AX1549
When using a plan file process for an on-demand file group, you can optionally give owners of approval steps the ability to abort the plan file in the process. This is intended as a way for approval step owners to completely stop a plan file in the process, such as to indicate that a particular capital request has been denied.
The standard options for approval steps allow the step owner to either reject the plan file back to a prior step, or approve it to the next step. When the step owner rejects a request, the owner is saying that the plan file needs more work before it can be approved. But if the step owner denies a request, the owner is saying the request is not approved and that it should simply be stopped in the process. Once a plan file is denied, its process is aborted and it is no longer active in the process. Any existing tasks are deleted.
Once a plan file is aborted in the process, this cannot be undone by any end user. The denial option should only be used if the step owner is absolutely sure that the plan file will not be approved. Only an administrator can restart the plan file if necessary, by using Activate plan files in the Process Status dialog. The plan file will begin at the start of the process, not where it last left off.
NOTE: This option is only available for plan file process definitions for on-demand file groups.
Configuring the process to allow denials
If you want the plan file process to allow denials for approval steps, enable the following option on the Process Properties tab of the plan file process definition: Enable aborting plan file processes by assigned users at specified approval steps.
If you enable this option, then you also have the option to specify Abort process command text. This is the text that will display on the abort process option. You can leave the default text of Deny request, or change it as desired.
Once the deny option is enabled at the process level, you must then enable it for each individual approval step where you want it to be an option. By default, the deny option is disabled at the step level.
For example, you might only want to allow denial at a particular point of the process, while other approval steps should remain at the default behavior of approve / reject.
NOTE: There is no default notification to communicate that an approver has chosen to abort a plan file in the process. However, you can define a custom notification using the On Demand Process Aborted notification type. This notification can be sent to interested parties such as the initiator of the request and the process owner.
How task owners deny requests
If the deny option is enabled for a step, then the step owner has an additional action available to Deny request (or whatever custom text was defined for the action). This action is presented along with the normal Approve and Reject actions for the step.
The following screenshots show examples of the deny action in various locations where a user can complete the current process task:
Web Client Process Routing page
Desktop Client Process task pane
Desktop Client Process Action dialog (shown on save of plan file)
The task owner is given the option to define a comment as to why the plan file is being aborted in the process. If a custom On Demand Process Aborted notification has been defined and is enabled for the step, this notification will be sent.
The Deny request action is not available in every place where a task owner can complete a task. Currently, it is not available in the following places:
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The Process Tasks page in the Web Client does not provide the deny option. The only way to deny a request in the Web Client is to use the Process Routing page.
- The process-related button behaviors for Button components do not provide the deny option. It is not possible to deny the current request from within a form-enabled plan file.
