When the user has configured a Chain Approval as per the documentation in converged platform for BWF Defining a chain of approvals they are presented with the below error:

 


Steps to replicate


1.- Login to BWF as Case Agent and open a case for which all the approvals have been completed, for instance "CASE-0000084272"

2.- You will see the message "Information. Processing approval. Refresh the case manually to view the latest changes"




3.- Click on "Show Approvers..." link, same message is displayed and no approvers are shown and Case is stuck in "Pending" status





Take Browser Developer (F12) logs, the Case Agent use case shows "approvalID=null" in the GET approvers call.

https://service_name-is.onbmc.com/api/com.bmc.arsys.rx.approval/rx/application/approval?application=com.bmc.dsm.case-lib%3ACase&request=CASE-0000084272&approvalID=null







 

The issue is that in 20.08 it was recently discovered that the engine did retain the value of the status but this isn't happening in converged platform 

If one looks at the official documentation for this https://docs.bmc.com/docs/bwf213/en/defining-a-chain-of-approvals-1019260580.html
 
 

To create a new chain of approval process

 

If you do not want to use the default approval process, you can create a new process in BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
 

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Workspace tab.
2. Select Case Management Service.
3. Click Processes.
4. Click New.
   In the new process, the process variables are automatically added.
5. Specify the Name of the process.
6. Click Add/Remove Variables.
7. Specify Case Record and Approval Status as the Input Variable.
8. Specify Final Status as the Output Variable.
9. From Palette, drag the Approval Process element to the canvas, and perform the following steps in Element Properties:
   1. Under Record, click Click to build an expression.
   2. In Edit Expression, from Process Variables, add Case Record, and click OK.
   3. In Flow Group Name, click Select.
   4. In Select From Approval Flows, select the flow group that you want the process to call, and click Use Selected Flow Group.
10. (Optional) Use any other elements in the process based on how you want to configure the process.
    Learn more about elements in Process designer elements  .
11. Provide the appropriate permissions for users.
12. Save the process.
    After the process is created, an administrator must associate it with an approval flow.

You can see above that the step hasn't been added ideally there should be a 9.b step where the output map is explained, hence I've left a comment in the master document for BWF



Solution:

Open the Chain Approval Process in question in IS on this case it was https://servicename-dev-is.onbmc.com/helix/index.html#/com.bmc.arsys.rx.innovationstudio/process/edit/com.bmc.dsm.case-lib:Case%20-%20Chaining%20Approval
 

• Select the 'Approval Process' block and locate 'Output Variable' on the right hand side and click on 'Add' 
• Select 'Final Status' from the menu and click on the 'click to build an expression' under source
• Map the output of the approval process to 'Approval Status'

It has to look like this




USE CASE 2:

Customer is using OOTB Approval Flow and the issue is happening

1.- Approval Debug Log showing below

 INFO TenantId:0:Category      --  Approval
<THREADID: 0000000809> <OPID:                           null> <USER: Remedy Application Service                   > <IMPERSONATEUSER: null                                         > <CATEGORY: ApprovalEngine> <USER-AGENT: Approval Server>  /* Mon Mar 11 2024 19:10:12.9390 */ INFO TenantId:0:Command       --  New-Details
<THREADID: 0000000809> <OPID:                           null> <USER: Remedy Application Service                   > <IMPERSONATEUSER: null                                         > <CATEGORY: ApprovalEngine> <USER-AGENT: Approval Server>  /* Mon Mar 11 2024 19:10:12.9390 */ INFO TenantId:0:Source Form   --  com.bmc.dsm.case-lib:Case
<THREADID: 0000000809> <OPID:                           null> <USER: Remedy Application Service                   > <IMPERSONATEUSER: null                                         > <CATEGORY: ApprovalEngine> <USER-AGENT: Approval Server>  /* Mon Mar 11 2024 19:10:12.9390 */ INFO TenantId:0:Entry ID      --  CASE-0000002242
<THREADID: 0000000809> <OPID:                           null> <USER: Remedy Application Service                   > <IMPERSONATEUSER: null                                         > <CATEGORY: ApprovalEngine> <USER-AGENT: Approval Server>  /* Mon Mar 11 2024 19:10:12.9390 */ INFO TenantId:0:Tag           --  Manager Approval Flow

The Manager Approval Flow is a sample flow included with BWF/IS and the system is taking this one as precedent move it to the bottom of the list or delete it and move your custom approval to the top from the Approval Flow Section in BWF

As below example

RCA: The 'Manager Approval Flow' was triggering first before the customer's expected flow. This was causing an error in the approval flow because they did not have the manager approval flow configured, so the approval was returning an error.