Get the Reason Text from User Decision in Workflow

Purpose: The purpose of this document is to capture the reason text from the user decision step in workflow.

Business Scenario: When a user decision with the APPROVE and REJECT options are sent to the approver, there always comes a business need to allow the user to enter a “Rejection Reason” text, when the approver does a rejection.

In this document we will see how to use this feature and capture the rejection reason text:

Create Custom Workflow and Method to read the REJECTION Reason for Demo

We create the user decision step and mark the two branches APPROVE and REJECTED as shown:

We can mark the Reason as Mandatory or Required.

Mandatory: This means, that the Reason has to be mandatorily entered when the corresponding action is performed, else the user decision work item cannot be completed.

Required: This means, that entering the Reason is optional. The pop-up to enter the reason will appear, but it is not needed to enter anything to complete the work item.

The step is saved. When the user enters the Reason, it will get appended into the _ATTACH_OBJECTS standard container of the workflow.

This multiline element points to the SOFM Business Object.

We will now write a method to read this attachment and transfer to a text string.

This method will be an instance independent method. This means, it can be called without instantiating the BOR.

The parameters for this method are shown below

The details of the parameters are

Parameter WORKITEMID:

Parameter REASON_TXT:

We will be passing the work item ID of the workflow and this method will read the container _ATTACH_OBJECTS and pass the Rejection Text to variable REASON_TXT.

The code that you will write in the method is given below: (You can write your own code to read and process the SOFM Attachment Object as per your need)

begin_method read_rejection_reason changing container.DATA: reason_txt TYPE swcont-value,
      reason TYPE swc_object OCCURS 0,
      object_content LIKE solisti1 OCCURS 0,
      workitemid LIKE swr_struct-workitemid,
      subcontainer_all_objects LIKE TABLE OF swr_cont,
      lv_wa_reason LIKE LINE OF subcontainer_all_objects,
      lv_no_att LIKE  sy-index,
      document_id LIKE sofolenti1-doc_id,
      return_code LIKE  sy-subrc,
      ifs_xml_container TYPE  xstring,
      ifs_xml_container_schema TYPE  xstring,
      simple_container LIKE TABLE OF swr_cont,
      message_lines LIKE TABLE OF swr_messag,
      message_struct LIKE TABLE OF swr_mstruc,
      subcontainer_bor_objects LIKE TABLE OF swr_cont.

swc_get_table container 'REASON' reason.
swc_get_element container 'WORKITEMID' workitemid.

* Read the work item container from the work item ID
CALL FUNCTION 'SAP_WAPI_READ_CONTAINER'
  EXPORTING
    workitem_id              = workitemid
    language                  = sy-langu
    user                         = sy-uname
  IMPORTING
    return_code              = return_code
    ifs_xml_container      = ifs_xml_container
    ifs_xml_container_schema = ifs_xml_container_schema
  TABLES
    simple_container         = simple_container
    message_lines            = message_lines
    message_struct          = message_struct
    subcontainer_bor_objects = subcontainer_bor_objects
    subcontainer_all_objects = subcontainer_all_objects.
* Initialize
lv_no_att = 0.
* Read the _ATTACH_OBJECTS element
LOOP AT subcontainer_all_objects INTO lv_wa_reason
                                                    WHERE element = '_ATTACH_OBJECTS'.
  lv_no_att = lv_no_att + 1.
  document_id = lv_wa_reason-value.
ENDLOOP.

* Read the SOFM Document
CALL FUNCTION 'SO_DOCUMENT_READ_API1'
  EXPORTING
    document_id    = document_id
  TABLES
    object_content = object_content.

* Pass the text to the exporting parameter
IF sy-subrc = 0.
  READ TABLE object_content INTO reason_txt INDEX 1.
  SHIFT reason_txt BY 5 PLACES LEFT.
  swc_set_element container 'REASON_TXT' reason_txt.
ENDIF.

end_method.

Predecessor work item will contain the Work Item ID of the User Decision Step.

The user decision step is just the previous step to this background step in this workflow template.

The workflow will look like as shown below after adding the above step in the REJECT branch of the User Decision

We run the user decision from business workplace SBWP

Now select REJECT to process rejection. Normally the work item would get completed here, but the system will generate a POP-UP to prompt for the Reason.

This pop-up will appear due to our configuration. We enter the REJECTION Reason text and press OK

(Please note, if you cancel this POP-UP, the work item will still remain in your inbox and not get completed. This is because we marked the Reason as MANDATORY)

Looking at the workflow log, we can see that the element _ATTACH_OBJECTS (Attachments) contains the SOFM entry