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Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide
Release 2.6.3.5

Part Number B12160-02
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Workflow Directory Service Views

Oracle Workflow relies on views named WF_USERS, WF_ROLES, WF_USER_ROLES, and, in Oracle Applications only, WF_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS_V, to reference user and role information. Other views provide further access to Workflow directory service data, including WF_ALL_ROLES_VL, WF_ALL_USER_ROLES, and, in Oracle Applications only, WF_ALL_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS.

If you are using the standalone version of Oracle Workflow, you can choose to implement definitions for these views from one of two predefined directory services provided by Oracle Workflow, which let you either integrate with Oracle Internet Directory (OID) as your directory repository or use Oracle Database users and roles for your directory service. If you are using the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications, directory service views for the unified Oracle Applications environment are automatically defined for you during installation.

Note: An expiration date can be assigned to each role in WF_LOCAL_ROLES, each user/role association in WF_LOCAL_USER_ROLES, and each user/role assignment in WF_ROLE_HIERARCHIES. After that date, an expired role is no longer included in the predefined WF_USERS and WF_ROLES view, an expired user/role association is no longer included in the predefined WF_USER_ROLES view, and an expired user/role assignment is no longer included in the WF_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS_V view.

However, note that although the expired rows no longer appear in these views, they still exist in the Workflow local tables. You should periodically purge expired ad hoc users and roles using the WF_PURGE.Directory() API in order to improve performance. See: Directory, Oracle Workflow API Reference.

You can also create your own directory service by defining custom views with the required columns. However, note that only the predefined directory services provided by Oracle Workflow are supported by Oracle. See: Oracle Workflow Support Policy, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.

If you create your own custom view definitions:

Note: Avoid making a join to a view that contains a union, as this results in poor database performance. The Oracle Database is unable to preserve the indexes in that view when you make such a join. The workflow directory service views you create will most likely contain union; therefore you should not join to them directly. If you need to retrieve data from any of the three directory services views, use the appropriate directory services API. See: Workflow Directory Service APIs, Oracle Workflow API Reference.

WF_USERS

The WF_USERS view references information about the individuals in your organization who may utilize Oracle Workflow functionality or receive workflow notifications.

Note: In WF_LOCAL_ROLES, a role that is an individual user has the user flag set to Y.

Note: For Oracle Applications, this view now includes only Oracle Applications users originating from the FND_USER table, TCA person parties, TCA contacts, and ad hoc users, although an Oracle Applications user record may also include information from Oracle Human Resources if the user is linked to an Oracle Human Resources person.

The WF_USERS view must contain the following required columns:

Attention: If you define custom views, the Name column must be sourced from a column that is no longer than 320 characters, and it is recommended that the internal name be all uppercase. If your source table does not have a column that meets these criteria, DO NOT use string functions to force these restrictions. Instead, define the Name column to be <orig_system>:<orig_system_id> so that Oracle Workflow can reference the original base table where users are stored and a unique user in that table. For example, "PER_PEOPLE:009" could represent a user whose employee ID is 009 and whose record is stored in a personnel table called PER_PEOPLE.

Note: A notification preference of MAILTEXT, MAILHTML, MAILHTM2, or MAILATTH also allows users to view their notifications in the Worklist web pages.

Note: In Oracle Applications, if no notification preference is provided by the originating system, the notification preference is set to MAILHTML by default.

Note: If you define custom views, you can map the Notification_Preference column over the Oracle Workflow preferences table using the statement below. The benefit of doing so is that you can then globally set the default notification preference for all users in your enterprise using the Global Preferences page in standalone Oracle Workflow or the Workflow Configuration page in Oracle Applications, and let individual users override that default value by changing their notification preference in the User Preferences page in standalone Oracle Workflow or the Preferences page in Oracle Applications. See: Setting Global User Preferences, Setting User Preferences, Oracle Workflow User's Guide, and get_pref, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.

			NVL(wf_pref.get_pref(USR.USER_NAME,'MAILTYPE'),
'MAILHTML')

Note: In Oracle Applications, for roles that are Oracle Applications users marked with an originating system of FND_USR or PER, Oracle Workflow uses the GetRoleInfo() procedure to find the language for a user, rather than querying this column in the directory service views. GetRoleInfo() by default retrieves the language value from the ICX: Language profile option for that Oracle Applications user.

However, if the WF_PREFERENCE resource token is defined and set to FND, then the GetRoleInfo() procedure obtains the language value from the Oracle Workflow preferences table instead.

The WF_PREFERENCE resource token is not used in the standalone version of Oracle Workflow.

Note: If you define custom views, and, if you are using Oracle Applications, the WF_PREFERENCE resource token is set to FND, then you can map the Language column over the Oracle Workflow preferences table using the statement below. The benefit of doing so is that you can then globally set the default language for all users in your enterprise and let individual users override that default value by changing their language preference. See: Setting Global User Preferences, Setting User Preferences, Oracle Workflow User's Guide, and get_pref, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.

