Active Roles 7.2 - Administration Guide

Customization

You can configure the Approval activity to specify how the approval tasks created by that activity are to be identified in the Approval section of the Web Interface. The Approval section contains a list of approval tasks, with each task identified by a header that provides basic information about the task, including the title of the task and information about the target object of the operation that is subject to approval. The title of the task is located in the middle of the task’s header. The properties that identify the operation target object are displayed above the title of the task.

The pages for configuring an Approval activity in the Active Roles console provide the following customization options related to the header of the approval task:

• Display this title to identify the approval task  When performing the approval task, the approver will see this instruction on the page intended to review, supply or change the properties that are subject to the approval task. You can supply an instruction on how to perform the task.
• Display these properties of the object submitted for approval  These properties will be displayed in the task's header area on the pages for performing the approval task. You can add properties to help the approver identify the target object of the operation submitted for approval.
• Display the operation summary in the task header area  This option extends the approval task’s header area to provide summary information about the changes that are subject to approval, including the type of the changes and the reason for the changes.

You can configure the Approval activity to specify the actions the approver can take on the approval task. On the pages for performing the approval task, in the Approval section of the Web Interface, the task header contains the action buttons that are intended to apply the appropriate resolution to the task, such as Approve or Reject. The action buttons are located at the bottom of the header area. Which buttons are displayed depends upon configuration of the Approval activity.

The pages for configuring an Approval activity in the Active Roles console provide the following customization options related to the action buttons:

• Customize action buttons  Action buttons appear on the pages for performing the approval task. Each button applies a certain action to the task. Normally, two built-in buttons, titled Approve and Reject by default, are displayed for each approval task. Other buttons may be displayed depending on the configuration of the approval activity. You can add buttons to create custom actions. Depending on the button’s action type, clicking a custom action button causes the workflow to allow (“Complete” action type) or deny (“Reject” action type) the operation that is subject to approval. If-Else activities can refer to a custom action button by the button’s title and elect the appropriate branch of the workflow when the approver clicks that custom action button.
• Show this instruction for action buttons  You can use this option to supply an instruction on how to use action buttons. The approver will see this instruction above the action buttons on the pages for performing the approval task.
• Suppress the confirmation dialog upon completion of approval task  If this option is not selected, Active Roles requests the approver to fill in a confirmation dialog box every time the approver performs an approval task. You can select this option to prevent the confirmation dialog box from appearing so that the approver can complete the task without having to supply a reason for the completion of the task.

Notification

Notification is used to subscribe recipients to the notifications of approval-related events, configure notification e-mails, and set up e-mail transport. Approval rules provide e-mail notifications to workflow users in association with various events, such as the creation of approval tasks upon operation requests. Thus, approvers can be notified of the requests awaiting their approval via e-mails that include hypertext links to the approval-related section in the Web Interface. An Approval activity has the following notification settings.

Notification recipients

Notification recipients are the users or groups to which the activity sends e-mails. A recipient can be any mailbox-enabled user or mail-enabled group. There are also a number of options allowing you to select recipients based on their role, such as operation requestor, approver, manager of operation requestor, or manager of object affected by the operation.

Notification delivery

The delivery options determine whether notifications are to be sent immediately or on a scheduled basis. The option of immediate delivery causes the activity to generate a separate message upon every occurrence of the event to notify of. The option of scheduled delivery can be used for aggregating notifications. If you select the scheduled delivery option, all notifications about the event occurrences within a time period of your choice are grouped and sent as a single message.