Enabling external workflow for Features in SAP Clo...

ValeriaL

We are thrilled to introduce the integration of external workflow for Features in SAP Cloud ALM! It is our newest Change and Deployment Management functionality designed to add custom approval and confirmation steps to the default Feature workflow.

With Feature workflow integration, you can automatically trigger a custom workflow when a Feature’s status changes to ‘Successfully Tested". Custom workflows can be created using external workflow tools, such as SAP Build Process Automation.

In the following example, we will show how to design a custom test confirmation workflow in SAP Build Process Automation (BPA) and enable it for Features in SAP Cloud ALM. When the user triggers the action "Confirm Successful Test" in a Feature, the workflow is automatically started in the BPA instance. A test confirmation request will be sent to the inbox of the dedicated approver. If the request is approved, the Feature status will be set to "Successfully Tested". In case the request is rejected, the Feature status will stay "In Testing".

Configuration Prerequisites

SAP Build Process Automation subscription and the corresponding service instance (including service key) are available.

For more information, please see: https://help.sap.com/docs/build-process-automation/sap-build-process-automation/subscribe-to-sap-bui...

SAP Cloud ALM has been provisioned and a Cloud ALM API service instance has been created (including service key)

For more information on how to create a Cloud ALM API service instance, please see: Enabling SAP Cloud ALM API

Configuration Overview

Create destination from SAP Cloud ALM to SAP Build Process Automation
Create destination from SAP Build Process Automation to SAP Cloud ALM
Define workflow in SAP Build Process Automation
Create workflow subscription in SAP Cloud ALM
Assign the workflow subscription to a project in SAP Cloud ALM

Create destination from SAP Cloud ALM to SAP Build Process Automation

Logon to your SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) subaccount where your SAP Cloud ALM tenant is provisioned. Navigate to the section Connectivity -> Destinations and create a destination with the following parameter:

Parameter Name	Value
Type	HTTP
URL	https://<url>/workflow/rest/v1/workflow-instances <url> = URL from the section endpoints -> api of the BPA instance service key
Proxy Type	Internet
Authentication	OAuth2ClientCredentials
Client ID	section uaa->clientid of the BPA instance service key
Client Secret	section uaa->clientsecret of the BPA instance service key
Token Service URL Type	dedicated
Token Service URL	https://<tenant>.authentication.<domain>.hana.ondemand.com/oauth/token for <tenant> and <domain>, please refer to the URL from the section uaa->url of the BPA instance service key

Create destination from SAP Build Process Automation to SAP Cloud ALM

Logon to your SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) subaccount where your SAP Build Process Automation tenant is provisioned. Navigate to the section Connectivity -> Destinations and create a destination with the following parameter:

Parameter Name	Value
Type	HTTP
URL	https://<your tenant>/api
Proxy Type	Internet
Authentication	OAuth2ClientCredentials
Client ID	section uaa->clientid of the Cloud ALM API instance service key
Client Secret	section uaa->clientsecret of the Cloud ALM API instance service key
Token Service URL Type	dedicated
Token Service URL	https://<tenant>.authentication.<domain>.hana.ondemand.com/oauth/token for <tenant> and <domain>, please refer to the URL from the section uaa->url of the Cloud ALM API instance service key

Add the following additional properties to the destination:

sap.applicationdevelopment.actions.enabled = true
sap.processautomation.enabled = true

Define workflow in SAP Build Process Automation

Here is an example of a test confirmation workflow including a 4-eyes principle check and email notification to the test approvers:

You can download the example workflow HERE, import it into your SAP Build Process Automation tenant and adjust it to your needs.

Note, that the Feature status switch is done by using the Workflow API. When a workflow is accepted (workflow status COMPLETED), the Feature status will be set to "Successfully Tested". In case a workflow is rejected (workflow status FAILED), the Feature status will remain "In Testing". By using script tasks you can access the contextual information of the workflow and maintain optional attributes like externalApprovers or externalDecision which are maintained in the Feature history when a workflow is executed.

For more information about script tasks, please check the following: https://help.sap.com/docs/workflow-capability/workflow-cloud-foundry/accessing-contextual-informatio...

Please ensure that you have created an environment variable of type Destination under the project properties of your workflow project:

At the project deployment you will be asked to map the Cloud ALM API destination (from SAP Build Process Automation to Cloud ALM) to the destination variable:

Create workflow subscription in SAP Cloud ALM

Create a webhook in External API Management

Logon to your SAP Cloud ALM tenant and navigate to External API Management:

Go to Webhooks Management and choose “Add new webhook”:

Enter the following data:

Parameter Name	Value
Name	<name of the webhook>
Ext Resource Type	Workflow
Destination Source	BTP destination
Destination Id	<id of the destination from SAP Cloud ALM to Build Process Automation tenant>
Destination Type	Other

Create mapping

Go to Mappings Management and choose "Add new mapping":

Enter the following data:

Parameter Name	Value
Description	<name of the mapping>
Version	1.0
Source	SAP Cloud ALM
Destination	SAP Build Process Automation
Mapping Type	Payload Based

Download the example mapping HERE and use it to define the mapping rules.

For more information about mandatory and optional mapping, please check the corresponding sections of the Feature Workflow API guide: https://help.sap.com/docs/cloud-alm/apis/configuration-steps-for-workflow-api-for-features

Add a subscription in External API Management

Go to Subscriptions Management and choose “Add new subscription”.

Enter the following data:

Parameter Name	Value
Name	<name of the subscription>
Description	<description of the subscription>
Type	Built-in
Resource Type	Workflow
Webhook	<name of the webhook you created before>
Mapping	<name of the mapping you created before>
User Variable Name	workflowDefinitionId
User Variable Value	<workflow id>

To get the workflow ID, logon to your SAP Build Process Automation tenant, navigate to Control Tower and go to the tile Environments. Choose the environment where you deployed your workflow. Go to Processes and Workflows, choose your workflow and copy the ID:

This is how the example subscription looks like:

Assign the workflow subscription to a project in SAP Cloud ALM

Navigate to a project for which you want to use the Feature workflow and go to the Subscriptions tab. Assign the already created workflow subscription to the Feature entity:

You are now able to execute test confirmations for Features in SAP Cloud ALM by using SAP Build Process Automation.