Today we’re going to learn how to enable a person who is approving a request to modify the approved quantity. For example, if someone requests $5,000, but only $4,000 is in the budget, we should only approve $4,000. We’re going to use task completion forms, data components, and email templates to insert this functionality into our work stream.
Learning Concepts in this Skill Station:
Using task completion forms
Using data components
Editing email templates
Video Tutorial:
Let's start by checking out the latest version of our Expense Pre Approval work stream. Next, go to your Stream Definition Canvas.
We need a new field to store the approved amount. We’re going to do this with a Data Component. A Data Component stores information that’s captured for a specific instance of a process, or a work stream. Right now we have one data component called Request, which contains many types of fields. Hover your mouse over that Request data component to reveal the edit function. Click on that.
Notice in this component configuration popup, we have a few tabs. Click on the Fields tab. Add a new field with the “New Field” button. Title it “Approved Amount.” The name will auto populate. That name field is what Pulpstream uses on the back end to organize information. We use those in expressions and APIs. In the Type pull-down menu, choose "Currency." Enable 2 decimal places to be shown.
Add another field. Title it “Approval Comments.” Again the name will auto populate. Declare that the type field will be a Text Field. Save the field. Save your changes to the data component.
Back on our Stream Definition Canvas, let's create a form. On the right side of the screen in your Components Catalog, hover your mouse over the word “Forms” to reveal the “New” function. Click on that.
Select the Requests Data Component to pull information from that Data Component into this digital form.
In the New Form configuration screen, let's look at our options. On the left here, you can add new pages to your digital forms. Each page would be represented as a tab in a web browser, or a navigation menu button in a mobile device. Let's rename our page “General.” Click on the gear icon to rename it.
On the main section of the page, hover your mouse over the title to reveal dotted lines and the edit pencil icon. Anything that’s on this section of your page can be edited in this way. Click on the New Section edit icon to change the section title. Let's call the Section title, “Approval Details.” Check that box to show the title at run time. Save your changes.
On the right side, you’ll see available fields you can drag and drop into your form. Drag the Purpose field into the main section of the form. Make it read only. To do that, in the popup window, find the Field Attributes. In the pull-down menu, select “Read Only.” Save your changes.
Next drag the Description and Amount fields into the main section. Make them read only too. (After the requester fills out the form, the approver won’t be allowed to change these fields.) Drag the Approved Amount field onto the page. Make it required. Save your changes. Next drag the Approval Comments field onto the page. In the Display As pull-down menu, choose “Text Area.”
At this point, your form should look like this:
Save your changes to the form. Name it “Approval Form.”
Back on your Stream Definition Canvas, in your Components Catalog, you’ll see Approval Form in your list of forms.
Next, we need to modify the Review Request step. Double click that step to open it.
In the User Task popup, make it required for the Approval Form to be filled out to complete this task. Do this by selecting it in the pull-down menu under the text, “Select an optional form that assignee will be required to fill out this task.” Since this is an approve or reject task, the form will only be available during an approval action. When a reject or a fix / send back action takes place, this form will not appear. Note that the standard, pre-defined actions are approve, reject, and send back to submitter. In future lessons, you will learn how to change those with custom outcomes.
Save the task. Modify the Supervisor Approval step the same way.
We have edited our Data Component and our User Task completion forms. We now need to modify the “Approval Notice” email template to include the approved amount and any approver comments. On the right side of our Stream Definition Canvas in our Components Catalog, find the Email Templates section. Under that you’ll see the email template called Approval Notice. Hover your mouse over that to reveal the edit feature. Click on that.
In the popup window, you’ll see the email template. We want to remove task completion comments and add approval comments. Use the magnifying glass on the side of the body field to find the appropriate merge field values. We will copy and paste them into our template.
Add some text and a merge field value that will provide the approved amount and the desired user experience.
When you are done, your email template will look like this:
Save your changes to the template. Save your changes to the Process. That’s it. You have learned how create digital forms that enable supervisors to approve requests with a modified quantity. You've also learned how to edit email templates to create a personalized user experience that suits your business needs.
After changing a work Stream, I like to test it out to make sure it doesn’t have any bugs. If you also like to review your work before sharing it with a colleague, this is a great time for this endeavor. In the upper right corner of your Stream Definition canvas, you will see a gear icon. Click on that to reveal a pull-down menu. Select “Create Test Record.”
From your Tasks Menu, find the record. Click the approve button.
Your approval form will show up and require the approver to specify the approved amount.
Remember to save your process after you test it.
Thus concludes our visit to this Skill Station. At the next Skill Station we will learn how to create Form Validations.
