Database table for Workflow Container values

Question

hi,
I am on SAP ECC 6.0
I am trying to find workflow id number starting from document number
I try to find database table which has containe values of the workflow instances so that I can get workflow/workitem instance numbers for the document
this is custom workflow and it is not based on business object type. so checking container values is the onlyway I can get the workflows
but I am not able to find any table for it
I have checked following
SWW_CONT
SWW_CONTOB
SWWVCONTWI
SWXML_CONT
SWJ_CONT
SWJPCONT
SWJSCONT
SWPCMPCONT
SWU_CONT1
SWUOCONT1
almost all the SWCONT tables
Morever I put St05 trace to see all the tables in database operations while triggering the workflow
but the only tables seen here are
SWWHRINDEX
SWD_CONT  
SWWWIHEAD
SWWCNTP0  
SWWLOGHIST
SWWWIRET  
SWWCNTP0  is Workflow Container: XML Database (P0)
but it is XML structure data. so its of new use to query container fields.
is this reason because of any workflow design or system config ?
how to read container values from database tables in such case?
thanks
bhakti

Answer 1

Hi,
>i need to display an ALV list with list of invoices and whether the workflow is awaiting / approved / rejected for review / approval. and who did the approval / rejection action
This you should be able to read from container now, if you have FIPP instance.
>the workflow has two steps - review and approve and so i would query table swwwihead for the parent id of workflow and then based on task number see which is ready status task and find if its awaiting approval or rejection
Don't do any selects to SWWWIHEAD unless you have some really specific reason. Just use SAP_WAPI* functions. You should be able to get each depended work item etc. easily with the standard functions.
>apart from this, several data like amount values, reference document, creation date and whole lot of invoice item and header level data is required which needs to be taken from workflow container
Why would you read this data from container? This data is in the SAP tables VBKPF, etc. There should be even functions to get all data related to an invoice - try to search for example with READPRELIMINARY* (read preliminary invoice).
In general:
1) if you have invoice number, get all related work items with a SAP_WAPI* function
2) if you have only the top WI ID, use SAP_WAPIDEPEND function to get the depended work items
3) with above function you probably will get also the status of the tasks / work items, so you don't need select in SWWWIHEAD
4) Now you have the "status" and the workflow data for the invoice
5) read the invoice data from standard FI tables (unless there is some specific reason to get it from WF container, and if there is, then I think that you might be having some fundamental problems in your design)
Regards,
Karri