Hi, I believe that the system can only identify a single ";" when parsing a list. A double ";;" would normally be treated as a null/empty value and it seems that the system has assigned/appended a "0" for this value.
How is the list stored in ARS (SRM:Request) before the Approval rule picks this list up? Is there erroneous line feeds, spaces, or carriage return characters in the list which has cause the Approval process to see these as ";;" when building the list of approvers? It maybe an idea to "clean" the list (field) on the SRM:Request to ensure consistency before the approval process parses the field. Kind Regards, Carl Wilson http://www.missingpiecessoftware.com/ -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Vikrant Sent: 24 July 2013 07:33 To: [email protected] Subject: Approval list parsing issue? hi Everyone, Yesterday we came across a strange issue with the SRM approval processing. The case is such that we are creating approver list on the SRM:Request form. From there we have written an approval rule which attaches the approval process to the request and sends out approval requests to the entire approver list on the SRM:Request form. The string works about 99% of times(till yesterday evening 100%) but yesterday evening we found out an issue with it. What happened is that due to data inconsistency the approver list that got generated on the SRM:Request form was like Next Approvers (13005) = ;175540;;175540;;175540;;175540;;175540;;175540; instead of Next Approvers (13005) = ;175540;175540;175540;175540;175540;175540; Now this string was picked up by the approval process and somehow parsed into the below string Expanding roles for approver(s): 175540;0;75540 The 0 in the approver string set out an approval email to each and every individual of the organization for approval (even the CEO :( scary....). So my question stand likes this is or should approval server be smart enough to parse the approves list with double ';' to one with single ';' or worst case should leave it as it is and still be able to restrict approval to the members in the approvers list. Still confused about this as this is data issue due to which we get ";;" in the approvers list. We have written special filters to handle this case but now its about RCA and I am supposed to do this. A formal BMC ticket will be logged but just want your opinion on this very special case. Just in case you would like to see the log file, I have attached a segment of the approval.log file which shows the parsing done by approval server along with the post. Thanks, Vikrant _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years" _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
