Defining criteria for business rules

The following topics are provided:

As a part of configuring business rules, you must define the criteria (conditions) that determines if and when the rule actions are performed. The list of fields available for use in condition statements includes:

All built-in and attribute fields except Category, Color, Image, Item Template Reference, and Work Schedule type fields. For a list of these fields, see Built-in and attribute fields by item type.
All custom fields (in a template or created by an Administrator) except Category, Color, Image, Item Template Reference, and Work Schedule type fields.
Item-specific conditions: Age, Generic Linking, Keyword, and Linked record that will trigger this rule.

You can create many criteria (not just one or two) but you cannot group them using parentheses. When processing the criteria for a business rule, the AND operator is given precedence.

Example

Criteria of “A and B or C and D” will be executed as “(A and B) or (C and D)”. This covers most common condition statements such as (A or B) and (C or D) = (A and C) or (B and C) or (A and D) or (B and D).

If you need to define criteria like “(A or B) and (C or D)”, you must enter it as “A and C or B and C or A and D or B and D” to get the result you want.

For detailed instructions on defining rules to perform specific functions, see the topics listed under Configuring business rules.

After upgrading to FootPrints version 12.01.03, the workflow criteria or business rules that contain fields which have the permission set as No for user roles might not work as as it 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.

Detailed information is provided as listed below.

Conditions

The following conditions are available for configuring business rules.

BCM condition

The "Has pending advanced actions" condition is available when BCM has been integrated and is used only for Ticket items.

Generic linking conditions

The following conditions are available for Generic Linking type rules:

Any

Every

Participate in

For the Any and Every conditions, operators are selected for applicable fields. "Participate in" means if there is a link to a subtask or another item type, apply the rule.

Make sure to set the trigger to run when a specific update occurs.

Global condition

The following conditions are available for Global rules:

Is equal to	No value
Not equal to	Changed
Any value

Service level target condition

The Elapsed Time % condition is used only for Work Target items and represents the percentage of time that has passed between when time tracking was started for a target and the specified deadline.

Voting-related conditions

The following conditions are available for voting-related rules.

Age of voting	Number of Approvers
Approval Votes Percentage	Number of Rejection Votes
Number of Approval Votes	Rejection Votes Percentage

Linked record that will trigger this rule

The Linked record that will trigger this rule criteria identifies a specific linked record that triggered a rule.

This criteria applies to the following triggers:

• On Linked Item Create

• On Linked Item Delete

• On Linked Item Update

Operators grouped by condition and field type

The operators available for use vary by condition and field type, as listed below.

Age operators

The following operators are allowed for Age conditions.

Is equal to	Greater than or equal to
Not equal to	Less than
Greater than	Less than or equal to

Values can be selected for Days, Hours, and Minutes. You can also select Schedule Type.

Assignment operators

The following operators are available for conditions that include Assignment type fields.

Is equal to	Any value
Not equal to	No value

Boolean operators

The following operators are available for conditions that include Boolean type fields. The options for Single select and Multi-select type fields are slightly different. See Selection field operators.

Is equal to

Changed

Character field operators

The following operators are available for conditions that can include Simple Text, Rich Text, Text area, and Hyperlink type fields. The same operators are available for the Ticket Number and Title fields.

Contains	Not equal to
Begins with	Any value
Ends with	No value
Does not contain	Changed
Is equal to

The following operators are available for conditions that can include Journaling fields (such as Description).

Contains	Not equal to
Begins with	Any value
Ends with	No value
Does not contain	Changed to any
Is equal to

Created by and Updated by operators

The following operators are available for conditions that include the Created by and Updated by fields:

Is equal to

Not equal to

Select Any customer, Any agent, Specific user, or Specific agent.

Date-Time operators

The following operators are available for conditions that include Date-Time type fields such as Created on and Updated on.
When the Exact option is selected, the following operators are available.

After	Is equal to
Any value	No value
Before	Not equal to
Changed

When the Range option is selected, the following operators are available.

