ChaRM: Approval Settings - Email Functionality in Change Request

[Vivek_Hegde]

Fellow Members,

Would the settings under "Approval Settings" sufficient to receive the email notofocation for Approval Procedure? I performed the activities and what I see is workflow/email coming to my SAP Inbox (So01 txn code) but not to my email inbox (outlook). When I see in SCOT, no email is generated for Approval workflow. What could be the reason behind it? Any inputs are appreciated.

Regards,

Vivek

[Raquel_PereiradaCunha · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

  I understand you have set up the steps of "Make workflow settings for Request for Change approval" correct? Is the business partner who needs to receive the email assigned to role Employee with the user id filled? Does this user id have the correct e-mail address in SU01 with communication method "E-mail"?

Regards,

Raquel

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Raquel,

As mentioned by you settings are already maintained. SOST is also working fine if we send mail manually. Only issue is during CHARM workflow.

Kindly advice.

Thanks,

Pankaj

[Vivek_Hegde · Accepted solution]

Hi Raquel,

Thanks, Exactly, I have set up the steps of "Make workflow settings for Request for Change approval". The BP are of type Employee with proper Email Id maintained in SU01.

So doea that mean if I perform all the activities under "Approval Settings", should I be receiving emails without any further configuration?  Is my assumption correct? or am I missing something here? Pls advice.

Regards,

Vivek

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

Any luck for outllok mails??

Thanks,

Pankaj

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

I got the solution. Actually you have to define new action definition for SMCR Action Profile in SPPFCADM. For that new action defined you have to set the condition. Like once SMCR Request is created by requestor, It should trigger mail to Change Manager for approval.

Plz go through this link and Replace SDCR with SMCR transaction type.

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/d06db8e2-5036-2c10-1a97-dee1364fc...

Thanks

Pankaj

[Raquel_PereiradaCunha · Accepted solution]

Hi Pankaj,

If you use PPF action to send e-mail, it will work fine but only depending on the status of the whole RfC document, which means the first Change Manager ( the one you defined in the partner dependent field in the action) will receive e-mail when status is set to "to be approved" ( this is the default functionality, no need to set up workflow) but if we have 2 or more steps ( 2 or more approvers) the next approver will not be informed by e-mail when the preceding approver approves the RfC. And the email sent will not have the same contents as the SO01 message, neither will be triggered by the Workflow. I understood this is what Vivek needs. Am I correct Vivek?

As far as I could see, the standard settings only send messages to the Workplace.

Best regards,

Raquel

[JoycaVervinckt · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

I have also activated the Workflow CRM_RFC_APRV and was wondering about this "E-Mail to Approvers" step.

First of al, thanks for mentioning that these do appear in SO01.

Then about the actual emails to outlook:

So far, I found out that there is an action in the action profile: SMCR_IT_RFC_CREATE_EMAIL_DOC, which has a setting "Processing Using Selection Report" (most of the time, this is set to "Processing when saving document").

This action has no scheduling or start conditions, but is somehow only triggerd at the start of the approval procedure.

The selection report which is responsible for actually executing the action, is found under transaction CRMC_ACTION_JOB. There you can execute the SMCR_IT_RFC_CREATE_EMAIL_DOC action.

This action will send an email to all the approvers in the approval procedure.

However, this email is very very limited, it only sais:

subject: 8200000089:short description

content: You are one of the partners of this service request. Please keep it updated.

Also, the action creates all emails to all approvers immediately. So if you have a sequence (first IT manager, then business manager, etc) they will all get their emails at the same time.

So I'm not sure yet what the relationship is between the workflow and this action, but they do seem related.

I hope that this info can help you.

Kind regards,

Joyca

[Vivek_Hegde · Accepted solution]

Hi Raquel,

Exactly, you read my mind. I was thinking the same too. Inserting 3 more new status (Change Manager Approved, CAB Approved , GMP Approved...etc) just for the sake of receiving an email via PPF action/status is not a viable solution. This is an option and should not be the ONLY option. The ideal scenario is all the parties involved in approving a CR being notified sequentially while the CR is in the status "To Be Approved".

If this is not present in the standard configuration of ChaRM (as of SP08) then it is a considerable Limitation that I request somebody from SAP Development side should take a look on.

It would have been a  great feature in ChaRM if they had something like above in place. This definitely goes to my 'Wishlist' . Do you agree ?

Best Regards,

Vivek

[Vivek_Hegde · Accepted solution]

Hi Joyca,

Thanks, for the highlighting the relatevely unknown txn code to us.

I explored CRMC_ACTION_JOB  txn code to execute SMCR_IT_RFC_CREATE_EMAIL_DOC action. As you mentioned it sends a mail with very limited subject and short description. Is therer any ways in which we customize this action to suit our requirement of recieving emails when the CR is in status "To be Approved".?

The idea is to trigger this action when CR is in status "To be Approved" and all the parties marked as approver for CR receiving emails. I tried scheduling this as a Batch Job but could not reach anywhere.

Regards,

Vivek

[JoycaVervinckt · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

I believe that you could change (in a copied version) the action SMCR_IT_RFC_CREATE_EMAIL_DOC to "Processing when saving document" instead of "Processing Using Selection Report", then you don't need to go to the CRMC_ACTION_JOB transaction or create a batch job for it.

Otherwise, I found this discussion about scheduling a batch job for CRMC_ACTION_JOB:
http://scn.sap.com/thread/1730872

But still, this action does not completely cover our needs. While it does send an email to all approvers, it sends the mail to all approvers immediately, and not one by one (e.g. the email to approver 2 should only be sent after approver 1 has given his approval).

