Calling a custom approval process

The Request Approval workflow in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog enables workflows to trigger an approval process in the Action Request System (AR System) Approval Server. The default approval process used by the Request Approval workflow sends a request to the manager of the user identified by the Requested For User Id.

IT administrators can create new processes in the AR System Approval Server that service catalog administrators can call from a BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog workflow. Then, end users can request services containing custom approvals. This topic describes the end-to-end flow of actions that need to be performed so that end users can request for services containing a custom approval.

Before you begin

To execute the steps described below, you should be familiar with creating:

A Workflow to request approval using the Call Activity process
Custom approval processes in BMC Approval Central (see the Related topics)

Required license

BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced

Related topics

Workflow to request approval

Calling external workflows

Setting up the approval process (AR System documentation)

Configuring a custom approval process for Digital Workplace Advanced (BMC Communities)

To create a custom approval process

Log in to AR System as the admin user.
Select Applications > Quick Links > Approval Administration Console to view the Approval Server configuration.
The default approval process used by BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog is called SB Request Manager Approval, and is linked to the form named SB:ServiceRequestStub.
On the Approval Server page, click Create to create a new approval process and link it to the SB:ServiceRequestStub form. All approval processes that will be called from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog must be linked to the SB:ServiceRequestStub form.

Note

This example uses a copy of the SB Request Manager Approval process named SB Request Self Approve. Instead of sending the approval request to the requested-for user's manager for a signature, the SB Request Self Approve process sends a request for approval to the requested-for user.

One useful example of a self-approval workflow is to ensure that requests on behalf of another user are approved by the on-behalf-of user.

You can replace this approval workflow with any other approval process that you configure.

To create a service containing a custom request approval

To create a service containing a custom request approval, you must first build a designated workflow. To do so, in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog, build a workflow to request approval (see the To insert a request for approval section). Following is an example request self-approval workflow:

After a custom approval workflow is created, attach this workflow to a service (see Attaching a workflow to a service).

To request a service with custom approval in BMC Helix Digital Workplace

The following example shows the user's activity timeline after requesting the service. The request called the custom approval process instead of the default process.

Where to go from here

Complete remaining aspects of the workflow, as described in Workflows for service fulfillment. If the workflow is complete, complete remaining aspects of the service, as described in Enhanced service catalog process overview.