Working with Built-in Functions

Function Information

Notes on "Enabled For"

Default Arguments in Functions

About Executing Business Rules on Clients

About Deprecated Functions

Function Information

Built-in functions can be used in various places:

As parameters for search and dashboard queries.

As values or expression members in quick actions.

As values or expression members in object and relationship rules.

As values in workflow objects.

As values in reports.

Each function description contains the following information:

Name of the function.

Brief description of the function.

Syntax of the function.

The business objects for which this function is enabled. See Notes on "Enabled For" for more information.

Input parameters for the function. These inputs can be literals, field references, function calls, text concatenation, expressions, and so on. For details on expressions, see About Expressions.

The type of value that the function returns. Possible values are as follows:

Text

DateTime

Boolean

Number

Unicode text

Fixed text

Currency

List of text items (only valid in certain areas)

Regular expression

An example of how the function is used.

Notes on "Enabled For"

The "Enabled For" section includes the following areas:

Business Rules: Before-Save Rules

Business Rules: Calculation (After Save, with or without Also Recalculate on Load)

Business Rules: Calculation (Before Save or Always, without Also Recalculate On Load)

Business Rules: Calculation (Before Save or Always, with Also Recalculate On Load)

Business Rules: Editing Rules

Business Rules: Initialization Rules

Business Rules: Read-Only Rules, Required Rules, Validation Rules. This includes regular expression validation rules.

Client Expressions. This includes form style, visibility, and toolbar expressions.

Object Permissions

Services. This includes workflows and escalation. In future releases, we may add more services.

LDAP

Mobile

Quick Actions except for the user interface quick actions.

UI Quick Actions

Reports

Search/Dashboard without Field References

Search/Dashboard with Field References. See Searching for Related Business Objects in a Saved Search for information about searching with field references.

Default Arguments in Functions

Almost every built-in function has arguments. Some arguments are required and some are optional. If you leave out an optional arguments, the function uses a default value.

You can use an underscore or leave the argument blank. If you leave it blank, the application inserts an underscore.

For example, the EndOfQuarter() function takes three optional arguments. Therefore, the following are all equivalent:

$(EndOfQuarter())

$(EndOfQuarter(,,,))

$(EndOfQuarter(_,_,_))

About Executing Business Rules on Clients

Business rules and their associated expressions are executed in several places:

On the client

On the server

As part of a Microsoft SQL query

On the mobile client

Visibility rules and read-only rules are always executed on the client only. They are translated to JavaScript and executed within the browser of the user. While some of the data from the server is transferred to the client, not all of it can be for performance reasons, and therefore what client-executed business rules can do is necessarily limited.

See About Using Values in Expressions for information about using 64-bit integers versus 32-bit integers.

About Deprecated Functions

Certain functions are deprecated. Expressions with these functions work; however, you cannot edit them and you cannot add new expressions with these functions.

The deprecated functions are:

SearchHierarchy

SearchList

CurrentUserInfo1

CurrentUserName

UserPresence

GetActionVariable

AuditHistoryDescription

CurrentGlobalCurrency

Several functions will be deprecated in a future release.  Expressions with these functions work and you can use them; however, the application displays a message that they will be deprecated. If possible, do not use these functions.

The functions that will be deprecated in a future release are:

DateAdd

DatePart

EndOfNextYear

EndOfThisMonth

EndOfThisYear

HOPCalcTargetDate

Last365Days

Last3Months

Last90Days

LastDays

LastSevenDays

LastThirtyDays

LastWeeks

LastYears

NextDays

PromptAndExecuteAction

StartOfNextYear

StartOfPreviousMonth

StartOfThisMonth

StartOfThisYear

ToClientTime

Today

Tomorrow

Yesterday