Business Rules

In a Nutshell

It is here where you can create event-based business rules. When the predefined conditions have been met, the application will respond by completing the specified action.

The primary ingredients of a business rule is the Trigger/Action argument, which can be summarized as follows:

Trigger

It is in this section that you define the data object type, the conditions, variables, and constraints for the businss rule. When these conditions are met, the application will respond by generating the output and action specified in the Action section.

Action

It is in this section that you define the application response to the conditions specified in the Trigger section.

Example

For instance, if you have specified in the When section an Event occuring On Object Create for a Service Call, in the Action section you can then select Action and Send SMS and have the notification sent to a specific recipient.

Sample Business Rules

The Admin module comes with sample business rules. These can be copied and modified as needed.

The main purpose for these sample business rules is to show how business rules are constructed, how variables and conditions can be structured to direct behavior (Trigger), and how to shape the action triggered when the conditions are met, such as in a Checklist Attachment, Email Notification, ERP Synchronization Approval, or SMS Notification (Action).

A Closer Look

When you navigate to the Business Rules tab, you will see the following information:

Screen Reference

Creating Business Rule

There are currently two types of supported business rules:

When creating a new business rule you will enter the following information:

Create Business Rule

Event

This aspect occurs during the Trigger of the business rule, and refers to the CRUD-based (Create, Update, Delete) events that impact an Object (for more information on the supported Data Objects, refer to the Data Object Table section below).

You can select from the following events that triggers the business rule:

Event Triggers

Event	Description
On Object Create	If selected, the business rule will be triggered on the creation of a new object.
On Object Create or Update	If selected, the business rule will be triggered on either the creation of a new object or the update/modification of an existing object.
On Object Update	If selected, the business rule will be triggered on the update/modification of an existing object.
On Object Update or Delete	If selected, the business rule will be triggered when an existing object is updated or deleted.
On Object Delete	If selected, the business rule will be triggered when an existing object is deleted.
On Object Upload from Coresuite Connector	If selected, the business rule will be triggered when object data (Business Partner, etc) is uploaded using the Coresuite Connector.
Scheduled	If selected, the business rule will be set to run at the specified time.

Variables

Next is the Variables aspect is used to provide additional information related to the selected object.

By selecting the Variables option, the application will then show you predefined variables and allow you to define new ones.

Variables

Explanation

In the example in the image above, the business rule is set to take place when an Activity is updated or created by the currentUser. This could then be used to trigger an SMS notification Action.

Field	Description
Name	Text entry field. The name of the object used in the variable. We recommend using a meaningful description to improve record-keeping practices.
Variable Type	The type of data object. Options include Array, Object, and Value.
Object Type	The DTO associated with the variable. For more information on supported DTOs, refer to the table in the appendix below.
Version	The data object version (see the Data Object Table for more information).
CoreSQL WHERE Clause	In this field, you can declar a Where clause for variables. Example: sc.id=${new.object.objectId}

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Events Based on Object Types

Events based on object types include the following predefined variables:

Variable	Description
objectName	The object triggered the event, e.g. ${activity.code}
old	The object before the event (null in case of Create), e.g. ${old.code}
new	The object after the event (null in case of Delete), e.g. ${new.code}
currentUser	Person object linked with the User, e.g. ${currentUser.emailAddress}
account	Account master object, e.g. ${account.name}
company	Account master object, e.g. ${company.name}
user	User master object, e.g. ${user.name}

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Note Regarding "Old" and "New" Variables

Depending on the trigger type the variable “objectName” (the object triggered the event, e.g. $ {activity.code} ) the values are the same as for the variable “new” or “old”

The logic is as follows:

• ON OBJECT CREATE -> objectName = new
• ON OBJECT DELETE -> objectName= old
• ON OBJECT UPDATE -> objectName= new
• Combined actions, e.g. CREATE or UPDATE -> objectName= new

Using a Value for Counting with Variable

A value can be used to create a count by using the variable type Value and writing the query in “Advanced Mode” () as in the following example:

The following query could then be used to return a count:

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT p.id)  FROM ServiceCall sc JOIN ServiceAssignment sa ON sa.object.objectId = sc.id JOIN Person p ON p.id = sa.technician WHERE  sc.id = ${sc.id}
ServiceCall.21;Person.19;ServiceAssignment.24

Conditions

Next, in the Conditions aspect you can then set additional conditions required to trigger the business rule. These can be selected from the dropdown menu or entered manually.

