Configuring My Approvals and Approvals Pages

Prerequisite

You have created a record with the API name of the context object in the Approvals Custom Config available at Setup > Develop > Custom Settings.

For example, to configure Approvals on an agreement object and its child objects, create a record for each object in the Approvals Custom Config and perform the following steps. So, to configure Approvals for agreement and agreement clause objects, create two records with the API names, Apttus__APTS_Agreement__c and Apttus__Agreement_Clause__c respectively. For more details, see Configuring Global Settings for Objects.

To enable Approvals for your context object, configure the following buttons and place them on your object record’s page layout.

Preview & Submit Approval: For actions such as Preview, Submit, and Recall for Submitter.

My Approvals: For actions such as Approve, Reject, Add Ad Hoc Approver, and Reassign.

Configuring the My Approvals button

The My Approvals page is the page in Salesforce where you can act on the approval requests assigned to you.

The My Approvals page is primarily used by the requester for the following tasks.

Viewing the list of items that need approval from the current logged in approver
Taking ownership of the approval items that are assigned to queues or roles, if the current user is a member of the queue or role
Approving or rejecting one or more assigned approval items
Adding an ad hoc approver to the list of approvers

For configuring the My Approvals button for your context object, follow any of the following procedures:

Creating a custom button for your context object

Go to Setup > Create > Objects and search for your object.
In the Buttons, Links, and Actions section, click New Button or Link.
In the Label field, enter My Approvals.
Select the Detail Page button from the Display Type.
In the Behavior drop-down list, select Display in existing window without sidebar or header.
Select URL from the Content Source drop-down list.
Enter the following formula in the Advanced Formula section, replacing context-object-api-name with the API name of your context object
/apex/Apttus_Approval__MyApprovals?id={!context-object-api-name.Id}

In our example, enter Apttus__APTS_Agreement__c as context-object-api-name for the agreement object.
Click Save.
Go to a record of your object and click the Edit Layout link.
Drag the newly created button from the Buttons list, drop it into your page layout, and click Save.

Creating a custom formula field for your context object

Go to Setup > Create > Objects and search for your object. In our example, select the Contract Management package's Agreement object.
In the Custom Fields & Relationships section, click New.
Select Formula as the field type and click Next.
Enter My Approvals in the field label, select Text as the formula return type and click Next.
In the Advanced Formula text box, enter:
IF(OR((ISPICKVAL(Approval_Status__c,"Pending Approval")), (ISPICKVAL(Approval_Status__c,"Approved"))), HYPERLINK("/apex/Apttus_Approval__MyApprovals?Id="&Id, IMAGE("/resource/[button-image]", "My Approvals"),"_self"),NULL)

Enter the API name of the field you use for your context object's approval status, which you defined before configuring this button.
After checking the syntax of your formula field, click Next.
Select visibility for your required profiles and click Next.
Select appropriate page layouts on which you want to display the new field and click Save.

Configuring the Preview & Submit Approvals button

The Approvals page enables you to preview the approval requests assigned to you. The sample files provide the base for customizing the information to display on the page. However, you must ensure you keep the Approval Action code on the page so that users can approve or reject requests assigned to them. The Approvals page is primarily used by the requester for the following tasks.

Preview a list of all approvals that will be required before they are submitted for approval. You can preview and submit approvals for complex processes.
View a list of all approvals including those that have already been submitted and approved or rejected, or are in another status such as Assigned, On Hold, or Not Submitted. You can also view a large number of requests in the My Approvals page without view state errors.
Allow the submitter to recall all approvals for the current context object.

You can follow any one of the following procedures to configure the Preview & Submit Approvals button for your context object:

Creating a custom button for your context object:

Go to Setup > Create > Objects and search for your object.
In the Buttons, Links, and Actions section, click New Button or Link.
In the Label field, enter Preview & Submit Approvals.
In the Display Type, select Detail Page Button.
In the Behavior drop-down list, select Display in existing window without sidebar or header.
In the Content Source drop-down list, select URL.
Enter the following formula in the Advanced Formula section, replacing context-object-api-name with your context object's API name.
/apex/Apttus_Approval__PreviewSubmitApprovals?id={!context-object-api-name.Id}
In our agreement object example, replace context-object-api-name with Apttus__APTS_Agreement__c.
Click Save.
Go to a record of your object and click the Edit Layout link.
Drag the newly created button from the Buttons list, drop it into your page layout, and click Save.

Creating a custom formula field for your context object:

Go to Setup > Create > Objects and search for your object. In our example, select Agreement object of Contract Management package.
In the Custom Fields & Relationships section, click New.
Select Formula as the field type and click Next.
In the Field Label, enter Preview & Submit Approvals, select Text as the formula return type and click Next.

In the Advanced Formula text box, enter the following formula, entering the API name of the field you use for your context object's approval status, which you defined before configuring the My Approvals Preview & Submit button:
IF(AND(NOT(ISPICKVAL(Approval_Status__c,"Pending Approval")), NOT(ISPICKVAL(Approval_Status__c,"Approved"))), HYPERLINK("/apex/Apttus_Approval__PreviewSubmitApprovals?Id="&Id, IMAGE("/resource/[button-image]", "Preview & Submit Approvals"),"_self"),NULL)

Along with the mandatory ID parameter, you can append the following optional parameters to capture more details by a button click.

These parameters are applicable only for CPQ.

Parameter name	Data type	Use of the parameter
ctxChildSObjectId	ID of the child context object	To view subset of approvals required for the specified child context object.
returnId	ID of the object	To return to detail view of the object referred to by this identifier.
returnPage	string	To return to the specified page.
returnButtonLabel	string	To use the specified label for the return button. This is useful when this page is invoked from multiple locations or pages.
autoPreviewIndicator	Boolean	To force the system to perform Preview before displaying approval requests.
hideSubmitWithAttachments	Boolean	Indicator to instruct the system to hide the Submit with Attachments button.
headerSObjectId	ID of the standard object	The ID to be rendered as a link in the header of the page, if different from the context object. This is used to display the Quote link instead of Cart or Product Configuration link.
headerSObjectTitle	string	The title or label to display as a link in the header next to the ID, if one wants to display a value other than the Name field value of the context object.
CancelPendingProcess (Deprecated from 7.2.370 onwards. Use Enable Resubmit instead)	Boolean	true: Cancel the previous approval requests on the object record and submit a new approval request for the object every time you click Submit. To configure this behavior, in the My Approvals Formula button for your context object set the CancelPendingProcess parameter to true. For example: `,/apex/ ApprovalContextPreview?sObjectType=Apttus__APTS_Agreement__c&sObjectId={!Apttus__APTS_Agreement__c.Id}&CancelPendingProcess=true` false: The existing approval process will not be canceled. To configure this behavior, in the My Approvals Formula button for your context object, set the CancelPendingProcess parameter to false. For example: `/apex/ ApprovalContextPreview?sObjectType=Apttus__APTS_Agreement__c&sObjectId={!Apttus__APTS_Agreement__c.Id}&CancelPendingProcess=false` If you pass no parameters in the formula field, approval requests on the context object are canceled and a new approval request is submitted.

After checking the syntax of your formula field, click Next.
Select visibility for your required profiles and click Next.
Select appropriate page layouts on which you want to display the new field and click Save.