OA Framework Screen in SSHR - HRSSA Workflow

In this article you will learn about the Oracle Self Service HRMS workflow, and how this Workflow fits into Self Service Human Resource architecture. This knowledge is required for any technical or functional HRMS person to troubleshoot the common issues that might get reported during Self Service HRMS implementation. First and foremost thing to remember is that a Workflow with item type named HRSSA is instantiated whenever a screen in Self Service HRMS is invoked. If you open this workflow in workflow builder, you will notice that there exists one single "Runnable Workflow Process" for each Employee Self Service HRMS AOL Function. Therefore, there is a direct connection between the AOL Function and HRSSA workflow. Given that the AOL Function is attached to a menu item in SSHR, therefore it is safe to say that there exists a relationship between SSHR menu item and a process within this workflow. Effectively whenever an employee opens a screen in Self Service HRMS it then creates a new instance of the workflow process. Infact the name/path of the OA Framework page that gets opened is configured within the HRSSA workflow itself. By reading this article, you will be able to understand these relationships. However you must read the preceding article linked here, to understand the context of this article.

As seen in the previous article, the custom AOL function named XXFOCUSTHREAD_SIT_COMPL_FUNC instantiates a Workflow process named HR_SIT_JSP_PRC

The relationship between the AOL Function and HRSSA workflow is explained in the picture as shown below.

If you recollect, the WF Process name entered in our AOL definition for function XXFOCUSTHREAD_SIT_COMPL_FUNC was HR_SIT_JSP_PRC

This matches the short name of the WF Process "Change Special Information" as shown below

In the previous article you learnt the steps to create a self service HRMS data entry screen using Special Information Types, i.e SIT. This screens leverages OA Framework, however this was achieved without writing any program.

It must be noted that the data entered in this screen is applied to the base tables directly. This is because, by default, the data entered in Special Information Types is not routed via AME Approval. It is important to understand the HRMS Self Service Workflow concepts before we take a dive into AME integration with Self Service HRMS.

Therefore in this article, we will concentrate on the integration of Self Service HRMS workflow with overall Self Service processes in Oracle HRMS. Understanding of this workflow and HR_API_TRANSACTIONS is a pre-requisite before proceeding with AME config for SSHR.

I will try to address the following questions in this context

1. What is the purpose of this workflow in Self Service HRMS

2. How does this workflow dictate the navigation of the user to a specific OA Framework page.

3. How does this workflow control whether AME will be invoked

Firstly, what is the purpose of this workflow in Self Service HRMS ?

There is a historic reason for usage of Workflow named HRSSA in Self Service HRMS. Self Service HRMS product development was done slightly ahead of OA Framework. In the early days of Self Service HRMS, OA Framework did not exist in its current form, and therefore PL/SQL web Cartridges were used for developing the initial set of pages in SSHR. Thereafter AK Developer was used to configure the components of the pages in SSHR. However, Self Service HRMS team was looking for a framework that could give State Management for the data in Web Application. OA Framework was not quite ready by then, therefore Oracle Workflow was hooked onto the Self Service HRMS screens to manage user sessions. Given that workflow instance is persistent in the database tables, therefore the HRMS team was able to leverage the persistency offered by Oracle Workflow for managing the state of Web Pages in Self Service HRMS.

The powerpoint presentation in this link will give you a good idea about how OA Framework evolved in eBusiness Suite.

What is the name of this workflow?

select name, DISPLAY_NAME from wf_item_types_vl where

name ='HRSSA'

NAME DISPLAY_NAME

-------- --------------------------------------------------------

HRSSA HR

These screenshots below are from HRSSA Workflow as opened from Workflow Builder, for WF Process named "Change Special Information". This WF Process was attached to the AOL function definition in previous article[Part2]

If you double click on activity "SIT 4.0" in the workflow builder[shown in above picture] and navigate to Node Attributes tab[shown in image below], you will notice that this Workflow Activity calls a JSP page. The page in reality is an OA Framework page. The mapping between the "jsp page name" and the actual "OA Framework page" exists in $PER_TOP/mds/regionMap.xml. regionMap.xml is used to map the legacy[pre-OAF] page name with the OA Framework page name. This mapping file is loaded to the MDS tables during the patching/installation process.

