There are some transactions and techniques to help in debugging workflow
Transaction SWUD
SWUD is the diagnosis transaction. This will guide you through the fault
finding process. The check-list order is determined dynamically according
to:
a) your workflow definition and
b) the statistics of the most common mistakes made when
creating/activating a workflow.
The testbed, provides a launchpad for tests to ensure that your workflow
definition is rugged enough for the production environment. It also allows
you to access the tasks, subflows, object types, delegated object types and
agent assignments directly, without going through the workflow builder
first. (Foreground tasks with no agent assignment are marked in red from
release 4.5 onwards). This list is also useful as a catalogue of the
components of workflow for documentation or transport purposes.
Click on the "info" icon to read a description of the test being performed.
Any workflow accessed through this transaction is added to the last-used
list. The workflow can be recalled at a later date by clicking on the reuse
icon in the left-hand column of the last-used list.
The next section describes the transactions called from SWUD. Experts may
find it easier calling them directly.
Secondary Diagnosis Transactions
Transaction SWU3: Verify Workflow Customizing.
In this transaction the most important basic customizing for
workflow is checked. If you find any errors here, read the
documentation for the error.
Transaction SWEL: Event Log.
Note: Before you can use the event log, you must make sure it is
activated. You check this in transaction SWELS. If you are not sure
whether or not it is active, just deactivate and activate the event
log once.
WARNING: An activated event log can lead to bad performance, and
must not be activated constantly in a productive system.
Transaction SWE2: Event type linkage
A workflow is usually started or triggered by an EVENT so it is
important to make sure that an event occurrs. In the event log you
can see the event and its business object type.
If an event has been successfully created, it is important to check
if there is a receiver type for this event. The receiver type is
the workflow that has been triggered by the event.
The coupling between an event and the receiver can be maintained in
trans. SWE2.
Transaction SWU0: Event simulation
If you have found NO receiver type in the event log, then you
should check transaction SWU0, Simulate Events.
In this transaction you can simulate an event. The system will
check all workflows that could be triggered by the event and tells
you whether or not they were triggered. Information is displayed
for the workflows that were not triggered successfully.
Transaction SWI1: Work item list
If a workflow was been correctly triggered and started at least one
WORK ITEM should be created. You can view the work items in
transaction SWI1, Work Item Selection.
The easiest way for the selection is just to go into this
transaction after you have checked the event log. By default all
the work items of the last hour will be displayed.
You will find in this transaction the work item number, the status
of the work item and the workflow task that has created the work
item. Furthermore, (in the technical workitem display) you can have
a look at the container by selecting a work item and using the menu
GOTO -> CONTAINER. To display the work item details double click on
the item. From the details you can see the selected/
possible/excluded agents for this work item by using the menu GOTO
-> AGENT -> SELECTED/POSSIBLE/EXCLUDED AGENTS.
When the status of the work item shows an error you should have a
look at the workflow log using the menu EDIT -> DISPLAY WORKFLOW
LOG. Here you can see errors that have occurred.
Transaction PFTC/SWDD: Task editor/Workflow Builder
If you want to have a look at the definition of the workflow you
can use transaction PFTC, Maintain Tasks.
The button WORKFLOW BUILDER brings you to a graphical display of
the workflow structure which is fairly easy to read and understand.
On the tabstrip TRIGGERING EVENTS you can check if the triggering
is activated or not and deactivate/activate it by clicking on the
icon in front of the event.
Transaction OOCU: Customizing overview
To check if the relevant tasks are activated and users are
assigned, you can use transaction OOCU; Task Customizing Overview.
In this transaction all the tasks are sorted by the application
components and are thus easy to find. Note that if you have almost
no entries in this transaction, you should execute the report
RS_APPL_REFRESH in transaction SE38.
o Transaction SWUE/SWUS: Event/workflow trigger
If you have activated a user exit, e.g. for the role determination,
and you have problems with that, you most probably have to debug
the workflow. This can be done using the transaction SWUS or SWUE.
With SWUE you can create an event. After you entered object type
and event you have to fill the event parameters and the key for a
specific object. If you want to debug the workflow you have to set
the flag TRIGGER RECIEVER FM SYNCHR. If you have set a break point
in your user exit or in any other function module of the workflow
the system will stop at this break point and you can start
analyzing.
The second possibility to debug a workflow is to use the
transaction SWUS, the workflow test environment. In this
transaction you have to enter the workflow task and fill the input
data. Please use the F4-help to fill the input data. Here again you
have to set a break point in your user exit or in any other
function module of the workflow and then the system will stop
there.
Summary of the manual alternative to SWUD
Now that you have a better understanding of how to use these transactions,
you can follow the steps below to quickly analyze your workflow problems:
1. Go to transaction SWU3 and check if everything is okay. If it is not,
please fix it before you proceed.
2. Go to transaction SWEL and check if an event is created. If not, check
in transaction SWELS if the event log is activated.
o If you see an event but no workflow is triggered, proceed with step
3.If you see an event and a workflow is triggered, but the status of
the triggering shows an error, proceed with step 3.
If you see an event and a workflow is triggered and there is no
error, proceed with step 4.
o If the event log is activated and you do not get any event, open up
a message using the component of the application to which the
business object type belongs. From release 20C for creation of
shopping carts
the architecture of workflows changed and no events are visible!
3. Go to transaction SWU0 and simulate the event. Is the workflow that
you expect to be triggered visible in the simulation?
If it is not, then check the workflow definition in PFTC. The event
must be defined as triggering event.
If it is, but the event linkage is not activated, go to transaction
OOCU and activated it.
If it is visible, but it is not activated, go to transaction PFTC
and activate it.
4. Go to transaction SWI1. Search for the work item that belongs to the
workflow. Check the status of the work item.
If it shows an error, look at the workflow log. Do you see any
errors? If yes, you can probably find a solution in the SAPNet
Frontend. (Tips and tricks on how to search for information and
solutions in the SAPNet Frontend can be found in note 192194.) If
you do not find any help in the SAPNet Frontend, please open up a
message with the component BC-BMT-WFM and tell us the number of the
error message and the name of the workflow.
Solution
If you can not solve your issue with these hints, please open up a
message with the component of the application of the workflow (can be
seen in the transaction PFTC on the first screen). Please include the
results of the steps 1 to 4, which will help us a lot to analyze your
issue.
