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Setting Up Planned Approvals

The Planned Approvals definition determines who must approve packages, the order of approvals, and how approvers are notified that their approval is required.

See Package Approvals for a discussion of the difference between Planned and Unplanned Approval lists.

To create or update a Planned Approvals list, follow these steps.

  1. On the Update Application Administration Options panel, type 5 on the Option line and press Enter. The Planned Approvals Part 1 of 2 panel is displayed.

    CMNCAPLD        ACTP - Planned Approvals Part 1 of 2       Row 1 to 3 of 3 
Command ===> ____________________________________________ Scroll ===> CSR 

                                                Security    Order   Int.
    Approver description                        entity      no.     apr. 
___ Development Team Lead                       DEVLEAD     10      ___
___ Quality Assurance                           QA          20      ___
___ Program Manager                             PGMMGR      30      YES 
**************************** Bottom of data ******************************

    The following table describes the fields on the Application Planned Approvals Part 1 of 2 panel.

    Field Description
    Line Command Type a value line command.
    S - Select to see the next panel for this approval
    I - Insert a blank approval row.
    R - Repeat an existing approval
    D - Delete an existing approval
    Approver description Type a description of the approval. To avoid excessive maintenance, do not use an approver’s name.
    Security entity Type the security entity name that is used to grant authority to TSO userids to enter this approval.
    You must define this security entity in your security system. Grant the appropriate authority to TSO userids in your security system to grant approver authority to individuals. See Pre-Implementation Decisions for details.
    Order no. Type an order number if an approval hierarchy is required. Order number 00 may be approved at any time.
    A group of approvals with the same non-zero order number may be approved in any order.
    Start with order numbers 10 and increment by 10 so that other approvers can be added later.
    Link Package approvals automatically reset their order numbers to 00.
    Int. apr. Indicates whether this approval is added to a participating package in another application when that package specifies this application as an Affected Application. This approval is added to that package only if it is different from approvals already assigned to the package.
    YES - Add this approval to participating packages in other applications when those packages specify this application as an Affected Application.
    Blank or NO - Do not add this approval to participating packages when NO they specify this application as an Affected Application.

    ...

  2. On the Application - Planned Approvals Part 1 of 2 panel, type S on the line command for an approval and press Enter. The Application - Planned Approvals Part 2 of 2 panel is displayed.

    CMNCAPL1       DEMX - Planned Approvals Part 2 of 2        Row 1 to 6 of 6 
Command ===> ____________________________________________ Scroll ===> CSR

Approver:   Development Team Lead
Entity:     DEVLEAD
Order no:   10

    Vehicle     User(s) to Notify                   Order

___ MVSSEND     USER010                             10 
___ EMAIL       USER010@MICROFOCUS.COM              20 
___ MVSSEND     USER015                             30 
___ EMAIL       USER015                             40 
___ MVSSEND     USER020                             50 
___ EMAIL       USER020@MICROFOCUS.COM              60
**************************** Bottom of data *******************************\*

    The following table describes the fields on the Planned Approvals Part 2 of 2 panel.

    Field Description
    Vehicle Enter the NOTIFICATION VEHICLE(s) that are defined in the Global parameters (MVSSEND, EMAIL or BATCH). You may enter more than 1 vehicle, and you can repeat the same vehicle on multiple lines.
    BATCH - File tailor skeleton CMN$$NTF and submit the generated JCL with Job Card Information defined in Application Administration Parameters.
    MVSSEND - Issue an MVS SEND message to TSO user IDs.
    EMAIL -Send notification through SERNET to the internal email server for delivery to the specified recipient.
    The IP address / url of the EMAIL server is defined in global administration on the Global Parameters - Part 5 of 7 (CMNGGP05) panel. See Setting up Global Parameters.
    User(s) to Notify Type the appropriate user identifications for the notification vehicle. Separate multiple user identifications with commas:
    Email Address or Mailing List - Use with the EMAIL vehicle. Also use with the BATCH vehicle if REXX program CMNSMTP has been activated in skeleton CMN$$NTF. If vehicle is EMAIL then if no domain is listed and the default is added.
    TSO Userid - Use for vehicle MVSSEND.
    Enter the ID(s) appropriate to the vehicle specified above - Multiple IDs should be separated with a delimiter (commas, in the case of MVSSEND, whatever is appropriate for other notification vehicles). You may enter as many users as will fit into the available space. The entry is sent as-is to the notification handler for MVSSEND and BATCH. For EMAIL notification, the ids are sent as-is, if they contain a universal email id (i.e. user015@microfocus.com). If the id does not contain an embedded '@' sign, the default mail server domain name is appended to the id. For instance, if your Company domain name is 'acmeco.co.uk', and the list is defined as 'jdoe;rsmith;mfred' then the notifications will be sent to jdoe@acmeco.co.uk;rsmith@acmeco.co.uk and mfred@acmeco.co.uk. The email server domain name default is taken from the global definition. Refer to the Global parameters for information on defining email server domain names.
    Order A number generated from the order of the notifications in the package master. Notifications are saved in the order they were last sorted. Valid values are 0 to 65535.

    ...

    The information on the Planned Approvals Part 2 of 2 panel is used to:

    • Notify an approver that there is a package awaiting for his or her approval.

    • Allow queries for packages awaiting approval based on TSO userids entered in User(s) to Notify.

  3. These rules apply when you are setting up approval notifications:

    • Approver notification is not required for an approval.

    • You can create multiple notifications for an approval.

    • You can create multiple notifications using the same vehicle.

If you have implemented email notifications and the zmobile application:

The resulting email will send the information to enable the user to start the approval process by clicking on a link in the email, using a standard web browser (providing it is within the network required i.e. a VPN or a domain. The email text will be something like this:

...

Package: DEMX000233
Title: New fixes for chg 245
Level: smpl
Type: pln/prm
Dept: IDD
Work request: 1907D92
Requestors name: Merylly
Requestor phone: 123-4567-890
Creators userid: USER015
Install date: 20180707 
Approve DEMX000233
or copy and paste the following link to your browser:
http:\\\\q001.microfocus.com:8080\\zmobile\\approvepackage\\SERT7820\\DEMX000233 
Approve DEMX000233
or copy and paste the following link to your browser:
https:\\\\q001.microfocus.com:8080\\zmobile\\approvepackage\\SERT7820\\DEMX000233