AME and Workflow Tables in Oracle Apps

AME  (Approval Management Engine.)

Whats AME and why?
Approval management engine...It gives the flexibility of defining business rules from Front end thus reducing the customizations required in PLSQL to find the right approvers for the transactions

AME VS Workflow

There is no comparison between these two.
We can use AME in workflow to find the appprover and foward the document for approval

Can AME send notifications??
AME doesn't have any feature to send notifications.it is responsibility of calling application of sending notification, capturing the response and updating AME with response

Instead of customization oracle workflow can i do customizations in AME?
I heard people saying this..But it all depends on what customizations
you can move only the customizations around identifying the approver and sending notifications.
Assume you are using normal routing approval method(without AME) and there is a customization for the Requisition to be approved by the department head in case the amount more than 10000$ we cant move only this customization to AME.
If the requisition system is moved to AME then only we can handle this requirement with a AME rule and avoid customization

How can i know which all application use's ame
we can check the user guide of the module or check the in the table
select * from AME_CALLING_APPS_TL

Important tables to get approval history/App rovers list generated by AME
AME_APPROVALS_HISTORY--This contains the list of all the approvers generated
AME_TRANS_APPROVAL_HISTORY
AME_TEMP_OLD_APPROVER_LISTS

How do we know whether AME is configured or not for a application?
Check the profile AME installed at application level.It should be set to YES

Important Ame Api's

Ame_Api2.GetNextApprover()
Ame_Api2.GetAllApprover()



AME Setup Steps

1) AME Profile Options
    AME: Installed should be ‘Yes’
2) Assign AME Roles and Responsibilities
   Login to User Management Responsibility and select users
   Search for APPS_USER and assign the below responsibilities
   -Approval Management Administrator
   -Approval Management Business Analyst
3) Grant Transaction Type Access to User
    Go to Functional Adminstrator -> Security Grants -> create Grants
    Name = Apps_User Grants
    Grantee Type = Specific User
    Grantee = Apps_User
    Object = AME Transaction Types
4) Create New Transaction Types
       Goto Approval Management Administrator -> Create Transaction Type
       Modify the attributes and validate
5) Approval Process Setup
        Goto Approval Management Business Analyst
    -Attributes
    -Conditions
    -Action Types
    -Approver Groups
    -AME Rule Setups
6) Enable AME for Requisition Approval
       Purchasing super user>Setup>Purchasing>Document Type and search for Purchase requisition


Reference: http://mandeeporacle.blogspot.com/2014/05/ame-setups.html

1. How To Setup And Use AME For Purchase Requisition Approvals [ID 434143.1]
2. FAQ AME iProcurement In Release 12 [ID 396216.1]
3. 11.5.10 PO: Approval Management Engine -
     How to Create AME Rules For One Approver [ID 305295.1]
3. Master Reference For AME Based Requisition Approval In R12 [ID 1207863.1]
4. How To Add Viewers (FYI Notification Recipients) In R12 When Using AME [ID 472871.1]
5. Invoice Approval Workflow Current Issues (Doc ID 305704.1)
6. Invoice Approval Workflow FAQ (Doc ID 305702.1)
7. Invoice Approval Workflow One-Off Patches (Doc ID 305707.1)
8. A Guide to Invoice Approval Workflow - setup and demo (Doc ID 299618.1)
9. R12 Invoice Approval Workflow Process - Line Level Approval (Doc ID 413977.1)
10. A Guide to Invoice Approval Workflow - setup and demo (Doc ID 299618.1)
11. APINV - Payables Invoice Approval Workflow Troubleshooting Guide (Doc ID 305700.1)
12. APINV - How Do I Setup AP to Use Invoice Approval Workflow? (Doc ID 315269.1)

WORKFLOW TABLES
SELECT * FROM WF_ROLES
SELECT * FROM WF_USER_ROLES
SELECT * FROM WF_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS

SELECT * FROM WF_ITEMS
SELECT * FROM WF_ITEM_ATTRIBUTES
SELECT * FROM WF_ITEM_ATTRIBUTE_VALUES
SELECT * FROM WF_ITEM_ATTRIBUTES_TL

SELECT * FROM WF_ACTIVITIES
SELECT * FROM WF_ACTIVITIES_TL
SELECT * FROM WF_ACTIVITY_ATTRIBUTES
SELECT * FROM WF_ACTIVITY_ATTRIBUTES_TL
SELECT * FROM WF_ACTIVITY_TRANSITIONS

SELECT * FROM WF_DEFERRED--WF_CONTROL

SELECT * FROM WF_ACTIVITY_ATTR_VALUES
WHERE NAME LIKE '%MASTER%'
AND PROCESS_ACTIVITY_ID
IN(
SELECT *-- PROCESS_ACTIVITY
 FROM WF_ITEM_ACTIVITY_STATUSES
WHERE ITEM_TYPE = 'ERP'
AND ITEM_KEY ='63865'
)

SELECT * FROM WF_ITEM_TYPES
SELECT * FROM WF_LOOKUPS_TL

SELECT * FROM WF_NOTIFICATIONS
WHERE MESSAGE_TYPE ='ERP'
ORDER BY BEGIN_DATE DESC

SELECT * FROM WF_NOTIFICATION_ATTRIBUTES
SELECT * FROM WF_MESSAGES
SELECT * FROM WF_MESSAGES_TL
SELECT * FROM WF_MESSAGE_ATTRIBUTES
SELECT * FROM WF_MESSAGE_ATTRIBUTES_TL
SELECT * FROM WF_ETS
SELECT * FROM WF_PROCESS_ACTIVITIES


Workflow Interview Questions

1) What is workflow and what are the benefits of using workflow?

    --- is a graphical tool that allows you to create, track and modify business process, embedded in the oracle database server, it can monitor the workflow activity statuses.

Benefits:

   1) Create a clear business process definition

   2) Automate the business routings

   3) Monitor the process

   4) Allow users to define their own business process to suit their organization needs.

   5) Readily change the business process definitions in case of a change business process

2) Which workflow u have customized?

3) What is need of customization and what have u done?

4) How can u send the email notification?

5) What is the performer?

6) How can u launch workflow from oracle apps forms and through oracle apps

     only?

6) Can u call function from workflow?

7) What are the different types of attribute and how they can be used?

8) How to create new workflow? Explain step by step?

9) What are the mostly used lookup types?

10) Have can we create your own lookup types?

11) How can we attach attributes to messages?

12) Can u delete the existing workflow…if yes how can u do the same?

13) explain different workflow table and what for they used?

14) How version of workflow can be maintained?

15) How can u know which workflow is being used using tables?

16) Suppose u have modified a workflow and if want to get the earlier version of WF

      how could u get the same?

17) Can u write commit in a workflow and why?

18) What is the WF standard?

19) How to pass parameters to WF from forms?

20) Can u call WF from sql?

21) What is time out mode?

22) Can u used call a process in same process?

        Means suppose u have got one process say A and u are using process B in

        process A..so can u call process B again in process A?

23) What are workflow API’s? Which API u have to used? What’s use?

24) Can u debug the workflow? If yes…how can u do this?

25) How can I launch WF from concurrent program?

26) How can u display notifications in HTML format? What are the steps?

27) How can I restrict the data base to enter the data in WF tables which maintain

      the log of launching of workflows?

28) What is event in workflow?

29) How can I set the notification format?(either text or HTML)

30) How can I run the workflow from the same position where WF has been stuck

       up because of error?

31) Can we launch another WF from a  WF?