We’re experiencing a critical issue with supplier qualification approvals in TrackWise 9.0. Workflows are getting stuck at the manager review stage and won’t progress to the next approval level. The workflow state machine shows the item is in ‘Pending Manager Approval’ state, but when managers try to approve, nothing happens. We’ve checked the transition event mapping and role-based permissions, but can’t identify the root cause. The workflow appears locked somehow. This is blocking our entire supplier onboarding process with 15+ suppliers waiting for approval. Has anyone encountered similar workflow state issues?
Current workflow state:
State: PENDING_MANAGER_APPROVAL
Transition: MANAGER_APPROVE -> PENDING_DIRECTOR_APPROVAL
Status: Transition event not firing
One more thing to check - are you using any custom event handlers or workflow extensions? In 9.0, there were some issues with custom transition validators that would silently fail and prevent state changes. Check the application logs around the time users attempt to approve. Look for any Java exceptions or validation errors that aren’t being surfaced to the UI. The log file should show exactly why the transition is being blocked even if the user doesn’t see an error message.
For clearing workflow locks, you need to be very careful. Don’t just delete them from the database directly. Use the TrackWise Admin Console to view locked workflows and release them properly. Navigate to System Maintenance > Workflow Management > View Locked Items. Select each locked supplier qualification and click ‘Release Lock’. The system will verify the current state and safely remove the lock. After releasing, test one workflow to ensure it transitions correctly before processing the backlog.
Thanks for the suggestions. I checked the workflow locks table and found several entries with status ‘LOCKED’ from failed transitions last week. How do I safely clear these locks without corrupting the workflow state? Also, the role mapping looks correct in the configuration - Manager role ID matches what’s assigned to our approval group.
I’ve seen this before. Check if there are any workflow locks in the system tables. Sometimes when a transition fails partway through, it leaves a lock that prevents subsequent transitions. Also verify that the manager role is correctly mapped in the workflow configuration - the role ID in the transition must exactly match the role assigned to the users.
This sounds like a permission validation issue. In TrackWise 9.0, the workflow engine validates permissions at the exact moment of transition, not just when the button is displayed. Even if managers can see the approve button, the underlying permission check might be failing. Go to Admin > Workflow Configuration > Permissions and verify that the ‘Manager Approve’ action has the correct permission set assigned. Also check if there are any conditional permissions based on supplier attributes that might be blocking the transition.