"To Define a Message Attribute (Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide)

Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide
Release 2.6.3
Part Number B10284-02


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To Define a Message Attribute

1. To create a message attribute that does not reference an existing item type attribute, select a message in the navigator tree and choose New Attribute from the Edit menu.

An Attribute property page appears.

2. Provide an Internal Name in all uppercase with no leading/trailing spaces. All Oracle Workflow APIs, SQL scripts, and PL/SQL procedures refer to the internal name when identifying an attribute.

Attention: To update the internal name for a message attribute once it is defined, you must use a special SQL script called wfchmsga.sql. You should only use this script to correct errors in a message attribute's internal name during design time. Do not use this script to rename message attributes that are involved in running instances of processes. See: Wfchmsga.sql, Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide.

Caution: Do not include leading/trailing spaces or reserved characters such as a colon (":"), ampersand ("&"), or number sign ("#") in the internal name of a message attribute. Additionally, it is recommended that you also not include any spaces within the internal name of a message attribute.

3. Specify 'Send' or 'Respond' in the Source field to indicate whether this attribute should send information to the notification recipient or prompt a notification message recipient for a response, respectively.

4. Enter a Display Name. This is the name that appears in the navigator tree. If this is a 'Respond' message attribute, then this display name is also used as the response prompt.

Attention: For 'Send' message attributes, the Display Name of the attribute appears in plain text e-mail notifications only if the attribute is of type URL to describe what the URL drills down to.

5. Enter an optional description. If this is a 'Respond' message attribute, use this field to elaborate on response instructions.

6. Select the data type of the attribute.

7. Depending on the Type of your attribute, provide the following default information:

Text--Specify the maximum length of the text attribute.

Number--Optionally provide a format mask for your number and a default number value.

Date--Optionally supply a format mask for the date and a default date value.

Lookup--Choose the name of a predefined Lookup Type from which to draw values. Choose a lookup code for the default value.

URL--Specify a Universal Resource Locator (URL) to a network location in the Default Value field. See: To Define a URL Attribute.

Attention: 'Respond' message attributes of type URL do not appear properly when you view the notification from a plain text e-mail reader. You should advise your workflow users to view their notifications from the Notification Details web page if you plan to create messages with 'Respond' message attributes of type URL.

Attention: A single 'Respond' message attribute of type URL replaces the Notification Details web page response frame and takes the notification recipient to a custom HTML page to complete the notification response. Your custom HTML response document must include references to all your 'Respond' message attributes, including the special RESULT attribute, if one is defined, and must also include a call to the Workflow Engine CompleteActivity( ) API to inform the Workflow Engine when the notification response is complete.

Form--This attribute is relevant only with the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications.

Specify a developer form function name and any optional argument string (form function parameters) in the Default Value field. See: Overview of Menus and Function Security, Oracle Applications Developer's Guide and To Define a Form Attribute.

Attention: 'Send' and 'Respond' message attributes of type Form appear only when your Notifications web pages are launched from Oracle Applications. The attached form icon is enabled if a notification message includes a 'Send' message attribute of type Form. The notification recipient can click on the attached form icon to drill down to the form function defined by the message attribute.

Attention: If a message includes a 'Respond' message attribute of type Form, the attached form icon that appears in the notification's Response section simply drills down directly to the designated form function. This form function must be coded with a call to the Workflow Engine CompleteActivity( ) API to inform the Workflow Engine that the notification response is complete. See: Workflow Engine APIs, Oracle Workflow API Reference.

Document--Enter a string that identifies the document in the Default Value field. See: To Define a Document Attribute.

Role--Specify a role name. If a message attribute of type role is included in a notification message, the attribute automatically resolves to the role's display name, eliminating the need for you to maintain separate attributes for the role's internal and display names. Also when you view the notification from a web browser, the role display name is a hypertext link to the e-mail address for that role. To set a default value for the attribute, you must initially load roles from the database. See: Roles.

Event--Specify an event item type attribute as the default value.

Attention: Do not specify a message attribute's data type as Attribute, as it serves no purpose in a notification message and is also not supported by the Workflow Notification System.

Attention: 'Respond' message attributes of type Date, Number, Text, Document or Role prompt the notification recipient to respond with a date, number, text value, document, role (internal or display name), respectively.

'Respond' message attributes of type Lookup prompt the notification recipient to select a response from a list of values.

8. If your message attribute type is URL, specify a Frame Target. When you reference this message attribute in a message and the user who receives the message clicks the URL link in the message body, the URL opens according to what you specify as the frame target. The frame target can be:

New Window--the URL loads in a new, unnamed browser window.

Same Frame--the URL loads in the same frame as the element that references the URL attribute.

Parent Frameset--the URL loads into the immediate FRAMESET parent of the current frame. This value is equivalent to Same Frame if the current frame has no parent.

Full Window--the URL loads into the full, original window, thus cancelling all other frames. This value is equivalent to Same Frame if the current frame has no parent.

Note: If you are using the Oracle Applications Framework-based version of the Worklist pages available with Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications, you should only choose New Window or Full Window as the frame target for URL attributes. In this version of the Worklist, the Notification Details page does not use frames to display notifications. Consequently, choosing Same Frame or Parent Frameset is equivalent to choosing Full Window in this case.

9. If your message attribute is a Send attribute and is of type Document, you can check Attach Content to attach the content of the attribute to the notification message. When you view your notification from the Notification web page interface, you see a document icon following the notification message body that displays the contents of the attached message attribute when you click on it. If you view your notification from e-mail, the presentation of the attachment will vary depending on what your e-mail notification preference setting is. See: Reviewing Notifications via Electronic Mail, Oracle Workflow User's Guide.

Note: You can attach, as well as embed (by token substitution) Document attributes in the notification message and are not limited to one or the other.

10. If your message attribute is a Send attribute and is of type URL, you can check Attach Content to append an attachment called Notification References to the notification message. This attachment includes a link to each URL attribute for the message that has Attach Content checked. You can navigate to a URL by choosing its link.

Note: You can attach, as well as embed (by token substitution) URL attributes in the notification message and are not limited to one or the other.

11. For message attributes, the default value may be a constant or an item type attribute. If the default references its entire value directly from an item type attribute, choose Item Attribute, then use the poplist field to choose an item type attribute. The item type attribute you select must be associated with the same item type that the message itself is associated with. The item type attribute you select must also be of the same data type as the message attribute.

Note: A message attribute type of 'Text' is compatible with any item attribute type, but all other message attribute types must match the item attribute type exactly.

12. Choose Apply to save your changes, OK to save your changes and close the property page or Cancel to cancel your changes and close the property page.

13. Any message attribute you define appears beneath the respective message you defined it for in the navigator tree. You can review or edit the properties of an attribute at any time by double-clicking on the attribute in the navigator tree or by selecting the attribute and choosing Properties from the Edit menu. Respond message attribute icons in the Navigator tree have a red question mark overlay to help you distinguish them from Send message attribute icons.

Note: Message attributes assume the access/protection level of their parent message.

Attention: The order that you list 'Respond' message attributes in the navigator tree correlates to the order in which they appear in the response section of the notification message. You can use the drag and drop feature of the navigator tree to reorder a set of attributes, or select an attribute and choose Move Attribute Up or Move Attribute Down from the Edit menu.

To Define a Message Attribute

See Also