Using CA Service Catalog for Administrators › Discrete Request Life Cycle › Configure CA Workflow Process Definitions › Review and Configure the assignPendingAction Web Service Method

Review and Configure the assignPendingAction Web Service Method

You review and configure the assignPendingAction web service method as part of the process of configuring the predefined CA Workflow process definitions supplied with CA Service Catalog to support the discrete request life cycle.

Important! This topic provides guidelines only. While this procedure is expected to work for most users, it is not certified or supported.

To review and configure the assignPendingAction web service method

1. Review thoroughly the web service API for this method, which does the following:
   • Adds pending actions to users and groups that are sent in the parameter named pendingActionUsersOrGroups
   • If the parameter value is empty, assigns requests pending action to the manager of the requested for user
   • If no manager exists for requested for user, assigns requests pending action to the default user for request action
   • Updates the status of the request, service, or service option–whichever applies for individual requests pending action
2. Consider deleting the node in the USM_Approval process definition (or your custom version of it) that updates the Update Offering Status to Pending Approval Status. The assignPendingAction web service method is a more efficient method to performs this update.

   The decision depends on the specific logic in your USM_Approval process definition.

3. Consider deleting the nodes in the USM_Approval process definition that Add Pending for Approvers.

   If it contains multiple nodes for assigning multiple approvers, you can remove all of these nodes, because you can assign requests pending actions to multiple users and groups with the assignPendingAction web service method.

4. Consider deleting nodes that get manager info and the nodes that Use Default Request Action for User in the USM_Manager_Approval process definition. Consider doing so because the assignPendingAction web service method automatically assigns requests pending actions to the appropriate users when the pendingActionUsersOrGroups parameter of the method is empty.
5. If you choose to remove the nodes from the USM_Approval process definition in the previous step, do the following; otherwise, skip this step:
   • Verify the logic that you are using for setting the approver list in the USM_Approval process definition or the USM_Manager_Approval process definition.
   • Note that the Approval Needed for Request node in the USM_Approval process definition, which assigns the Open Document operation to Approval User, fails if the approval list mentioned in the previous bullet is empty.

     For this reason, consider assigning a hard-coded Service Delivery administrator user ID, for example, spadmin, to the “Approval User” role and update the completedBy variable in the Post tab in this node with the spadministrator user ID. If you make this change, CA Workflow tasks are created for the hard-coded Service Delivery administrator user ID only.

You have reviewed and configured the assignPendingAction web service method.