Workflow issue with timeline

[alex_theys]

Hi,

I am having an issue with the AEM 6.1 out of the box workflows.

When I attempt to have a participant step after a simple process step I get a null pointer exception (error log is attached in txt file).

Here is the very simple workflow:

[img]Screen Shot 2015-09-23 at 10.59.47.png[/img]

Here is what I expected from it:

[img]Screen Shot 2015-09-23 at 11.04.25.png[/img]

but this is what I get:

[img]Screen Shot 2015-09-23 at 11.06.08.png[/img]

Any help would be much appreciated!

[smacdonald2008]

Are all workflow steps out of the box ones - or are any custom steps. I want try and reproduce this model to see if I get this issue. 

[alex_theys]

They are all out of the box. 

Workflow component group:

3 no operation steps (Initiator, approve and reject).

1 participant steps (assigning to content-authors group)

WCM Workflow:

1 Activate  page/asset

I can provide a larger image if necessary.

Cheers,

Alex

[smacdonald2008]

I re-created the workflow

[img]wf.png[/img]

The only difference is i put a DeleteNode step after reject. 

It worked without issue and the payload (the page) was deleted after i rejected. 

For the part step - make sure you set to a valid user - i tested with admin. Also - try invoking from a page here: 

http://localhost:4502/siteadmin#/content

see if that works. 

[alex_theys]

Hum, I wonder if it is because the workflow you recreated assigns to a particular user (Administrator) rather than to a group (content-authors).

[alex_theys]

To clarify, the review steps assigns to authors (content-authors) I then sign in as a content-author I created for the purpose of testing and that's when the error is thrown.

Said user has all of the properties set include first name and last name that normally make up a display name.

[smacdonald2008]

Try that and try invoking from classic UI (http://localhost:4502/siteadmin#/content) too. Lets see if the issue can be nailed down. 

[alex_theys]

yup, same problem when starting it from classic UI, same error too.

[smacdonald2008]

Did you try and set to admin in part step? 

[alex_theys]

yeah I did, and that worked. the problem is only when setting to groups

[alex_theys]

Groups that aren't administrators

[smacdonald2008 · Accepted solution]

Looks like a permission issue - you need to make sure that the groups have the required permissions to perform the tasks in this workflow. 

[Lokesh_Shivalingaiah]

Even I faced this issue sometime before if we assign it to non-admin groups. I couldnt debug further there !

[alex_theys]

Turns out, giving read access to the folder containing the admin user has fixed this particular problem.

[alex_theys]

That makes sense, what permissions would it need though?

As far as groups go, they have workflow-users and content-authors.

I ran a test, adding admin rights to the user seems to make it work.

[alex_theys]

Right, I have narrowed it down. Basically adding Read access to home fixes it.

It looks like in order to look up elements in the timeline the users will need access to the display name (firstname and or lastname).

Thanks for the help guys