Today	Last week
Yesterday	The week before last week
The day after tomorrow	Next week
Tomorrow	The week after next week
The day before yesterday	This month
<day> of this week	Last month
<day> of last week	The month before last month
<day> of next week	Next month
This week	The month after next month

When the Relative option is selected, the following operators are available. A quantity must be selected when you select an operator. The following units of measure are available: minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years.

Note

When the unit of measurement is selected as Month, each month is considered to have 30 calendar days.
When the unit of measurement is selected as Years, each year is considered to have 365 calendar days.

The units for the formula listed in the following table can be in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.

Options	Evaluation formula	Example
During the previous	`TRUE if (Current Date/Time - Duration) < (Field Value) < (Current Date/Time)` `Field Value must be greater than (Current Data/Time - Duration) and less than (Current Date/Time)`	If you select the Relative option as During the previous and specify the duration as 1 year, it means if the current year is 2016, the criteria checks if the value in the field is 2015.
Within the next	`TRUE if (Current Date/Time) < (Field Value) < (Current Date/Time + Duration)` `Field Value must be greater then (Current Date/Time) and less than (Current Date/Time + Duration)`	If you select the Relative option as Within the next and specify the duration as 2 days, it means if the current day is Wednesday, the criteria checks if the value in the field is Thursday or Friday.
Occurred exactly	`TRUE if (Current Date/Time - Duration) < (Field Value) < (Current Date/Time - Duration + 1 Duration Unit)` `Field Value must be greater than (Current Date/Time - Duration) and less than (Current Date/Time - Duration + 1 Duration Unit)`	If you select the Relative option as Occurred exactly and specify the duration as 2 hours, it means if the current time is 9:00 A.M., the criteria checks if the value in the field is 7:00 A.M.
Occurs in exactly	`TRUE if (Current Date/Time + Duration) < (Field Value) < (Current Date/Time + Duration + 1 Duration Unit)` `Field Value must be greater than (Current Date/Time + Duration) and less than (Current Date/Time + Duration + 1 Duration Unit)`	If you select the Relative option as Occurs in exactly and specify the duration as 2 hours, it means if the current time is 09:00 A.M., the criteria checks if the value in the field is between 11:00 A.M. and 12:00 Noon.
Occurred at least	`TRUE if (Field Value) < (Current Date/Time - Duration)` `Field Value must be less than (Current Date/Time - Duration)`	If you select the Relative option as Occurred at least and specify the duration as once a week, it means if the current day is Monday, the criteria checks if the value in the field is before the next Monday.
Occurs in at least	`TRUE if (Field Value) > (Current Date/Time + Duration)` `Field Value must be greater than (Current Date/Time + Duration)`	If you select the Relative option as Occurred in at least and specify the duration as 1 day, it means if the current day is Monday, 9:00 A.M., the criteria checks if the value in the field is before the next 24 hours.

Keyword operators

The Keyword condition only allows the "contains" operator.

Lifecycle date operators

The following operators are available for Contract, Service Level Target, Solution, Survey, and Ticket items when a Lifecycle Date is selected. Lifecycle Dates include Date Activated, Date Responded To, Date Resolved, and Date Closed.

Before	Not equal to
After	Any value
Is equal to	No value

Numeric operators

The following operators are available for conditions that can include Long and Real Number fields.

Is equal to	Less than or equal to
Not equal to	Any value
Greater than	No value
Greater than or equal to	Changed
Less than

Priority operators

The following operators are available for conditions that include Priority fields.

Is equal to	Lower than
Not equal to	Changed
Higher than

Selection field operators

The following operators are available for conditions that include Single select (such as Status) and Multi-select type fields. The options for Boolean type fields are slightly different. See Boolean operators.

Is equal to	No value
Not equal to	Changed
Any value

Voting-related operators

The following operators are available for voting-related conditions. These conditions include Age of Voting, Approval Votes Percentage, Number of Approval Votes, Number of Approvers, Number of Rejection Votes, and Rejection Votes Percentage.

Is equal to	Greater than or equal to
Not equal to	Less than
Greater than	Less than or equal to

For the Age of voting field, the following additional operators are available.

Greater than or equal to deadline

Less than deadline

You can select values for the age, and can select a Schedule Type.

