Approval task is appearing in task list of requestor also

Hi ,

Using TS 6.5 SP1 Win 2003

A strange things is happening in the approval workflow .

Author a1 initiates the approval workflow .

Approval task is initiated .

Strange thing is that ...the approval task is showing in task list of both approver & the author .

Ideally it should appear only in task list of Approver and not the author .

Here author has role of MASTER .

Attaching the workflow .
I have not used 'predecessor' TAG
in my workflow .

Under the workflow tab, within Tasks list... please check as what is selected within View: drop down. Make sure all filters would be clear as well.

Hi ,

Using TS 6.5 SP1 Win 2003

A strange things is happening in the approval workflow .

Author a1 initiates the approval workflow .

Approval task is initiated .

Strange thing is that ...the approval task is showing in task list of both approver & the author .

Ideally it should appear only in task list of Approver and not the author .

Here author has role of MASTER .

Attaching the workflow .

I have not used 'predecessor' TAG

in my workflow .

One question!!

In your case is the author, also the Job Initiator - if yes then he has the perm to transit the workflow to the next task.

Regards
Dixit

rohitspathak123

Hi Dixit ,

Yes this is the case .

The job initiator is the author himself .

Is there anyway by which we can prevent this from happening ...ie., the approval task should not appear in task list of approver .

Is this a default team site functionality ?

Regards
Rohit Pathak

birt_25_output.pdf

iw_store

Hi ,

Author a1 initiates the approval workflow .
Approval task is initiated .
Strange thing is that ...the approval task is showing in task list of both approver & the author .
Ideally it should appear only in task list of Approver and not the author .

Is that approve task is a group task, if yes check who are all there inside that

rohitspathak123

hi kalraa ,

Under view dropdown : All Tasks is selected .

Regards
Rohit

Hi Dixit ,

Yes this is the case .

The job initiator is the author himself .

Is there anyway by which we can prevent this from happening ...ie., the approval task should not appear in task list of approver .

Is this a default team site functionality ?

Regards
Rohit Pathak

I haven't tried doing that, someone who has worked on it will be able to guide better.Basically the job initiator has the control over the workflow, he has the rights to even finish a workflow prematurely.

Yes i think this is a Team Site functionality... Is it preventable? I am not sure.

Regards
Dixit

hi kalraa ,
Under view dropdown : All Tasks is selected .
Regards
Rohit

Rohit,
I think you have given your answer yourself, All Tasks would list all the tasks which are in the workflow store, irrespective of the owner.

If both, approver and requestor selects the value as My Open Tasks.. then only approver can view the task underneath.

I haven't tried doing that, someone who has worked on it will be able to guide better.Basically the job initiator has the control over the workflow, he has the rights to even finish a workflow prematurely.

Yes i think this is a Team Site functionality... Is it preventable? I am not sure.

Regards
Dixit

Dixit,
Also as Rohit said the Author has assigned as a Master, so he also has access to the complete workflow; any tasks.

In short, each workflow is controllable by the owner of workflow, the job initiator and all users with Master role.

Dixit,
Also as Rohit said the Author has assigned as a Master, so he also has access to the complete workflow; any tasks.

In short, each workflow is controllable by the owner of workflow, the job initiator and all users with Master role.

Achin,

I agree!

regards
Dixit

rohitspathak123

Hi Kalraa ,

Thanks for ur reply

"In short, each workflow is controllable by the owner of workflow, the job initiator and all users with Master role."

In my situation .....author is initiating the workflow ...he is also the owner of workflow .

But don't you think that this is WORNG .

Author initiates the approval workflow & he himself or the approver can approve the content .

THEN THERE IS NO NEED OF APPROVER ......when the author himself has the ability to aprove the content .

My woflow req is as follows :

1. Author works on a content ...when done ..he submits the content to WORFLOW
2. So here the author will always be the owner of workflow .
3. Approver approves the content

Should i have make the content approver as the owner or workflow instead of author in order to solve this problem .

Please let me know .

Once again thanks for ur reply .

Regards
Rohit

Hi Kalraa ,

Thanks for ur reply

"In short, each workflow is controllable by the owner of workflow, the job initiator and all users with Master role."

In my situation .....author is initiating the workflow ...he is also the owner of workflow .

But don't you think that this is WORNG .

Author initiates the approval workflow & he himself or the approver can approve the content .

THEN THERE IS NO NEED OF APPROVER ......when the author himself has the ability to aprove the content .

My woflow req is as follows :

1. Author works on a content ...when done ..he submits the content to WORFLOW
2. So here the author will always be the owner of workflow .
3. Approver approves the content

Should i have make the content approver as the owner or workflow instead of author in order to solve this problem .

Please let me know .

Once again thanks for ur reply .

Regards
Rohit

I think the issue is not with the owner or initiator of the workflow, instead it is because of the roles defined. You have defined an author as MASTER user.

