Defining actions for business rules

FootPrints allows you to define different actions for your business rules. The system filters the list of available actions based on the type of item, the selected rule type, and the selected trigger.

After upgrading to FootPrints version 12.01.03, the workflow criteria or business rules that contain fields with the permission set to No for user roles might not work as they did previously. The field data can be secured completely only by assigning the No field permission for user roles to whom the system administrator does not want to show the field or expose field data. For more information, see the Support Article.

Note

A Time-based business rule with any of the following actions does not cause an update to a record:

  • Send email to
  • Send Survey email
  • Execute pending Advanced Action in BMC Client Management
  • Broadcast message
  • Write to Log
  • Set color of record

If a user is editing a ticket when a Time-based rule is executed for any of the above actions, they will not receive a message that the ticket has been updated.

The following table lists the supported actions and provides detailed information about using those actions.

Action

Additional steps

Activate SLM

No additional steps.
This action is useful if you have SLM configured and is only used for workspaces.

Broadcast message

  1. Select a recipient Role (All, Agent, Administrator, or Customer).
  2. Based on your requirement, select a Message Type:
    • If you select the Template option, in the Template list, select an appropriate template.
    • If you select the Simple Text option, perform the following actions:
      1. In the Field Variables list, select a variable and click Insert.
      2. Enter a message text in the Message field.

Note: Broadcast messages are not sent or displayed for records that are in any of the Closed statuses, even if you configure a specific business rule to send broadcast messages for these types of records. To notify users when a record is resolved, ensure that you have one or more Resolved statuses in your lifecycle. Then, you can create a rule of any of the Resolved statuses instead of the Closed statuses. Broadcast messages are sent each time a business rule specific to a broadcast message is triggered. If the business rule is configured to trigger on every update of a record, a broadcast message will be sent on every record update.

Calculate field value

  1. In the Field list, select a field.
  2.  Enter a formula in the Value field.
    You cannot calculate values using date fields.
  3. (Optional) In the Field Variables list, select numeric fields and click Insert.

Change assignment of itemName

This action may be named Change assignment of Ticket, Change assignment of Solution, and so on, depending on the container where you are creating the business rule.

  1. To select assignees, click the Assignees list.
    1. In the Select Assignees dialog box, in the Team list, select a team.
    2. Move the users from the Available Users list to the Selected Users list by using the Add button and click OK.
  2. In the Assign Option list, select an assignment option.
  3. Select the types of users you want to assign for the item.

Change field visibility

  1. In the Field list, select a field.
  2. In the Visibility field, select either Show field or Hide field.

You can hide certain fields at specific points in the ticket lifecycle or hide fields on subtasks that are needed on Master Tickets. This option is safe to use when the field is not part of a dependency or another business rule.

Note: A field that is set to Hidden at the field level by default can never be made visible by a rule. The only way that a rule can make a field visible is if the field visibility was previously changed to Hidden by the actions of another rule.

Create new record

  1. Select whether to link the record that is created or to create a record without linking it:
    • To link the record, select the Create and link check box, and then in the Create and link list, select the relationship to create a linked record in containers that are already linked to the current container.
    • If you do not want to link the new record, move to step 2.
  2. In the Record Type list, select a workspace and then select a record type in the list next to the Record Type list.
  3. (Optional) In the Quick Template list, select a template.
    If you select a quick template (for the same item) that includes linked fields, select whether to link to the record being acted on by the rule or to a newly created record based on the template.

Delete itemName

No additional steps.

This action may be named Delete Ticket, Delete CI, and so on, depending on the container where you are creating the business rule.

This action is useful when you want to use a rule to delete a ticket from the first workspace when the ticket is moved to a new workspace. Make sure that the Delete Ticket action occurs after all required activity has occurred on the ticket (such as changing the Status to Closed).

Note: This action is only available for the After Save and Copy/Move rule types.

Execute external action

  1. In the Script field, enter a command for executing the action.
    Make sure to include the entire command and to format it as you would when entering at the script location.
  2. (Optional) In the Field Variables list, select a variable and click Insert.
Execute pending Advanced Action in BMC Client Management

No additional steps.

This action is an integration with BMC Client Management (BCM) and causes any pending actions (in BCM) that are assigned to the current ticket to be executed.

Link Existing Record

For items that already have a relationship, select fields the system will search for matching values and then create links to the found records when the originating ticket is saved.

  1. Select a Link Type.
  2. In the Target Record Type list, select a workspace and then select a record type in the list next to Target Record Type.
  3. In the Field in linked record list, select a field, and then select a field in the Field in this record list.
  4. Select an attribute for a condition and then select an option in the Condition list.
  5. In the What to do if multiple records are found list, select an appropriate option.

Send email to

  1. Select which email addresses to use. The following list explains the options. All Assignment-type fields are displayed in the Recipient list.
    • If you select Specified addresses, enter the emails in the Email Addresses field, separating the addresses with semicolons.
    • If you select Addresses in a field, select the field. The field must be validated for the Email format.
    • If you select Addresses in a linked record, select the Link Type
    • If you select any other option, select Primary email, Secondary email, Tertiary email, or User designated emails.
  2. If a rule is created for a workflow, you can select from the following voting-related options:
    • Send to approvers on associated approval state 
    • Send to the vote submitter
    • Send to approvers that have not yet voted
  3. To prevent agents from being notified every time a ticket changes, select the Exclude addresses of last modifying Agent check box.
    For example, if you have one rule that sends email on every update and another that sends email whenever a dynamically linked ticket is updated, the requester receives two emails for every update.
  4. (Optional) Select an appropriate value for Email Template and Importance.

Send Survey email

Click Configure to determine how the survey will be sent, and to which addresses and groups. This action is used only for workspaces.

Set color of itemName

This action may be named Set color of Ticket, Set color of Solution, and so on, depending on the container where you are creating the business rule.

Perform any of the following actions:

  • In the Specify a custom color field, enter a color ID.
  • Select a color from the recommended colors.

Set field value

In the Method list, select an appropriate option and depending on the selected option, perform any of the following actions:

    • To copy information from one field to another field in the same record:
      1. Select Copy from another field.
      2. In the Field list, select a field and then select a field from which you want to copy.
    • To set a value for a field:
      1. Select Set field value.
      2. In the Field list, select a field.
      3. Select or enter a value in the field next to the Field list. It changes depending on the field selected.
      4. If the selected field is a text field:
        1. (Optional) Enter a value.
        2. (Optional) In the Field Variables list, select a field and click Insert.

Note: If you selected an On Linked trigger for this rule, you can select two additional options—Copy field value from linked and Copy all fields from linked.

Show message on screen

  1. Select an Importance Level (Info, Warning, or Failure).
  2. Enter the message that you want to be displayed on the interface.

Write to log

Enter the message that should be written to the log.

Related topics

Types of business rules

Selecting triggers for business rules

Defining criteria for business rules

Configuring workflow processes

Configuring business rules

Was this page helpful? Yes No Submitting... Thank you

Comments