situations are teams, to configure the situation type you will also need the SAP Fiori app F2412 Manage Teams and Responsibilities. If you have multi-level teams, you may also need the SAP Fiori app F3077 Manage Team Hierarchies.

Configuring Smart Business KPI Alerts

Prerequisites for Smart Business KPI alerts:

• The notification provider /SSB/NOTIFICATION_PROVIDER must be active
• The Smart Business KPI must be defined, based on a CDS View that is HANA-cached.

To configure Smart Business KPIs and their alerts you need the SAP Fiori app F2814 Manage KPIs and Reports which is part of the SAP Business Role Analytics Specialist (id SAP_BR_ANALYTICS_SPECIALIST). 

Very important: While SAP delivers nearly 400 predefined KPIs, you can copy and create variations of these KPIs SAP Fiori app F2814 Manage KPIs and Reports. You can even create custom KPIs based on your own analytical cubes and queries. For example, you can copy the KPI Overdue Purchase Order Items, to create separate KPI tiles filtered for different use cases, such as a total of Overdue Purchase Order Items per Purchasing Organization.  For each KPI you can configure separate tiles and reports to be assigned to users as part of their custom business roles. 

For each Key Performance Indicator (KPI) report you want to generate notifications, you need to configure thresholds with Alerts. You assign the threshold value. For the Warning Threshold and Critical Threshold you can set Alerts to "on".  

Restrictions: You can only configure alerts for KPIs where the Data Source is a CDS View that is HANA-cached. If the KPI is not based on a CDS View that is HANA-cached, the Alerts toggle button is not changeable.  The CDS View must support the capability ANALYTICAL_CUBE or ANALYTICAL_QUERY. Analytical cubes provide the dimensions and measures needed for analytical queries. 

Worth knowing: You can find CDS Views that are cubes by using the SAP Fiori app F2170 View Browser to filter on the Data Category = “Cube” or “Query”.

For the user to receive the notification they select the Subscribe link in the KPI report as shown in the example below for KPI Overdue Purchase Order Items.

Hint: After subscribing the Subscribe link changes to an Unsubscribe link. 

If a user is subscribed to the alert, the notification is sent when the Warning Threshold or Critical Threshold is exceeded.  For each subscribed user, a daily batch job is automatically scheduled to check for alerts and creating the notifications. 

The notification sent to the user includes the title of the KPI, the relevant Alert, and the threshold value exceeded, as shown in the example below.  It also reminds the user that the actual value may have changed since the notification was sent. 

Selecting the notification takes you into the matching KPI report app. The current actual KPI value is shown at the top of the report next to the report title, as shown in the screenshot below.

For more information, refer to:

• SAP Help – SAP S/4HANA – Analytics – Manage KPIs and Reports - Creating a KPI
• Learning Journey – Discovering SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics - Creating KPIs and Reports
• Learning Journey – Going Deeper with SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics - Creating a KPI and a report
• SAP Help – SAP S/4HANA - Virtual Data Model and CDS Views
• SAP Help – SAP S/4HANA – Analytics – Manage KPIs and Reports – Runtime Analysis – Smart Business Runtime Environment

Configuring Process-Specific Notifications

Process-specific notifications are usually notifications of a change in status of a business process. More than 80 process-specific notification providers are delivered as part of SAP S/4HANA. 

Most process-specific notification are quite simple. They contain a predefined notification text for each notification type they provide. Selecting the notification navigates to the related app.

There are no options for configuration beyond turning on the notification provider.  

Hint: If necessary, you could use translation tools to override the predefined texts, which are usually defined technically as text elements on the ABAP Class of the notification provider. You will need a developer to confirm which notification types and which notification texts are provided by the notification provider. 

The notification provider to be enabled is included in the documentation. 

For example, process-specific notifications are provided for the process Verify Journal Entries

• The app documentation help for SAP Fiori app F2547A Verify General Journal Entries - New Version explains the notification provider is JE_VER_NOTIF_PROV and how to configure it.
• A deeper look at the notification provider class by a developer confirms there are 3 notification types provided:
  • Posting Completed – with text “General journal entry <journal entry number> has been posted.”
  • Posting Rejected - with text “General journal entry <journal entry number> has been rejected.”
  • Posting Error - with text “Fail to post general journal entry <journal entry number>.”

An example of how the Posting Completed notification appears to users is shown below: 

Selecting the notification navigates to the related app – which in this case is SAP Fiori app F0717 Manage Journal Entries to show the posted journal entry.

Refer to SAP Help – SAP S/4HANA - Apps for General Ledger Accounting - Postings and Journal Entries - Verify General Journal Entries - Enabling and Extending Workflows - Customizing for Configuration - Expert - Back End Customizing

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