Deleting attachments in work items

[Former Member]

Hello workflow experts

I've run into a strange problem. I've found that certain work item attachments can't be deleted once created. The attachments are being created directly by the user inside their SAPOffice Inbox or their Portal UWL. What's strange is two things: users can't delete attachments that they create (even ones that were created immediately before attempting deletion), and this is only happening with one particular workflow scenario I've built.

I haven't found any OSS Notes that say anything about this, and I've confirmed it's not an authorization issue either (otherwise I wouldn't be able to delete attachments from any work item). Also, the only message I found in R/3 about this was:

<i>"No attachments that can be deleted

Message no. WL251

Diagnosis

The work item has no attachments or the attachments cannot be deleted.

You can only delete a work item attachment if you created the attachment yourself. In addition, you can only delete attachments in the work item for which they were created, and not in subsequent work items. These conditions are not complied with for the selected attachment."</i>

This doesn't sound like the source of the problem to me, because the users and myself can't delete attachments that meet the two above conditions.

Is there an individual setting that I have to place in my workflow or task definition to explicitly allow attachment deletion, or could it be something else? Thanks for your help as always.

Regards,

Juan Ramos

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Juan,

may it be that the workflow that doesn't work well with the attachment has been created in your current release while other workflows (that do work) has been implemented before an upgrade has happened?

Best regards,

Florin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Florin

Well, both kinds of workflows (the one not deleting attachments properly and those that do) have been developed and modified around the same time. They're all part of a major SAP project going live pretty soon at my company. All these workflows are still undergoing testing and receiving routine modifications in the same environment.

Since I forgot to mention on my first post, I'm running on a ERP Central Component 5.0, Release 640 level 15. I think we just recently upgraded to SP11 too.

Regards,

Juan Ramos

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I should also mention that the task(s) that have this problem are user decision tasks that call a BOR Method before the actual work item execution. This Method calls a screen that displays the main BOR container for the workflow; this BOR container can also be seen as an attachment when on the work item decision screen from the inbox.

Regards

Juan Ramos

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Found the problem.

There's an inconsistency in our system's time zone management, which is causing new attachments to have a creation time BEFORE its corresponding work item creation time. This in turn prevents attachment deletion.

Juan Ramos