SAP standard flexible workflow scenarion WS02000471 is activated and used for purchase requisition item approval. In some cases (particularly in non-production environments) an approver can’t be identified because the master data used to identify approvers hasn’t been defined.
An enhancement implementation for Responsibility Management (RSM_BADI_STATIC_RULE) identifies approvers. When an exception is raised while “ON_CREATION_CALLBACK” is processed, the workflow log shows the exception hierarchy, but the exception is not considered a business exception (IS_BUSINESS_EXCEPTION is not set in SWWLOGHIST).
This seems to be the reason ME53N displays the message “No dedicated error message found” (SWF_FLEX_WEBGUI010) when a user presses the button labeled “error” in the “Approval Details” subscreen.
After discovering the above I updated the table entry (in our development system) and confirmed that the root cause message from the exception raised in our BAdI implementation was displayed in SAP GUI as expected.
Now, the question is whether this is “just” a limitation we have to live with, or if anyone has found a way to get workflow history log entries identified correctly as business exceptions?
PS: I am aware that I can report this to SAP, so that’s not the suggestion I am looking for. If this post doesn’t helps me find a solution I may create a support case – but sometimes the response is just that it works as designed when it’s not clearly an error.