I am also thinking towards a different solution.

I'm just thinking aloud here, I have absolutely no idea how much work the following idea would be for a developer. And as you said before, it would be very welcome if SAP themselves would provide such a functionality.

I picked this up on the actions in ITSM, such as SMIN_STD_MAIL_WATCHLIST and SMIN_STD_MAIL_REPORTER.

The schedule conditions there contain for example &NEW_TEXT_FOUND& = X or &STATUS_CHANGE& = X.

These container values are checked via implementations of BaDI CONTAINER_PPF (SE18). In there, there is some code, for example for the check for status change, it goes reading the current status from the buffer, and the previous status from the database, and compares those two.

I do think it would be possible for a developer to write a new implementation with some code that checks if, for example, approval step 1 has already been approved.

Kind regards,

Joyca

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

This message was moderated.

[Vivek_Hegde · Accepted solution]

Hi Pankaj,

Kindly open a new thread, so that we don't deviate from our original message.

Thanks for understanding.

Regards,

Vivek

[Vivek_Hegde · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Making use of schedule conditions &NEW_TEXT_FOUND& = X or &STATUS_CHANGE& = X seems to be a good option to begin with.
Condition STATUS_CHANGE = X may not yield the desired result since we want the CR to be in "To be Approved" status itself throughout the approval process.

I am just wondering whether NEW_TEXT_FOUND =X would recognize the "Activity" field under Approval Procedure to arrive at a trigger.

This is my just thought or wishful thinkg? May be.

Regards,
Vivek

[JoycaVervinckt · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

I thought about using &NEW_TEXT_FOUND&, but this only seems useful in a two-step approval procedure.

When Approver1 sets his approval, a new text does appear in the Texts block, indicating which user has approved step 1 at which time, so that could work as a trigger for the mail to approver2. But then there's nothing unique to trigger on to approver3.

Plus, I haven't tested anything yet, but I saw this in the code for NEW_TEXT_FOUND:

Now, I'm quite bad at reading ABAP but the comment seems to indicate that this won't work on other actions, only on the action to send a mail to the watchlist... but I'm not sure.

I'm even starting to doubt if STATUS_CHANGE will work outside of ITSM, because it refers somewhere to "BUS2000223" which is a business transaction category that is present on SMIN but not on SMCR... Also NEW_TEXT_FOUND refers to it.

I will probably test some of these things when I have some more time.

Kind regards,

Joyca

[Raquel_PereiradaCunha · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

I found out the reason why the e-mails are not sent to the external e-mail address.

Go to transaction SO16. In tab "Mail sy.grp" set the field "Send to the home address of the user".

Then in tab "Addressing" refresh the buffer with "Reset buffer".

Ensure that the users have the e-mail address in their data, with communication type "E-mail".

E-mail in my inbox:

Now the e-mails will work for the approvers.

Best regards,

Raquel

[Vivek_Hegde · Accepted solution]

Hi Raquel,

Thanks for the suggestion.

I maintained the settings as adviced, but unfortunately, I don't see approval mails in my inbox. Also in SCOT, there are no new emails generated in SMTP node. Am I missing anything here? Have you done any additional configuration to get emails?

Regards,

Vivek

[Raquel_PereiradaCunha · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

I followed the steps of the IMG activity, filled in the user e-mail address in SU01 and in the business partner, set Employee role, and then changed SO16. Nothing else. When I changed SO16, the emails were shown in SCOT and SOST, and not in SO01.

Have you reset the buffer? Communication type is "E-mail" in SU01 and BP?

Can you show me the details of the task 0020 E-mail Approvers in the Workflow?

Regards,

Raquel

[Vivek_Hegde · Accepted solution]

Hi Raquel,

Here are my setting and screenshots so far:

1. Maintained the email in SU01 for user CHARMAPPR

2) Set Employee role in BP and verify email address data

3) SO16 make the changes

CRM_RFC_APRV Settings

But I am still getting the emails in SO01 only !! not in mailbox

So wondering what might have changed in my system Appreciate any inputs.

Regards,

Vivek

[Raquel_PereiradaCunha · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

the only difference I see is a flag in SO16:

In your SO01 screenshot, you are showing the workflow activities, not the e-mails. Are you sure you are still receiving that messages in SO01? Have you checked SOST to see if the external e-mails are waiting to be sent?

Look at my SO01 when I was still receiving e-mails there. These e-mails are below Documents, and the workflow task to be executed is below Workflow. In my example you don't see the task because it was already executed.

This e-mail is not shown anymore in SO01, only in my inbox.

This is my SOST:

regards,

Raquel

[Vivek_Hegde · Accepted solution]

Hi Raquel,

Thanks, it worked!

I unchecked those boxes in SO16 same as your screenshot and Voila ! emails are now coming to my outlook inbox as well as in SOST outbound queue.  One small doubt, my email sender is user WF-BATCH and, in your screenshot it is Workflow System. Are they same or you have a SU01 user known as Workflow System to send emails?

Thanks so much for your help ! much appreciated

Regards,

Vivek

[Raquel_PereiradaCunha · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

I am glad it worked! I was wondering why it works for me and not for you. I was going to start asking about SCOT configurations..

WF-BATCH is named Workflow System . It's the same user as yours.

Regards,

Raquel

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Vivek,

I have tried exactly above steps and I do not see any email generated even in so01 am I missing anything other than steps what you mentioned above.

Thanks

Sateesh.