How to check for errors in starting workflow from plsql?

Question

Hi All,
I am using the below code to start a custom workflow.
DECLARE
l_itemtype VARCHAR2(30) := 'XXPWA';
l_itemkey  VARCHAR2(30) := '1116410C';
error_code VARCHAR2(2000);
error_msg  VARCHAR2(2000);
BEGIN
    wf_engine.createprocess(l_itemtype, l_itemkey, 'XX_WEBADI_APPROVAL');
    wf_engine.setitemuserkey(itemtype => l_itemtype
                            ,itemkey  => l_itemkey
                            ,userkey  => 'USERKEY: ' || '1116410C');
    wf_engine.setitemowner(itemtype => l_itemtype
                          ,itemkey  => l_itemkey
                          ,owner    => 'SYSADMIN');
    wf_engine.setitemattrnumber(itemtype => l_itemtype
                               ,itemkey  => l_itemkey
                               ,aname    => 'BATCH_ID'
                               ,avalue   => 1116410);
    wf_engine.startprocess(l_itemtype, l_itemkey);
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
error_code := SQLCODE;
error_msg  := SQLERRM(SQLCODE);
dbms_output.put_line(error_code||error_msg);
END ;
The script completes successfully without errors.
I am sending a notification from this workflow. I can see the records getting created in tables like WF_NOTIFICATIONS and WF_ITEM_ATTRIBUTE_VALUES. But i cannot see any thing if i query from Status Monitor. Also I am not getting the said notifications. How can i find what is the issue?

Answer 1

Hi Manu,
Thanks for sharing the information, If you think of speeding up finding were exactly your notification is struck, You can use the below query (Input parameter would be your notification id), Hope this information is good, I liked this very much, the way it was narrated.
SELECT n.begin_date,
       n.status,
       n.mail_status,
       n.recipient_role,
       de.def_enq_time,
       de.def_deq_time,
       de.def_state,
       ou.out_enq_time,
       ou.out_deq_time,
       ou.out_state
  FROM applsys.wf_notifications n,
       (SELECT d.enq_time def_enq_time,
               d.deq_time def_deq_time,
               TO_NUMBER((SELECT VALUE
                           FROM TABLE(d.user_data.parameter_list)
                          WHERE NAME = 'NOTIFICATION_ID')) d_notification_id,
               msg_state def_state
          FROM applsys.aq$wf_deferred d
         WHERE d.corr_id = 'APPS:oracle.apps.wf.notification.send') de,
       (SELECT o.deq_time out_deq_time,
               o.enq_time out_enq_time,
               TO_NUMBER((SELECT str_value
                           FROM TABLE(o.user_data.header.properties)
                          WHERE NAME = 'NOTIFICATION_ID')) o_notification_id,
               msg_state out_state
          FROM applsys.aq$wf_notification_out o) ou
WHERE n.notification_id = &NOTIFICATION_ID
   AND n.notification_id = de.d_notification_id(+)
   AND n.notification_id = ou.o_notification_id(+)
This single query links all together and shows you the current state of the message.
Column 5 & 6 shows the enqueue & dequeue time of WF_DEFFERRED queue.
Column 7 shows the message status in WF_DEFFERRED
Column 8 &  9 shows the enqueue & dequeue time of WF_NOTIFICATIONS_OUT queue.
Column 10 shows the message status in WF_NOTIFICATION_OUT.
Below is the sequence of activities going on between the PL/SQL trigger of the business event and the e-mail received from notification mailer in the tail -end
1. EBS user sends email – To send an email EBS modules use standard API. Email API is implemented in PL/SQL package WF_NOTIFICATION (I will cover it in the next article).
1.1. Provides application data – First of all user’s session inserts business data (recipient, message type, message text etc.) into WF_NOTIFICATIONS table (do not mix up with PL/SQL package mentioned above);
1.2. Defers processing Generates event – a user or process leaves EBS to run further email processing steps. It is done using a Business Events System (BES). Session raises an event k“oracle.apps.wf.notification.send” via the WF_EVENT PL/SQL package (BES processing to be covered in the next articles). Each deferred event is put in one of the two Advanced Queues WF_DEFERRED or WF_JAVA_DEFERRED for further processing. All email sending events go through the WF_DEFERRED queue.
2. Deferred Agent Listener – is a process responsible for ALL BES events processing. It executes all deferred events calling subscriptions’ functions defined for each business event. There are several more things to explain about Agent Listeners and subscription processing (e.g. there are several differed agents, subscriptions groups etc.) This is one more subject for further articles.
2.1. Reads event and starts subscriptions processing – Strictly speaking there is no any enabled subscription for the “oracle.apps.wf.notification.send” event (submitted during the first step). This event is a part of “oracle.apps.wf.notification.send.group” event group. The Deferred Agent executes subscriptions for that group rather than for the stand alone event. At this stage the Agent knows that it should process the notification with given notification id (it is a part of the event data passed via the event).
2.2. Reads application data – in order to generate the email/notification the Agent reads business data from the WF_NOTIFICATIONS table and a few related tables and during the next step builds up the email’s text in XML format.
2.3. Generates data for outbound interface – This is the last step executed by the Deferred Agent Listener. It generates XML representation of email to be sent and together with other important bits of information posts it to the Notification Mailer outbound queue WF_NOTIFICATION_OUT.
3. Notification Mailer – As you see it was a long journey even before we started to talk about the Notification Mailer. There are a lot of things which may go wrong and this is why it is important to know the whole flow of the events to troubleshoot the mail sending functionality in EBS. We’ve come to the last processing step before the message leaves EBS boundaries.
3.1. Reads message – the Notification Mailer dequeues messages fromWF_NOTIFICATION_OUT queue on regular basis. In fact this is the only place where it looks for the new messages to be sent. This means if a notification doesn’t has a corresponding event ready for dequeuing in the WF_NOTIFICATION_OUT queue it will never be send. As soon as a new message arrives Notification Mailer dequeues it and gets prepared for sending;
3.2. Sends email via SMTP – This is the step when the message leaves EBS. The Notification Mailer sends the email using text retrieved from the advanced queue during previous step;
3.3. Updates status – as the last step in the notification sending process the Notification Mailer updates a MAIL_STATUS column in WF_NOTIFICATION table.