Displaying approval requests from custom applications

BMC Helix Digital Workplace supports approvals from custom applications developed by using Developer Studio or BMC Helix Innovation Studio and integrated with Approval Central.

By displaying and tracking approval activity from custom applications, BMC Helix Digital Workplace ensures unified integration and improved transparency across the approval process.

As an administrator, you must configure the Request ID and Summary fields that you want to display for end users. In addition, you can configure other approval request details to be displayed for end users.

Workflow for displaying approval requests

As an administrator, complete the following tasks to display approval requests from custom applications developed by using Developer Studio:

Task	Product	Action	Reference
1	Action Request System (AR System)	Create a rule to populate data from the following fields in the AP:Detail-Signature form: 14516—Request ID 14506—Summary Field ID of any other field that you want to display for the end users. Warning Important This task uses examples from a sample custom application to submit PTO requests. Replace these examples with appropriate values from your custom application.	To create a rule that specifies the details you want to display in the approval request
2	BMC Helix Digital Workplace	Enable the Others type of approval requests, which includes custom applications developed by using Developer Studio.	To enable the Others approval type
3	BMC Helix Innovation Studio	Verify that the Unknown type of approvals is enabled.	To verify the approval type

Before you begin

Make sure that you have configured the approval process for your custom application by completing the following steps in Action Request System (AR System):

Task	Action	Reference
1	Integrate your custom application with the Approval server.	Integrating Approval Server with an application
2	Set up the approval rules and processes.	Defining an approval process Defining approval rules
3	Create filters.	Creating filters

Task 1: To create a rule that specifies the details you want to display in the approval request

By default, the approver name and the approval status is displayed in the details of an approval request. You select the Request ID and Summary fields to populate this information for end users.

Important

This procedure specifies examples from a sample custom application to submit PTO requests. Replace these values with appropriate values from your custom application.

Log in to AR System as an administrator.
Select Quick links > Approval Administration Console.
Under the Rule tab, click Create.
The AP:Rule Definition form opens in New mode.

Under the Basic tab, complete the following fields:

Field	Description	Example
Rule name	Enter a unique and meaningful name for the rule. Rule names can be up to 30 characters. For ease of administration, use a rule name that reflects the application or process, the rule type, the rule function, or some combination. For example, Display approval fields.
For process	Select the approval process that will be triggered by this rule. For example, Simple-PTO is a process created in the custom application for PTO requests.
Rule type	Select Prep Get Next Approver. This rule gathers information to be used by the Get Next Approver rule. In the rule name, prep is an abbreviation for prepare. This rule type uses the Set Fields action to assign values in certain fields.
Order	Enter an execution order number (the default number is 0). This number determines the execution sequence for this rule when two or more of the same rule type exist for a specific process. For example, enter 1.
Status	Select one of the following values: Inactive—While you are developing a set of rules for a process, it might be helpful to use the Inactive status. Inactive rules do not run when the process runs. Active—When you are ready to test your rules, change the status to Active. If you save a rule with the Status field empty, the rule is saved as Active.

Under the Set Fields tab, complete the following fields:

Field	Description	Example
Set Fields Type	Select Value.
Field name	Select the following IDs: 14516 14506
Value	Set the format for how you want the Request ID and Summary fields displayed to end users. For example: The Request ID field can be displayed as $PTORequestID$ The Summary field can be displayed as $Application$ + ":" + $Short Description$

Click Save.

Task 2: To enable the Others approval type

BMC Helix Digital Workplace supports multiple approval types, all of which can be enabled from the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console. To ensure that approval requests from custom applications developed in Developer Studio appear in BMC Helix Digital Workplace, you must enable the Others approval type. For detailed instructions on enabling the Others approval type, see To enable approval types.

Task 3: To verify the approval type

As an administrator, log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
On the Workspace tab, click Digital Workplace.
On the Records tab, click the checkbox next to the FeatureSettings record and click Edit Data.
Open the Approvals record instance.
In the MetaData field, verify that the unknown type of applications are enabled in the query:
"supportedApprovalTypes":["change","knowledge","purchase","release","service_request","service_request_definition","sbe_request","on_hold_button","unknown"]

The following image shows a sample record instance of Approvals:

Results

You have enabled the display of approvals from a custom application to submit a PTO request. The following image shows how data is displayed from this application in BMC Helix Digital Workplace:

Approval fields displayed in DWP.png