The sample demonstrates a simple workflow that can be applied to performance appraisal. The sample also demonstrates how you can leverage multiple LiveCycle ES2 solution components in a human-centric business process. In this sample, manager initiates a performance appraisal easily, after the direct report receive this task, he can select reviewers for himself in a form through invoking Web Service, then manager help to check the reviewer list, in this point, manager can approve or reject this through email, which is a new feature of LiveCycle ES2. The process can be illustrated with the following figure:
The manager (Akira Tanaka) initiates a performance appraisal for one of his direct reports (Sarah Rose), a task will be assigned to the direct report Sarah Rose.
Sarah Rose opens her workspace and sees the task. She fills in two reviewers Kara Bowman and John Jacobs, who are also the direct reports of the manager Akira Tanaka. A task is reassigned to the manager, Akira Tanaka.
The manager, Akira Tanaka, receives a task and an email notification. Upon opening and reviewing the email and the attached file, he can approve or reject the reviewer list through email. He can also do this using LiveCycle Workspace ES2.
If the manager, Akira Tanaka, rejects the performance reviewer list, a task is assigned back to Sarah so she can update her performance reviewer list.
Once the manager, Akira Tanaka, approves the reviewer list, the reviewers, Kara Bowman and John Jacobs, both receive a task in their LiveCycle Workspace ES2.
Kara Bowman finds the review task in her Workspace. She then reviews the performance of Sarah Rose and inputs some comments, then she completes the review task. John Jacobs also completes a review task.
After both Kara Bowman and John Jacobs finish their review tasks, a PDF file with their review comments for Sarah Rose’s performance is generated and and the manager, Akira Tanaka, is notified that the review is complete. He can then review the result in his Workspace.
Log in to LiveCycle Administration Console (http://[hostname]:[port]/adminui).
Click Services > Applications and Services > Application Management.
Click the LiveCycleApplications(9.x) tab and click Import.
Click Browse to locate the sample LiveCycle ES2 archive (LCA) file Adobe-Samples-Application-PerformanceAppraisal.lca, and then click Preview.
Select Deploy assets to runtime when import is complete and click Import.
Configuring the sample
Note: Before configuring and running this sample, it is necessary to deploy and run the Sample Setup Utility.
Email Notification Configuration
Turn on SMTP Settings on the server.
Log in to LiveCycle Administrator Console (http://[hostname]:[port]/adminui).
Click Services > LiveCycle Process Management ES2 > Server Settings > Email Settings, check the checkbox of “Enable outgoing messages”.
Add information in the following fields: SMTP Server, User Name, Password and Email Address.
Click Save.
Enable Task Assignment in Admin UI.
Log in to LiveCycle Administrator Console (http://[hostname]:[port]/adminui).
Click Services > LiveCycle Process Management ES2 > Server Settings > Task Notifications, click Task Assignment in the left toolbar Notification Type, and check the checkbox of Enable Task Assignment.
Click Save.
Configure Email Address to receive email notification.
Log in to LiveCycle Administrator Console (http://[hostname]:[port]/adminui).
Click Settings > User Management > User and Groups.
Select SampleOrganization, PublicationsGroup in the and domain list, click Find, four sample users will be displayed, click Akira Tanaka, in the Email field, type an available email address in the email server that configured in the step 1 Turn on SMTP Settings on the server, but shouldn't be the same as the Email Address configured at that step.
Click Save.
Setting up an Email Endpoint for Complete Task.
Log in to LiveCycle Administrator Console (http://[hostname]:[port]/adminui).
Click Services > Applications and Services > Service Management, find Complete Task:1.0, and then click it, on the Endpoints tab, select Email in the drop-down and click Add.
Add values for the following fields: Inbox Host,Inbox Port, Inbox User, Inbox Password,SMTP Host, SMTP Port, SMTP User, SMTP Password which should be the same as that configured in step 1.
Check the checkbox of asynchronous and choose invoke in the Operation Name field.
In attachmentMap select Variable and set the value to *.*.
In mailBody select Variable and set the value to %BODY%.
In mailFrom select Variable and set the value to %SENDER%.
In the results field, set the value to "results".
Click Add.
Go to Applications and Services > Service Management again, select the check box beside Complete Task:1.0, and click Refresh icon to ensure the configuration become valid.
Turn on Notification in Workspace.
Log in to LiveCycle workspace ES2 (http://hostname:port/workspace) with the manager Akira Tanaka’s ID and password[username=atanaka,password=password].
Click Preferences > Manage UI Settings, ensure that the value in field “Notify Task Events via Email” set to Yes.
Note :In order for a user to receive emails, the user must have logged into Workspace at least once. Although email notification turned on by default, logging in sets their preferences.
User Permission Configuration
Note: If you have configured ContentService on your LiveCycle server, please skip this step.
Log in to LiveCycle Administrator Console (http://[hostname]:[port]/adminui)
Click Settings > User Management > Role Management, click New Role right under the Find button.
In New Role (Step 1 of 3) page, input “Sample User” in Role Name field, and add an optional description, click Next to move to New Role: Sample User (Step 2 of 3) page
Click Find Permissions, in the permission list choose Service Invoke by checking its checkbox, then click OK at the bottom of this page, this permission should be listed in New Role: Sample User (Step 2 of 3) page, click Next.
In New Role: Sample User (Step 3 of 3) page, click Find User/Groups, choose SampleOrganization, PublicationsGroup in and domain: field, then click Find button, check the checkboxes of users John Jacobs, Kara Bowman, and SarahRose, click OK, these 3 users should be listed, click Finish.