Built-in and attribute fields by item type

Numerous fields can be used to define criteria. This topic lists the built-in and attribute fields that may be available, depending on the type of rule, trigger, and so on, that you select. The fields are grouped by type of container.

Only the fields created by the system are listed here. You can also include custom fields that you create.

Address book fields

The fields that can be used in address book containers vary by Item type.

Contact item fields

The following fields can be used from Contact items.

Name	Type
Contact Number	Attribute
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Email Address	Built-in
First Name	Built-in
Icon Name	Attribute
Last Name	Built-in
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute

Master Contact item fields

The following fields can be used from Master Contact items.

Name	Type
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Icon Name	Attribute
Master Contact Number	Attribute
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute

CMDB fields

The following fields can be used from CI items.

Name	Type
Asset Id	Built-in
CI Number	Attribute
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Criticality	Built-in
Icon Name	Attribute
Name	Built-in
Status	Built-in
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute
Version	Built-in

Knowledge base fields

The following fields can be used from Solution items.

Name	Type
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Icon Name	Attribute
Popularity	Built-in
Problem	Built-in
Resolution	Built-in
Solution Number	Attribute
Status	Built-in
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute

Service portfolio fields

The fields that can be used in service portfolio containers vary by Item type.

Contract item fields

The following fields can be used from Contract items.

Name	Type
Contract (SLA) Number	Attribute
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Description	Built-in
Icon Name	Attribute
Name	Built-in
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute

Service item fields

The following fields can be used from Service items.

Name	Type
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Description	Built-in
Icon Name	Attribute
Name	Built-in
Request Template	Built-in
Service Number	Built-in
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute

Service level target item fields

The following fields can be used from Service Level Target (SLT) items.

Name	Type
Based on Schedule	Built-in
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Fulfillment Threshold (%)	Built-in
Icon Name	Attribute
Name	Built-in
Notification Threshold (%)	Built-in
Service Level Target Number	Attribute
Target Type	Built-in
Target Unit	Built-in
Target Value	Built-in
Trigger Date	Built-in
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute

Work target item fields

The following fields can be used from Work Target items.

Name	Type
Based on Schedule	Built-in
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Icon Name	Attribute
Notification Threshold (%)	Built-in
On Hold Started	Built-in
On Hold Time	Built-in
State	Built-in
Target Date	Built-in
Target Type	Built-in
Target Unit	Built-in
Target Value	Built-in
Trigger Date	Built-in
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute
Work Target Number	Attribute

Workspace fields

The fields that can be used in workspace containers vary by Item type.

Asset item fields

The following fields can be used from Asset items.

Name	Type
Added By	Built-in
Asset Number	Attribute
Date Added	Attribute
Device Id	Built-in
Device Manufacturer	Built-in
Device Model	Built-in
Device Name	Built-in
Device User	Built-in
Domain/Workgroup	Built-in
Drive Capacity	Built-in
Free Space	Built-in
Icon Name	Attribute
IP Address(s)	Built-in
Last Updated	Attribute
MAC Address(s)	Built-in
Network Adapter	Built-in
Operating System	Built-in
Operating System Version	Built-in
Physical Memory	Built-in
Processor	Built-in
Purchase Cost of Asset	Built-in
Service Start Date	Attribute
Service Tag/Serial Number	Built-in
Support Expiration Date	Attribute
Support Provider	Built-in
Support Provider Phone	Built-in
Total Disk Space	Built-in
Total Memory	Built-in
Video Controller	Built-in
Warranty Expiration Date	Attribute

Survey item fields

The following fields can be used from Survey items.

Name	Type
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Icon Name	Attribute
Survey Number	Attribute
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute

Ticket item fields

The following fields can be used from Ticket items.

Name	Type
Assignees	Built-in
Created By	Attribute
Created On	Attribute
Description	Built-in
Global	Attribute
Icon Name	Attribute
Priority	Built-in
Status	Built-in
Ticket Number	Attribute
Title	Built-in
Updated By	Attribute
Updated On	Attribute

Next step

Defining actions for business rules