Please try and use an author who has AUTHOR role.

Hi!

Following is one solution.

1) Add a job initiation form which enables selection of Author and the reviewer...
2) Job initiator selects the above to and initiaites job
3) Email notification to Author...
4)Author performs his task.
5) Reviewer reviews.
6) End.

In this if Job initiaor selects himself as the author then u have same old problem... Hence include some Validation to come over this.

regards
Dixit

Adam Stoller

Hi!

Following is one solution.

1) Add a job initiation form which enables selection of Author and the reviewer...
2) Job initiator selects the above to and initiaites job
3) Email notification to Author...
4)Author performs his task.
5) Reviewer reviews.
6) End.

In this if Job initiaor selects himself as the author then u have same old problem... Hence include some Validation to come over this.

regards
Dixit

First - since you had All Tasks selected for View - it doesn't matter whether the author who initiated the job can or cannot perform the operaton of transitioning the task - they will see it in the list.

If you select a differenv View option (My Tasks, Unassigned Group Tasks) - then the user should only see the tasks for which they are the owner, or the tasks which nobody has yet claimed (respectively)

Second - in the WFT - you can define the owner and/or creator of the workflow to be someone other than 'iw_user' (the user who instantiated the job) - this will then limit the author's ability to transition a task to just those that they are assigned (or have the ability to 'take').

The exception, as noted, is that if the user who initiates the job is able to login with the role 'Master' - in that case, the user is essentially the "super-user" and will be able to transition any task (I believe, though its possible they may have closed the option for taking ownership of a grouptask to just those listed in the sharedby element regardless of role).

In fact, it is not the right behavior of TeamSite.

In our case, this is what happening.

Env: TeamSite 672 SP1, Windows 2003 EE.

Description: A User (editor role - don't have master role inherited) selects approver before creating the job. So the approver task is a user task assigned to the approver. Though he does not find the task in his my open tasks, he can still search for the task from "view->all tasks or all jobs" and is still able to approve/reject (any possible transition from the approval task) it.

Conceptually, it is wrong because if Author/Editor has the publishing capability then there is no need of workflow process itself. He can be the author and publisher.

There are ways to overcome this problem as suggested by others above, but why would I spend on that if the system is not doing the right thing. And so I have opened a case and waiting for their answer. I will keep you posted.

Thanks,
Murali

Please refer this KB for the same information as eFish suggested. But again, I don't think that's the expected behavior from TeamSite.

https://support.interwoven.com/kb/kb_show_article2.asp?ArticleID=2459

ISCBorisB

I don't think that...

You are commenting on the 3 (three) years old thread, comparing TS Versions that are 5 years apart

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Yeah, but it's still the same behaviour in 672.

ISCBorisB

it's still the same behaviour in 672.

No, it absolutely isn't.

TS 6.7 introduced FlexRoles Concept where you can create any arbitrarily named Role (per Branch) and grant/deny
wide range of access credentials to the Users in certain Roles. TS 6.5 has 4 fixed Roles with fixed predefined rights
for all branches.

For example, couple of about two dozen WF "rights" that you can withhold from certain 6.7 Roles are "View All Jobs"
and "View All Tasks". Do you know what are the other 20+ Workflow operations you can grant/deny? No? Then take a look,
perhaps some combination of them may solve your problem, whatever that is.

I know all the options in flex roles. you are again giving the alternate solution to disable view all tasks, jobs. But that's the not the right solution. You should not be allowed to transition a task if you don't have permission.

Do you know that there is no configuration to disable approve/reject a task? no, you don't. Suggest the right solution if you are aware of.

sample data.zip

And this is available from the server side: if you go to /private/etc/userops.xml, there is a configuration for this. see this file for "TransitionTask". This option is the one we would need to change, I am still facing some issue to solve it. I will keep you posted.

ISCBorisB

Ok. As noted 3 years ago:

...define the owner and/or creator of the workflow to be someone other than 'iw_user' (the user who instantiated the
job) - this will then limit the author's ability to transition a task to just those that they are assigned (or have the ability
to 'take')

Is the above proposal "Conceptually...wrong" because you say it is or there are other reasons? Have you tried it?

The reason why I said it is conceptually wrong is as follows:

When a user is not a task owner, he is not supposed to approve/reject it. But TeamSite does allow this by default. But we can configure it to not do so from server configuration file (userops.xml) but not from Administration tab (this is still not working and I am working on it). This default behavior can be replicated with 672 SP1 build. And that's why, I said it is not the right way since author/editor can approve any task in the workflow if he initiated the job.

It does not matter how he is able to find the others' tasks - either from view all jobs or tasks. Though he finds others' jobs/tasks in some way, he should not be allowed to approve/reject or any other transition of the task because he is not the owner (unless he is a master).

Did I explain it better?