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 Auto-Initiated Workflow with an Email Listener

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Toni Fields's profile image
Toni Fields posted 08-25-2023 15:31

Hi! I'm still fairly new to Maximo, but I have learned quite a bit. I've never built a workflow nor an e-mail listener in Maximo, and most examples seem to surround a work order. I'm attempting to build an automatic workflow that will trigger from an action script (let's say when the max amount for a contract revision is above $5,000), but I want to send an email to a user and use an e-mail listener to read the response from the user before a status change can be performed on a purchase contract. How can I use the email listener that I've set up programmatically or within a workflow? Thanks in advance for your help.

Steven Shull's profile image
Steven Shull posted 08-28-2023 10:15

For your scenario, you are looking for email interaction (https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/email-interaction-setup-using-workflow). It uses the email listener framework but allows the user to approve or reject a workflow assignment via email. The contract would need to be put in the workflow somehow. Either using auto initiate workflow which means that the record is put into workflow immediately upon saving in the UI or having the user route into workflow manually.

In the workflow, you would have a condition node that looks at the price (such as above $5000 in your example) and then that would create the workflow assignments for triggering the approval flow. 

Judi Brubaker's profile image
Judi Brubaker posted 08-28-2023 13:17

I am trying to do something similar, but am struggling with the e-mail listener part.  I have the workflow down, but I am struggling with configuring the e-mail listener.  Apparently it will not work with POP3, and now must be configured with Oauth 2.0.  Is this how you have yours configured?

Steven Shull's profile image
Steven Shull posted 08-28-2023 13:40

Yes, at my previous job we were one of the first (if not the first) to switch from POP3 to OAuth for email listener. I hit a few different issues initially and got APARs created to get them addressed. To use OAuth for email listener you must be on 7.6.1.2 or higher and I would recommend applying the latest IFIX to address some of the challenges. 

The biggest learning curve for me though was on the Azure AD side and how to configure it because there wasn't much documentation on it. We have some documentation that we link from this central location: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/email-listener-oauth-configuration-office-365 

I unfortunately do not have access to Azure AD or Office 365 at IBM so I can't configure this end to end but if you have questions we don't answer in our documentation I can try my best to answer them. 

Shannon Rotz's profile image
Shannon Rotz posted 09-07-2023 13:46

You might want to consider just using a workflow process for this.

  1. Create a workflow process for object CONTRACT
  2. Add a node that checks to see if the value is greater than $5000
  3. If so, send a workflow assignment to someone who needs to approve. 
    1. If they approve, workflow can change the status to APPR.
    2. If not, then workflow would notify the originator and/or cancel the contract.
  4. If the value is less than $5000, then workflow could just change the status to APPR.

Notes: 

  1. to make this work, you have to disable the APPR security option from the security groups involved - otherwise, the users would just bypass this check via the Change Status button.  However, workflow runs with MAXADMIN rights, so it won't affect workflow.
  2. The users would have to click Route Workflow in order to get a contract approved, which of course would be a training issue.  (They could use the Change Status for every other status change, however).

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