Process type and Get Next Approver rules

The Parent-Child, Level, and Rule-Based process types use Get Next Approver rules, and each process has different requirements.

Get Next Approver rules in a Parent-Child process

In a Parent-Child process, you must create a form to define individuals or roles, and the form must include a field that identifies the parent record. When an approver marks a request Approved, the Approval Server automatically routes the approval request to the parent of the approver, which is usually the approver's manager. For more information about this process type, see Approval-processes.

For a Get Next Approver rule in a Parent-Child process, the following considerations apply:

The Approval Server assumes that the current approver is the key component of the qualification.
To build the first approver list after the request is submitted, the Approval Server considers the originator of the approval request to be the previous approver.

Get Next Approver rules in a Level process

In a Level process, you must define individuals and roles in a field that identifies the organizational level of the individual or role. For example, level 1 might be project leaders and level 2 might be section managers. Levels are always numeric values, with 0 (zero) being the lowest level. For more information about this process type, see Approval-processes.

When the Approval Server creates the first approver list after the request is submitted, it assumes that the previous level was -1. Therefore, the first level is the level with the lowest number. The Approval Server keeps track of the current approver level during the approval cycle.

For a Get Next Approver rule in a Level process, the following considerations apply:

You must identify the field containing the level identifier.
If you define a qualification that includes a clause to retrieve only entries with a level greater than the current level, you save processing time by allowing the Approval Server to skip over individuals or roles in the previous levels. This type of clause is not required, as previous level entries are simply ignored if they are retrieved.

Get Next Approver rules in a Rule-Based process

In a Rule-Based process, rules define the relationships between individuals or roles and the approval process. The Approval Server makes no assumptions regarding these relationships. You must design the appropriate rules to determine how to construct the first approver list and how to move from one phase of the approval process to the next.

Use the Next Approver Rule Is field on the Rule Definition form to define a set of rules that evaluate the conditions necessary to add an approver to the current approver list. For more information, see Approval-processes.

Ad Hoc processes

Ad Hoc processes do not use the Get Next Approver rule type, because an Ad Hoc process expects that users will add the next approver. For more information, see Approval-processes.