WSDL Configuration in LiveCycle Designer
Log into Workbench ES2.
If Samples – Performance Appraisal does not show in the Applications view, click File > Get Application..., and then choose Samples - Performance Appraisal > Samples - Performance Appraisal /1.0 from the application list. This will import the application to the Workbench.
In the Applications View, click Samples - Performance Appraisal > Samples - Performance Appraisal /1.0 > Forms > DirectReportsProvideFeedbackNames.
To check out the form, right-click DirectReportsProvideFeedbackNames and select Check Out from context menu and, to edit the form, right-click DirectReportsProvideFeedbackNames again and select Open. Then the form will be showed in LiveCycle Designer.
In LiveCycle Designer, from main menu, select Window > Data View, then from the Data View tree in the left sidebar, you can see two DataConnection named FindUsers and FindUserByEmail.
Right-click FindUsers, and choose Connection Properties…from context menu, a Connection Properties window pops up, move to the 2nd page of this window, edit the path of WSDL File, change the placeholder [default is lc-server:8080] to the actual hostname and port number where this sample is deployed, go on click Next, select invoke in the box Select an operation, click Next, and then click Finish.
Repeat the same operations in step 6 above for DataConnection of FindUserByEmail.
To save the form, select File > Save or press Ctrl+S on the keyboard.
Back to the LiveCycle Workbench ES2, right-click DirectReportsProvideFeedbackNames and select Check In to check in the form.
Repeat step 3 to 9, to update DataConnection of form ManagerKicksOffProcess.
In the Applications view, click Samples - Performance Appraisal > Samples - Performance Appraisal /1.0 , right-click Samples - Performance Appraisal /1.0 and select Deploy.
Running the sample
It is recommended to read the description of the use case in the Overview before you run this sample.
Manager (Akira Tanaka)initiates a performance appraisal:
Log in to LiveCycle Workspace ES2 (http://[hostname]:[port]/workspace), using the following user:
User = atanaka
Password = password
Click Start Process > Samples > Performance Appraisal - startpoint. The form loads.
Choose a deadline for this review from the field Submission Due Date and choose a person from the list Direct Report, for example Sarah Rose.
Click Complete to submit the application.
The direct report(Sarah Rose) chooses reviewers:
Log in to LiveCycle Workspace ES2 (http://[hostname]:[port]/workspace), using the following user:
User = srose
Password = password
Find the To Do item Task to Provide Performance Reviewers, the form loads, you can choose reviewers now, for example, input John Jacobs in the field "Enter User Name", click Search and find "John Jacobs jjacobs@sampleorganization.com" in the drop down list "Select user from the list", click "+" button, new search entry will be displayed, input Kara Bowman, click Search and find "Kara Bowman kbowman@sampleorganization.com" in the drop down list "Select user from the list", you can also click "-" button to delete this user
Click Complete.
Manager(Akira Tanaka) reviews the reviewer list that the direct report(Sarah Rose) provides:
Check the email account that configured in the step Email Address Configuration, you will receive an email notification of which the subject is like:” Sarah Rose's performance reviewer has been selected, please review it.”
You can open the attached file and check it, then click Approve or Reject, an reply email will be generated, you can send that email directly(Note: The send account should be the one that you receive this email):
If you choose Approve, then you can continue the following steps
If you choose Reject, then go to step The direct report(Sarah Rose) chooses reviewers
Note: After you approve or reject the task, the task will also disappear in workspace, if you don’t want to approve it in email, you can also approve it in workspace, do the following three steps:
Log in to LiveCycle workspace ES2 (http://hostname:port/workspace), using the following user:
User = atanaka
Password = password
Find the To Do item Task to Review Performance Reviewer List, the form loads, and it shows the reviewer list that direct report(Sarah Rose) chooses.
You can choose Approve or Reject the reviewer list:
If you choose Approve, then you can continue the following step
If you choose Reject, then go to step The direct report(Sarah Rose) chooses reviewers
Reviewer (Kara Bowman) reviews the performance of the direct report(Sarah Rose):
Log in to LiveCycle workspace ES2 (http://hostname:port/workspace), using the following user:
User = kbowman
Password = password
Find the To-Do item Task to Provide Performance Comments, the form loads, you can input some comments about her Customer Focus, Leadership, Managing Work and Areas Of Improvement.
Click Complete.
Reviewer (John Jacobs) reviews the performance of the direct report(Sarah Rose):
Log in to LiveCycle workspace ES2 (http://hostname:port/workspace), using the following user:
User = jjacobs
Password = password
Find the To-Do item Task to Provide Performance Comments, the form loads, you can input some comments about his Customer Focus, Leadership, Managing Work and Areas Of Improvement.
Click Complete.
Manager (Akira Tanaka ) review the final result of the direct report(Sarah Rose)’s performance:
Log in to LiveCycle workspace ES2 (http://hostname:port/workspace), using the following user:
User = atanaka
Password = password
Find the To-Do item Task to Review the Final Report, the form loads, you can see the comments provided by all the reviewers.
Click Complete to finish the whole application.
Next steps
Try making the following changes to the process:
Add multi users to join in the shared review.
Legal disclaimer
Any references to company names, company logos and user names in sample material or sample forms included in this documentation and/or software are for demonstration purposes only and are not intended to refer to any actual organization or persons.
