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The purpose of this document is to understand the functionality of Offline Validation in SRM. In SRM there is an option for the Business Approvers to process work items related to certain Business Documents like Shopping Cart, Purchase Order without having to log in to SRM system. The system would send the work items to the approvers who can then approve it offline rather than having to login to the SRM system. The work items would be received by the approvers in their respective Microsoft Outlook email account.

Business Scenario

When a Shopping Cart or Purchase Order is created, based on the logic defined in the approval workflow setup, approvers would be determined and the approval workitems will be routed to them for validation via e-mail notification.

The mail sent from SRM system would contain “Accept” or “Reject” options for the shopping cart or purchase order validation. The purpose of this solution is to allow users who do not use their integrated inbox of the SRM system for processing work items and instead provide them with an option to use their usual e-mail client for validation.

Note: Without taking any action in the e-mail, the approver may still connect to SRM system via the URL Link provided in the e-mail notification to approve or reject the shopping cart (or even modify some data in the shopping cart) or the purchase order.

The design of the offline validation functionality can be seen visualized as in the figure provided below

Configuration for the Offline Validation Functionality in SRM

For all the users for whom the offline validation functionality has to be activated the attribute (FORWARD_WI) ‘Flag: Forward Work Item’  should be set as "X" through the t-code (PPOMA_BBP).

Also for all the users who wish to receive the work items in their mailbox they need to specify the email address through SU01 t-code.

Further the report RBBP_NOTIFICATION_OFFAPP needs to be scheduled to send work item notifications to e-mail recipients. With this e-mail, approvers can either Approve or Reject the work item

The report for sending the approval items offline can be configured for a variety of purposes like

i) Whether Email has to be sent in HTML or plain text and also whether the "Accept" or "Reject" buttons should be displayed in the email.

ii) Choose the language in which the mail has to be sent.

iii) Whether some document has to be attached in the mail which is sent to the approver.

The screenshot of the report which is used for sending the work items to email recipients is as below

SAP Connect administration will have to be managed by the BASIS Team to allow SAP inbox mailing. So, it will be necessary to setup incoming e-mail (use inbound processing transaction <SO50>) and schedule the report RBBP_OFFLINE_EVAL.

Additional Features which can added to the Offline Validation Functionality through the BADI "BBP_OFFLINE_APP_BADI"

The form BBP_OUT_OFFAPP can be used to prepare data for creation of e-mail.

The BAdI BBP_OFFLINE_APP_BADI allows adapting and extending the SRM standard functionality for offline approval of workitems via e-mail.

Through this BAdI One can:

i) From the sender report RBBP_NOTIFICATION_OFFAPP if we want to override the selection parameters and flexibly determine the workitems we can use the

   below method

              Method: WORKITEMS_SELECT

      

      ii) Determine the e-mail recipient using your own criteria :

              Method: RECIPIENTS_GET

    

      iii) Flexibly determine the contents of the e-mail (texts, URLs) :

              Method: MAIL_DATA_GET

     

      iv) Generate the e-mail flexibly :

              Method: MAIL_CREATE


v) Define an alternative class method to generate the e-mail and/or process the response mail (decision mail) in the SAPconnect-inbound processing or via the

          report RBBP_OFFLINE_EVAL :

             Method: DETERMINE_CLASS_NAME

      vi) Define the e-mail address of the response mail (return address) :

              Method: SMTP_INBOUND_ADDR_GET

     vii) Override the selection parameter in the SAPconnect inbound processing of the reply e-mail or from the processing report RBBP_OFFLINE_EVAL CH_SNDER

          (set to "X" as standard) to check whether the sender of the reply e-mail matches the owner of the work item.

              Method: CHK_SENDER_IND_SET

      Example Scenario

       Create a Shopping cart

     

     

     The shopping cart will be sent for validation based on the logic defined in the system. An e-mail notification will be sent to the approver and a sample mail template is shown below.

    

     When an approver e-mail response is sent back to the system. The work item ID, document status, and the approver decision are evaluated based on the defined class (Exit Name entered in transaction SO50).

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