			NVL(wf_pref.get_pref(USR.USER_NAME,'LANGUAGE'),
<default_language>)

Attention: Make sure that the e-mail templates used by notification mailers to send notifications have been translated by Oracle to the language you wish to set. The standard e-mail templates are delivered in a file called wfmail.wft under the subdirectory $ORACLE_HOME/wf/res/<lang> for the standalone version of Oracle Workflow or $FND_TOP/import/<lang> for the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications. You can check the appropriate language subdirectory to verify if the templates have been translated to the language you wish to set. See: Modifying Your Message Templates.

Note: In Oracle Applications, for roles that are Oracle Applications users marked with an originating system of FND_USR or PER, Oracle Workflow uses the GetRoleInfo() procedure to find the territory for a user, rather than querying this column in the directory service views. GetRoleInfo() by default retrieves the territory value from the ICX: Territory profile option for that Oracle Applications user.

However, if the WF_PREFERENCE resource token is defined and set to FND, then the GetRoleInfo() procedure obtains the territory value from the Oracle Workflow preferences table instead.

The WF_PREFERENCE resource token is not used in the standalone version of Oracle Workflow.

Note: If you define custom views, and, if you are using Oracle Applications, the WF_PREFERENCE resource token is set to FND, then you can map the Territory column over the Oracle Workflow preferences table using the statement below. The benefit of doing so is that you can then globally set the default territory for all users in your enterprise and let individual users override that default value by changing their territory preference. See: Setting Global User Preferences, Setting User Preferences, Oracle Workflow User's Guide, and get_pref, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.

			NVL(wf_pref.get_pref(USR.USER_NAME,'TERRITORY'),
<default_territory>)

Note: If no parent information is provided, the Parent_Orig_System and Parent_Orig_System_ID default to the user's own Orig_System and Orig_System_ID, respectively.

WF_ROLES

The WF_ROLES view references information about all the roles in your organization who may utilize Oracle Workflow functionality or receive workflow notifications. This view must contain the following required columns pertaining to the roles in your repository. Those columns that are preceded by an asterisk (*) are similar to the corresponding columns described for the WF_USERS view.

Attention: Each user identified by WF_USERS must also appear in the WF_ROLES view as a role. This is a requirement for Oracle Workflow.

Note: If a user is a member of a role and the user information such as language and notification preference is different from the role information, the Expand Roles option for a notification addressed to the role determines whether the user information or the role information takes precedence. If the Expand Roles option is not checked and the Notification System delivers the notification to the role, the role information will override the user information. If Expand Roles is checked, however, then each user in the role will receive a separate copy of the notification, and the user information will override the role information.

If a user has a notification preference of 'SUMMARY' or 'SUMHTML', and the user is also a member of a multi-user role with a different notification preference such as 'MAILHTML', the Notification System will use the Expand Roles setting to determine whether to deliver the notification according to the role or user notification preference. However, even if Expand Roles is not checked and the notification preference of the role takes precedence, the notification will still appear in the user's summary message because the notification is part of the user's worklist.

Attention: If you define custom views, the Name column must be sourced from a column that is no longer than 320 characters, and it is recommended that the internal name be all uppercase. If your source table does not have a column that meets these criteria, DO NOT use string functions to force these restrictions. Instead, define the Name column to be <orig_system>:<orig_system_id> so that Oracle Workflow can reference the original base table where roles are stored and a unique role in that table. For example, "PER_POSITION:009" could represent a position whose ID is 009 and whose record is stored in the personnel table called PER_POSITION.

WF_USER_ROLES

The WF_USER_ROLES view is an intersection of the users and roles in WF_USERS and WF_ROLES, showing which users are members of which roles.

Note: A role can contain only individual users as its members. It cannot contain another role. However, in Oracle Applications roles can be related to each other in a hierarchy so that users assigned to one role automatically inherit membership in its superior roles as well.

The WF_USER_ROLES view must contain the following required columns:

WF_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS_V

The WF_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS_V view is an intersection of the users and roles in WF_USERS and WF_ROLES, that tracks how assignments of users to roles are made directly or inherited through role hierarchy relationships. The view shows only currently active assignments. This view is used only in Oracle Applications.

The WF_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS_V view contains the following columns:

WF_ALL_ROLES_VL

The WF_ALL_ROLES_VL view contains role information similar to the WF_ROLES view. However, WF_ALL_ROLES_VL includes all roles, whether not yet valid, currently valid, or expired.

The WF_ALL_ROLES_VL view contains the following columns:

WF_ALL_USER_ROLES

The WF_ALL_USER_ROLES view contains user/role association information similar to the WF_USER_ROLES view. However, WF_ALL_USER_ROLES includes all user/role associations, whether not yet valid, currently valid, or expired.

The WF_ALL_USER_ROLES view contains the following columns:

WF_ALL_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS

The WF_ALL_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS view contains information about how assignments of users to roles are made directly or inherited through role hierarchy relationships, similar to the WF_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS_V view. However, WF_ALL_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS includes all user/role assignments, whether not yet valid, currently valid, or expired. This view is used only in Oracle Applications.

The WF_ALL_USER_ROLE_ASSIGNMENTS view contains the following columns:


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