Difference between logical and physical deletion of work items in SAP workflow

For understanding in a simple way, the main difference between logical and physical deletion is as same as the difference between the DELETE and SHIFT+DELETE functionality respectively in windows environment.

Logical deletion: When you perform the logical deletion, work items will be removed from the agent's inbox but will not be deleted permanently from the system.

The main advantage of logical deletion is that we can trace back the agent (Responsible/Possible) to whom work item belongs to/who has performed the deletion and we can retrieve the deleted work item.

After deleting the work item logically its status will be set to CANCELLED.

I have found out three possible ways of deleting the work item logically.

First way, execute the T-code SWIA input the work item id that you want to delete

After that just select the work item go to EDIT menu à Work Item à Logically Delete. Once you are done with this you will see that the status of the work item is changed from STARTED to CANCELLED.

Second one, execute the T-code SWIA give the work item id that you want to delete

                                                                                                                                                                                        Now you will see the work item and its status as STARTED

                                        




Select the Work item and enter the Command “ADMC”. As soon as you execute the ADMC Command the status of the work item will change from STARTED to CANCELLED.

We can use ADMC (Administrative Cancel) to delete the multiple work items at a time. For that you just have to select the multiple work items and fallow the same procedure as explained above.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
Third way is to execute the SWIA T-code by giving the work item id.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
Now double click on the work item

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
After that click on Menu Goto à Technical work item display

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
You will see the below screen goto menu EDITà Change 

After that just execute the logical deletion step.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
Physical deletion: When you perform the physical deletion, work items will be removed from the agent's inbox but also it will delete the work items permanently from the system.  There by we will not be able to retrieve back the work item.

Caution Note: Don’t you ever try to perform physical deletion in the production environment!!!

After performing the physically deletion of the work item its status will be set to COMPLETED.

There are multiple reports by which we can do the physical deletion which include

·         RSWWWIDE (deletes the work items including attachments)

·         RSWWWIDE_TOPLEVEL (deletes all the dependent work items)

·         RSWWHIDE (deletes the work item history)

Execute the T-code SWWL, Give the work item id that you want delete permanently and mark the check box Delete immediately.

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Next you will be asked whether you want to delete permanently or not press YES.

                                                                                                                                                                        

Finally the work item will be physically deleted.