More new stuff in the Maximo 7.6.0.6 (and above) Workflow Designer

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Hello again, its been a while since my last blog entry, but we recently noticed a nice new feature that made its way into the new, Java applet free Workflow Designer that was first released last Fall with Maximo 7.6.0.6.    I wrote about my initial findings in:

/support/pages/node/1111707

The new feature we found was that you can now create multiple connections between a Manual Input node and a single node that follows it.    This is a perfectly reasonable thing to do but the old WF Designer did not allow it.    After establishing one connection from the Manual Input node to the target node, you could only create other connections by adding in another node inbetween the Manual Input and the target.    For example, you could put in a Condition node with an Expression of 1=1 between the Manual Input and the target, then connect from Manual Input to Condition node and from Condition node to target.    This got you around the restriction but left you with extra nodes that really didn't need to exist.

Now you can simply do this:

(Note the * on the connection lines - remember those are new, they denote that there is an Action on that connection line.)

One use case for this would be that you want to select one of 3 Owners for the record, a Set Value Action on each line between the Manual Input and the target would put the Owner chosen into the Owner field. 

Another thing we found recently is not really new, its been in the WF Designer for several versions now, but as we or no one we asked knew how to use it, I decided to include it here.   It is a little used field on the WF Process called Allow Deletion?.    What it does, if checked, is to allow you to delete records that have been through this WF process.    With it unchecked., Maximo stops you from deleting them on the usual theory that if you have modified or changed a record you can no longer delete it.    My problem was that I could not figure out how to check or uncheck the Allow Deletion? checkbox.  

It turns out there are two Security Group options for the WF Designer Application that I had not heard about.    One is "Allow deletion of records" and the other is "Disallow deletions".    When you have those 2 authorized you get the usual, usual for WF Designer, pair of Common Actions/More Actions menu items that allow you to check or uncheck the box.    Again, this is WF Designer and we don't let you check and uncheck checkboxes directly, you must do it via the Actions menus.

But at least now that little mystery is solved.    And it was this same way in 7.5.