The image below shows the contents of $PER_TOP/mds/regionMap.xml. This file contains the mapping between the "JSP page name in WF Activity" and the OA Framework Page name.

In this article, you learnt how the workflow is integrated within SSHR.

In the next article, we will see the integration points of this Workflow with AME.

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written by Murugesh , November 02, 2009

Hi anil,

I have instantiated the workflow process HR_SIT_JSP_PRC and created a new process called XXSNI_HR_SIT_JSP_PRC I have created the copy of the function XXSNI_HR_SIT_SS I have changed the process name to XXSNI_HR_SIT_JSP_PRC I have attached the fucntion to a menu when I was trying to opne the function in
the self service responsibility I am getting an error. The select action is not available. The cause may be related to security. Contact your system administrator to verify the permission level for this action.
Please advise me in this regard

Regards,
R.MURUGESH

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HR Global Menu
written by Anil Passi- , November 02, 2009

Ensure that you have entry for this function in HR Global Menu
Also, doublecheck your functional definition WEB HTML Call and Parameter fields

Clear the cache too from functional administrator

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written by Murugesh , November 03, 2009

thanks anil for the reply. I have missed out the step in HR Global Menu. So is the the issue

Thanks for the advise

Regards,
R.MURUGESH

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Thanks
written by Kishore Ryali , November 06, 2009

Thanks for insight into HRSSA. Interesting.

Kishore

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Employee New Hire Page in HRMS
written by Gupta Nagubandi , November 19, 2009

Anil,

Thanks a lot for giving a nice explanation about the SSHR pages. All these I was wondering how they are linked and now it is crystal clear.
I wanted to look at the New Hire Page in JDeveloper to understand how it was developed. I went to the HR workflow and opened the
"Hire Or Placement" process and clicked on "Enter Person Details V4.0" to see what is the underlying OAF page. The HR Activity type
value is "HR_NEWHIRE_PERSON_TOP_SS".
The mapping file shows the corresponding OAF page is NewhirePersonPG under /oracle/apps/per/selfservice/personalinformation/webui/.

But, interestignly, the NewhirePersonPG.xml is not available under $JAVA_TOP/oracle/apps/selfservice/personinformation/webui. But, it is available under $PER_TOP/mds/selfservice/personalinformation/webui. Is this the right file or am I missing something here?

Could you please clarify.

Also, my client has the requirement that they want to re-hire the terminated employees using Manager Self Service in the similar way as New Hire.
Oracle has not provided this seeded functionality. Infact, I've started learning OAF recently. I joined the ongoing OAF batch in Focus Thread,
so I have no idea how to go forward on it. Could you please help me in how to approach on this requirement.

Best Regards
Gupta

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written by Anil Passi- , November 20, 2009

Hi Gupta

The pages are always loaded in database.
The OAF Page definitions in XML are stored in PRODUCT_TOP/mds just for reference

Just google on jdr_utils and it will clarify your concepts even further.

Thank you for taking OAF Training with FocusThread. I hope you really liked it.

Thanks,
Anil Passi

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written by Gupta Nagubandi , November 20, 2009

Hi Anil,

Thanks for your quick reply.
Could you also please provide your comment on the requirement of the re-hiring the terminated employees using Manager Self Service.

Best Regards
Gupta

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HRMS Consultant
written by Abu , December 27, 2009

Hi Anil,
I have created two different SIT's functions and then created two different SIT's processes and links with the cusomize functions and it worked fine but the problem that each function open the two Sit's not only one, I need to know how to let the SIT open each function Separatly.
Thanks

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Workflow Administrator
written by Tshepho Kekana , March 01, 2010

I just wanna say thank you for this well detailed explanation, it helped me a lot.

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