When uploading attachments from mobile, the applications will first sync the parent object (Activity, Smartform, etc.) and then send the attachment; This means there could be a delay between the time the object reaches the cloud and when the last attachment linked to this object is uploaded.
If you are creating reports from Smartforms instances, please consider using a business rule with a delayed execution to ensure all attachments have been uploaded before the report generation.
There are two ways to generate the PDF when closing checklists:
1.) via company setting ChecklistReportingEnabled - this cannot be delayed and will execute as soon as the Smartform is closed, meaning you could miss some of the attachment content when generating a report.
2.) via a Business Rule a delay can be added to accommodate for the time it will take for the attachment to reach the cloud. It is not guaranteed that all the attachments are in the cloud by the time the rule executes. SAP is reevaluating the approach and investigating how it will be made more robust, so a delay is not needed on the reporting. More updates will follow. For now, the delayed business rule execution is the recommended approach.
Note: Attachments are processed at the end of each differential sync, so if you have a long diff sync time, please take this into consideration when creating your delayed execution rule.
Update:
With the following versions, the attachment upload will be included in the first sync again, making delays in Business Rules unnecessary. Also, company setting ChecklistReportingEnabled should work again.
- Android 8.8.2
- iOS 8.9.1
- Windows 10.8.1
Comments
4 comments
Hi Karsten,
thanks for the clarification.
I am still not happy with this, since the needed delay duration depends on the sync time and thus on the network quality at the location of the technician during sync. We have no control on this!
Could you add another Event which will fire once all attachments are also available? See also my improvement idea for this.
Regards,
Wolfgang
Hi Wolfgang
Thanks for your feedback, good to see that our message reaches people :-). It's SAP and not Coresystems building the software, so we're in the same seat as you.
We've seen your influence post and have voted for it as well. It's a must in our eyes.
Let's share it: https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#/idea/257231/
Regards
Simon
A proper solution will be implemented, see yesterdays changes on the influence post:
The improvement request's status is under review and Nicolas Sax left the following comment: "An option will be introduced so that reports are only generated once all attachments are available."
Hi Simon
Do you have a "example business Rule" for me to solve the issue in the meantime?
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