About Expressions

Use an expression to conditionally control appearance and behaviors of CSM features.

You can use an expression to:
  • Control visibility of items on forms and toolbars.
  • Dynamically display text on forms.
  • Calculate times and durations.
  • Display colors or images on a form or grid.

Use expressions in:

  • Queries: In Comparison clauses as values to search for in a specified field. See Query Builders.
  • One-Step™ Actions: In Actions where you can specify values to use in Business Object fields, email messages, Tweets, temporary filenames, command-line arguments, and URLs. See About One-Step Actions.
  • Dashboards: To set colors, images, text, and visibility for widgets. See About Dashboards.
  • Business Objects: To set field values and properties, and to autopopulate fields. See About Business Objects.
  • Forms: To set colors, images, and text for form controls. See About Forms.
  • Automation Processes: To limit records. See About Automation Processes.
  • Approvals: To define/limit trigger conditions, approvers, and set field Actions. See About Approvals.
  • Constraints: To limit what a user sees or can select from in a field, Related Item Picker, tab in a form arrangement, or prompt. See Constraints.

Expression types include:

  • Aggregate
  • Case
  • Counter
  • Date/Time
  • Duration
  • Logical
  • Machine Learning Prediction
  • Number
  • Sentiment
  • Text
  • User/Customer Data

Good to Know

  • An expression is typically identified by the expression icon Expression Icon.
  • You can create custom expressions from many places in CSM. Custom expressions are used only where they are created but can be saved as stored expressions.
  • CSM provides several OOTB stored expressions. Use these OOTB expressions as-is, edit them, or create new expressions using the Expression Manager. Create impromptu custom expressions from the token selector. For more information, see Create an Expression.
  • Security rights control access to CSM functionality; configure them in the Security Group Manager in CSM Administrator (Security > Edit Security Groups). For detailed information, see Security rights and Configure Stored Expression Security Rights.

CSM provides several OOTB stored expressions. Use these expressions as provided, edit them, or create new expressions using the Expression Manager. Users can also create impromptu custom expressions from the Token Selector.