The following is an example of a condition created using the built-in operators:

Conditions

${old.status} != "READY"
AND
${new.status} == "READY"

Explanation

In the example above, the business rule is set to take place when an Status is updated by the currentUser to "Ready". This could then be used to trigger an SMS notification Action, with a new assignment sent to the currentUser.

Additionally, you can define conditions using the following relational operators:

Available Operators

Operator	Description	Example
==	Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if yes then condition becomes true.	(A == B) is not true.
!=	Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if values are not equal then condition becomes true.	(A != B) is true.
>	Checks if the value of left operand is greater than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true.	(A > B) is not true.
>=	Checks if the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true.	(A >= B) is not true.
<	Checks if the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true.	(A < B) is true.
<=	Checks if the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true.	(A <= B) is true.

Scheduled Rule with Condition

If a frequency is set for a business rule with a condition, it will occur at will run at the stated frequency when the rule is triggered.

For example, the following business rule will poll the database every minute and send a notification to the dispatcher if there Service Call that is due within 24 hours:

Trigger

Business Rules with Status Triggers

Activity Execution Stages

Activity Released Business rule performed based on comparison in serviceAssignment.released column.

Activity Cancelled

Please note that Unassign and Cancellation use the same Activity.executionStage.

• Cancellation of Assigned Activity
  • Business rule performed based on comparison activity.executionStage. Additional validation - checked that Service Call cancelled as well, value mast be set based on Cancelled value in Service Call Mappings.
  • Business rule performed based on comparison activity.executionStage.
  • Additional validation - checked that Service Call cancelled as well, value mast be set based on Cancelled value in Service Call Mappings.

Activity Unassigned

PLease note that both of the following unassign scenarios use the same activity.executionStage. For testing, it is recommended to create a business rule that creates a Service Call with a single activity, to determine if the status has changed following an unassign action. If the activity.executionStage = Cancelled it means that activity was simply unassigned.

• Unassign of Released Activity
  • Business rule performed based on comparison activity.executionStage.
  • Additional validation - to check that the Service Call is not cancelled, value mast be set based on Cancelled value in Service Call Mappings.
• Unassign of Assigned Activity
  • Currently there is no explicit way to check this, since the application must validate that Activity.Responsible IS NULL.

Actions

Next, you can select from one to three Action/s. This is the Action component of the argument that drives each business rule.

Based on your selection in this dropdown, the application will display additional fields. Select the Action you would like to learn more about from the header row below:

Rule Created

After completing the Trigger and Action sections of the business rule, you can then click Save.

To validate the new business rule, select the Validate option after creating or modifying the rule.

JavaScript Functions in Business Rules

In general any JavaScript function can be used in business rules and conditions.

In order to use a JavaScript function inside a business rule, the business rule must be set to Type Two:

This will allow for full JavaScript support inside expressions.

Moment Functions

Date Format

The following example demonstrates how moment.js functions can be used to change the date format used for activities:

The following is an example of a moment.js function in a business rule:

Time Zone

The following demonstrates how moment-timezone.js functions can be used:

If

activity.startDateTime = "2017-02-17T13:36:00+00:00"

Then

The following is an example of a moment-timezone.js function in a business rule for an SMS notification:

Validating Null Values

To verify if a value is null in the condition of a business rule, a JavaScript function can be used on the Length property, as demonstrated in the following example:

${serviceCall.equipments}.length != 0

Using Array in Action

The following is an example of how an array can be used in an action:

The above example would update the responsible person of all checklists linked to an activity when releasing the activity to technician (please note that this example is available as a Sample business rule).

The rule will be executed as many times as there are checklist instances linked to a specific activity. This is accomplished specifically using:

Execution Count: ${checklistInstance}.length

The correct checklist instance id can then be retrieved with the following syntax:

Object Id: ${checklistInstance[i].id}

The following can be used to check if an object that is joined under variables does NOT give any results in the join:

• Variable type Array: ${object.length} == 0
• Variable type Object: $object == NULL

Additional Resources

Custom Fields in Business Rules

Custom Fields (also known as User-defined Fields) can be referenced in variables (using the WHERE clause), conditions, and actions for all available objects.

The following syntax is used when referencing a custom field in a business rule:

When updating a custom field using the Update Action you will need to enter the following in the field column:

Appendix

Data Object Table

The following table describes the Data Objects and fields used in Coresystems Field Service Management. You can use this table to view data object and version information in detail.

Data Object Table