The Pending view contains a list of your approval tasks to be completed. Each task in the list is identified by a header area that provides basic information about the task such as a unique ID number of the task, who requested the operation that is subject to approval, when the task was created, the time limit of the task (if any), and the target object of the operation. In the middle of a task’s header area is a section that contains the title of the task (Approve operation by default), a label indicating the status of the task, and summary information about the operation that is subject to approval.

The task’s header area contains the action buttons you can use to apply the appropriate resolution to the approval task. The action buttons are displayed at the bottom of the header area. Which buttons are displayed depends upon configuration of the approval rule. You may encounter the following action buttons there:

• Approve Click this button to allow the requested operation.

  Depending on configuration of the approval and policy rules, the Web Interface may request you to enter additional information that must be added to the operation request. For example, when you approve the operation of creating a user account, you may have to supply certain properties of the user account in addition to those supplied by the administrator who requested creation of that user account. If additional information is required, clicking Approve displays a page where you can supply the required information. You can also access that page by clicking the Examine task button.

• Reject Click this button to deny the requested operation.

• Escalate Click this button to assign the approval task to an approver of a higher level.

  This button is displayed if the approval rule has one or more approver levels (referred to as escalation levels) configured in addition to the initial approver level. Escalation levels are normally used to assign (escalate) the approval task automatically to the approver of a higher level if the task is not completed in time. The approval rule may be configured to allow approvers to escalate approval tasks as needed, in which case the task’s header area contains the Escalate button.

• Delegate Click this button to assign the approval task to a different person. You can select the user account of the person to whom you want to assign the task.

  This button is displayed if the approval rule is configured with the option to allow approvers to reassign (delegate) their approval tasks to others.

• Custom buttons The approval rule may add custom buttons to the task’s header area. The action that Active Roles performs when you click a custom button depends upon configuration of the workflow containing the approval rule. The administrator who configures the workflow should normally supply an instruction on the use of custom action buttons. To view the instruction, click the Examine task button. This opens a page containing the same action buttons that you see in the task’s header area. The instruction text is displayed above the action buttons on that page.

The task’s header area contains the Examine task button allowing you to get detailed information about the task, review the object properties submitted for approval, and supply or change additional properties. Clicking the Examine task button displays a page containing a replica of the task’s header area, the action buttons, and a number of information sections. Review the information on the page, supply or change the object properties for which the task requests your input, and then click the appropriate action button.

The page that appears when you click the Examine task button includes the following information sections:

• Object properties

  The contents of this section heavily depends upon configuration of the approval rule. Thus the approval rule may request you to enter additional information that must be added to the operation request. For example, when you approve the operation of creating a user account, you may have to supply certain properties of the user account in addition to those supplied by the administrator who requested creation of that user account. In this case, enter the requested properties in the fields under Supply or change the following properties.

  Normally, the approval rule is configured so that the approver is allowed to review the values of the object properties that were supplied or changed by the operation that is subject to approval. The approval rule may also be configured to allow the approver to change those property values. In either case, you can view or change them in the fields under Review the properties submitted for approval.

• Approvers

  This section displays a list of the user accounts or groups to which the approval task is currently assigned. Any of the listed users or members of the listed groups can act as an approver on the task in question.

• Approval progress

  This section provides information on the date and time that the task was created and whether the task was escalated to a higher approver level or reassigned (delegated) to other persons. If the task was escalated, you can view when escalation occurred and what caused escalation. If the task was reassigned (delegated), you can view who and when delegated the task and to whom the task was delegated.

• Details

  In this section you can view aggregated information about the approval task properties and configuration, and some details of the operation that the task is intended to allow or deny. The Operation ID filed provides a link to a page where you can examine the operation in more detail.

You can also complete a task by clicking the appropriate action button in the task’s header area. However, if the current policy and approval rules require the approver to supply some additional information, the Web Interface would open the Object properties page, prompting you to configure the required properties.