Creating an approval process

Approval process defines logic, workflows, and specific steps required for the approval request to get approved. It facilitates the end-to-end execution of events from the time a user makes a request until the request is addressed—either approved, rejected, or cancelled. It defines workflows and logic required to approve your request for a particular record. The workflow can have steps defined to generate the approval flows, approve, reject, reassign the request, or cancel it. You can cancel user-driven approval requests that are in pending state. To generate approval flows for your approval request, you must first define the approval process. Typically, for an approval process, a request record is the input and an approval status is the output. An approval process, when triggered, generates signatures, handling all notifications and approval responses.

The following image illustrates the end-to-end process of creating an approval process and approval flows:

Approval workflow_create process.png

Perform the following tasks to create an approval process, to define variables for an approval process that does not require user intervention, and to chain approval processes.

Create a self-approval process for an approval request which does not require user intervention.

To create an approval process

Important

In BMC Helix Innovation Studio, you cannot view and add the currency fields from the Developer Studio forms to the Innovation Studio objects.

Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Workspace tab.
Select the application for which you want to create an approval process.
In the application, click the Processes tab, and select New.
To configure the process definition properties such as the process name, permissions for users who can run the process, and variables associated with the process, on the Properties panel, click the icon, and perform the following actions:

Enter a Name and Description for the approval process.
To enable the approval process, select the Enabled check box.
From the Run as list, select the user who must run the approval process.

To configure process variables, in the Variables section, click Add/Remove Variables, and enter Input/Output Variables as follows:

Input Variables—The input process variables are usually record instances for which the approval process is being defined, such as:

Field	Details
Name	Enter a name for your input variable.
Variable Type	Select Input/Output Variable > Input.
Variable ID	Leave blank for a regular approval process. The value of this variable, if not specified, is generated dynamically. Specify this value when creating self-approval process.
Data Type	Select Record.
Record	Select record instance for which you want to create the approval process.

Output Variables—The output process variables define the outcome of the approval process, such as the status of the request. These are usually text fields.

Field	Details
Variable Type	Select Input/Output Variable > Output
Variable ID	Leave blank in regular approval process. The value of this variable, if not specified, is generated dynamically.
Data Type	Select Text.

From the Approvals palette, drag the Approval Process element onto the canvas.
To configure the Approval Process element properties, perform the following actions, and click Save:
1. Select the Approval Process element, and then click the icon.
2. In Input Map, configure the following:
  1. Select the input variable which you defined while configuring process definition properties.
  2. (Optional) To specify an approval flow to use in this approval process, select Flow Group Name, perform the following steps.
    Note
    If you have already configured a flow group, you can select it here. If the flow group is not yet configured, leave this field blank. When it is blank, the Approval Process dynamically selects an Approval Flow. To configure flow groups, see Configuring-approval-flows.
    1. Next to the Flow Group Name label, click Select.
    2. In the Select From Approval Flows screen, select the relevant flow group and click Use Selected Flow Group.
      The following image shows the Select From Approval Flows screen:
3. In Output Map, configure the following:
  1. Select the Name from the list. This is the same name you gave to the output process variable.
  2. Select the Source of the output, which must be the Approval Status from the Approval Process, as shown in the following image:

The following video (6:31) demonstrates how to create an approval process.

The video shows an older version of BMC Helix Innovation Studio. The previous product name was BMC Helix Innovation Suite. Although there might be minor changes in the UI, the overall functionality remains the same.

https://youtu.be/EAZsuJjLOG4

To configure process variables for a self-approval process

Follow the same steps for creating self-approval process, except process variables and flow group.

To add process variables, in the Variables section, click Add/Remove Variables and enter Input/Output Variables:

Input Variables—The input process variables are usually record instances for which the approval process is being defined.

Field	Details
Name	Enter a name for your input variable.
Variable Type	Select Input/Output Variable > Input.
Variable ID	Enter 57000. Since the self approval flow is run as a sub process within the approval process, the variable IDs ensures that the correct information is passed to and from the self approval flow and the approval process.
Data Type	Select Record.
Record Name	Select record instance for which you want to create the approval process.

Output Variables—The output process variables define outcome of the approval process, for example status of the request. These are usually text fields.

Field	Details
Variable Type	Select Input/Output Variable > Output
Variable ID	Enter 57120. Since the self approval flow is run as a sub process within the approval process, the variable IDs ensures that the correct information is passed to and from the self approval flow and the approval process.
Data Type	Select Text.

To configure process variables for chaining

When you chain a process, another process is triggered based on the outcome of the first process. To configure chaining in an approval process, follow the same steps for creating an approval process, except the process variables. You must define more than one input process variables.

To add process variables, in the Variables section, click Add/Remove Variables and enter Input/Output Variables:

Input Variables—The input process variables are usually record instances for which the approval process is being defined.

Field	Details
Name	Enter a name for your input variable.
Variable Type	Select Input/Output Variable > Input.
Variable ID	Enter 57000.
Data Type	Select Record.
Record Name	Select record instance for which you want to create the approval process.

Add another input variable with the following parameters:
Field
Details
Name
Enter a name for your input variable.
Variable Type
Select Input/Output Variable > Input.
Variable ID
Enter 57020.
Data Type
Select Text.
Output Variables—The output process variables define outcome of the approval process, for example status of the request. These are usually text fields.
Field
Details
Name
Enter a name for your input variable.
Variable Type
Select Input/Output Variable > Output
Variable ID
Enter 57030.
Data Type
Select Text.

To cancel an approval request

Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Workspace tab.
Select the application or a bundle where you have created approval processes and for which you want to initiate a cancellation process.
In the application, click the Processes tab, and select New.
To configure the process properties such as the name, description, and variables associated with the process, on the Properties panel, click the icon and perform the following actions:
1. Enter a Name and Description for the cancellation service task.
2. To add process variables, in the Variables section, click Add/Remove Variables and enter Input/Output Variables:
  1. Input Variables—The cancellation process requires you to input two process variables—Record Definition and Record Display ID:
    Field
    Details
    Name
    Enter a name for your input variable.
    Variable Type
    Select Input/Output Variable > Input.
    Data Type
    Select Text.
  2. Add another input variable with the following parameters:
    Field
    Details
    Name
    Enter a name for your input variable.
    Variable Type
    Select Input/Output Variable > Input.
    Data Type
    Select Text.
To configure the Cancel Approvals element properties, perform the following actions and click Save:
1. Select the Cancel Approvals service task element as shown in the following image, and then click the icon.
2. In Input Map, configure the fields as shown in the following image, and click Save:
  1. Record Definition: select the first process input variable as shown in the following image:
  2. Record Display ID: select the second process input variable as shown in the following image: