Transitions between statuses in a Business Object lifecycle can be
used to carry out simple or complex actions.
Use the Lifecycle Editor (accessed from within a Blueprint in
CSM Administrator) to add or edit transitions. Default transitions are automatically
added when you connect a status to another status on the designer board. If you
define a transition from one status to multiple statuses, you are asking users
to make a choice at that point in a business process (example: Accept or reject
a Change Request).
To add/edit a transition:
- Open an existing lifecycle in the
Business Object Lifecycle Editor.
- Select the status for which you want to edit the transition.
- Select the transition in the
Transitions area and then select
Edit.
- On the
Properties tab, change the name of the
transition (example: Send for Approval).
Think of statuses as being adjectives that describe the current
state of a record (example: Closed, In Progress, Awaiting Approval) and
transitions as verbs that act on the record resulting in the state being
changed (example: Close, Begin Work, Approve).
Tip: The transition name is the text that is displayed
to the user on the Transition Status control so make it as clear as possible.
- On the
Rules tab, select
to add
a new transition rule using expressions. Select
to
edit an existing transition rule.
- Enter a name for your transition rule (example: ECAB Approval is
required).
Important: How you name your transition rule is very
important for users. This is because the name of the transition rule is shown
in the Transition Status Control on the form if a transition is invalid. When a
user hovers over an unavailable transition, the name of the rule can give them
information on what they need to update so the transition can succeed (“Risk
Assessment Incomplete” or “Planning Fields Incomplete").
- Select the
ellipsis to choose an existing expression from
the Expressions Manager or select
to
create a custom expression. See
Create an Expression.
Any logical expression can be used as a valid transition
rule but you cannot use stored expressions which don't have a logical return
type.
- Select
Hide transition on failure
if necessary.
Select this option to hide the transition from the user if it
fails. Use this option when the rule detects a record that is not targeted for
that branch of the lifecycle and so it will always fail.
For example, use this option in the following situation: You are
creating a lifecycle for users to create change request tickets. The ticket has
paths or "routes", one for each priority level (example: Emergency, Normal,
Standard). If the transition relies on a ticket of a certain priority to pass,
all tickets that don't fulfill this rule will always fail; and, therefore you
wouldn't want to display that transition.
- Select
OK twice.
- Select
Save on the toolbar (or select
Ctrl+S) to save your lifecycle while working.
Select
OK at the end when editing is complete and you
want to save your lifecycle and close the Lifecycle Editor.
If not valid, you are not allowed to save and are asked to
fix the issues. See
Validate a Lifecycle.
- Publish
the Blueprint
() to commit the changes, or
save the
Blueprint () to continue making other changes.