End Approval is used with the Approval activity in document routing. It allows you to see the final decision on the document right away, without having to wait for the entire process to be completed.
When the process reaches the Approval task, the approver has to either approve or reject the document. Place the End Approval activity next so that the approval ends automatically, and the final decision is displayed. To change this decision you will have to send the document for approval once again.
Usually, the decision appears on the document's page only when the process is completed. Until that moment, the document's approval sheet features the Pending approval status. Although, if you are using the End approval activity, the decision will appear on the document's page immediately.
Set up the End Approval activity
End approval can only be used in those processes that already include the Approval activity.
Drag the End approval activity from the menu to the process diagram and double-click on its shape to open the settings.
All the settings are gathered on the General tab.
- Name*. Enter a name that will be displayed in the process diagram.
- Approval object*. Specify the context variable referring to a file or app.
- Decision*. The selected value will be displayed on the document's page as the final decision once the process flow reaches the End approval activity.
- Write the output to a variable. Specify a String type variable that will be used to store the output of the current operation:
approvedorrejected. The result depends on the decision made by the approver. You can use this variable to display the approval result on the app form as well as in gateways or scripts when configuring a complex approval logic.
начало внимание
Make sure that the process context contains a variable referring to the approval object (document, file or app item).
конец внимание
Use the End Approval activity in a process
Take a look at this diagram of the contract approval process. It demonstrates how End approval can be used in a business process.
The lawyer, the finance specialist, and the CEO review the contract one after another. The contract remains in the Pending approval status all the time until it is finally approved.
When the CEO approves the contract, the process flow goes to the End approval activity and the Approved decision appears on the contract’s page. This is necessary because the final step of this process is signing the contract, and it is important to know beforehand if the document was approved or rejected.
We also need to place the End Approval activity before the Edit the contract task. In this case, if an approver rejects the contract and sends it back to the initiator to make corrections, the Rejected decision will appear to the contract's page. When the initiator corrects the contract and sends it for approval once again, the approval sheet with the Rejected decision will be archived. A new approval sheet will be created, and the contract will be marked as Pending approval.
Below you can see how the approval sheet looks when the document is sent back to the initiator for correction.
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