Creating an approval process

The buttons on the Process tab take the following actions:

• View—Opens the AP:Process Definition form for the selected rule in Modify mode. You must select a process from the list to use this button. Use this option to view and modify existing processes.
• Search—Opens a blank AP:Process Definition form in Search mode. Use this option to search for a process using a field that does not appear in the processes list.
• Create—Opens the AP:Process Definition form in New mode. Use this option to create a new process.
• Delete—Deletes the selected process. You must select a process from the list to use this button.
• Refresh—Refreshes the current list of processes. Use this button to refresh the list, for example, after adding a new process.

For more information, see Form-to-create-and-modify-approval-processes.

To create a new approval process

1. Open the AP:Administration form.
   
2. Click the Process tab to open the AP:Process Definition form in New mode.
   This form contains the following tabs:
   • Basic—Use this tab to define basic information about the process, including the process name and type, the associated form, and approval success criteria.
     To create signature escalations in your process, see Creating-signature-escalations-in-a-process.
   • Configuration—Use this tab to specify:
     • Process intervals to calculate the Action Date for a request
     • Menus to generate lists of users that appear when creating a More Information request (by adding a question or comment), reassigning a request, and assigning a request to an ad hoc approver
     • The mandate for rejection justification and the application form's field on which to push an approver's input
   • Signature Escalations (Normal, Urgent, and Low)—Use these tabs to schedule notifications and automatic actions for pending requests.
   • More Info Escalations—Use this tab to schedule notifications for requests in the More Information state.
   • Administrative Info—The fields on this tab contain the change history and help text (if any) for the process. Use the Help Text field to document the process.
3. Complete the fields on the tabs.
4. Save the form.

In most cases, you need only one process for your approval request, but it is possible to create multiple processes. For an example of an application that uses three separate approval processes, see the Sample Lunch Scheduler form that is described in Processes-in-the-Lunch-Scheduler-application.

Before you can create a process, the approval request form that you link your process to must exist on the , and must appear in the list of forms on the Form tab of AP:Administration. To link the approval request form for your application to the , see Adding-the-approval-request-form-to-the-approval-server.

To enter More Information escalations

You can configure settings that control notifications when a More Information request has been waiting too long without response. For example, you can set up a notification to be sent when a More Information request has been outstanding for two days.

1. Open the Process Definition form if it is not already open.
2. On the More Info Escalations tab, select or enter the names of the business calendar and the holiday calendar you want to use for More Information Escalation notifications.
   These names must match existing schedule names from the Business Time Workdays or Business Time Holidays forms. For information about setting up business times, see the Defining-business-schedules-using-Business-Time.
3. If you want to send notifications when a signature line has been outstanding (in any state) for too long, specify the Notifications: Still Outstanding parameters:
   1. Enter a number in the First Interval field to indicate when you want the first notification sent, and select the item that this number represents for the Unit list.
      For example, if you want the first notification sent two days after the approval request enters the More Information state, enter a 2 in the First Interval field and select Days from the Unit list.
   2. If you want a second notification, enter a number in the Repeat Interval field and select the item that this number represents from the Unit list.
4. Click Save.

To set process intervals

1. Open the AP:Administration form, select a process, and click View.
   For more information, see Form-to-create-and-modify-approval-processes.
   The selected process opens in Modify mode.

2. On the Configuration tab, enter a number in the Process Due field, and select the item that this number represents from the Unit list.
   For example, if you want the process to be due five days after the first signature is created, enter 5 in the Interval field, and select Days from the Unit list.

   The Process Due interval is required for the action date feature. If this field is left blank, no action date is associated with the process or its corresponding requests.

3. Enter a number in the Signature Due field, and select the item that this number represents from the Unit list.
   For example, if you want every signature to be due in two days, enter 2 in the Interval field, and select Days from the Unit list.
4. Enter a number in the Buffer Period field, and select the item that this number represents from the Unit list.
   This value is used as a delta to be deducted from all other intervals, except Signature Due, to derive the minimum of all the required process intervals.
5. In the Enable Preview field, select Yes if you want to consider future approvers when calculating the Signature Due date. Select No if you want if you want to use the value in the Signature Due field only.
6. Click Save.

Besides these process intervals, you also need to specify certain values in the Signature Escalation tabs and on the AP:Notification and AP:Admin-ServerSettings forms.