Contents

Introduction
Common Settings
E-mail Notification Settings
Automatic Reassignment (Escalation) Settings
Process Event Hooks Settings

Introduction

The Rules pages, accessed from the Connectivity and Escalation section of the Manage page, enable you to define rules which can provide E-mail notifications and/or automatically reassign or escalate tasks when certain conditions are met. Use the Add button to add a new rule. If you wish to start with a pre-existing Rule as a template, select the Rule in the Add Rule Using Template list prior to clicking Add.

Common Settings

When adding or editing a rule, the following common settings are available:

Rule Name - A name for the rule (255 characters max).

Applies To - The type of record that this rule applies to:

• Disposition Requests (Issues) - Applies to Issue records that are awaiting disposition. If the Issue form has no disposition step, this option is not applicable.
• Action Requests (Issues) - Applies to Issue records that are awaiting assignment to an Action. This option applies to all Issue forms and records, since all Issues reach this workflow stage (whether they have a disposition step enabled or not).
• Action - Applies to Action records.
• Subtask - Applies to Subtask records.
• Affiliate Routing - Applies to records of any type that have been routed to Affiliate users.
  
  Although affiliate routings are themselves comprised of Issues, Subtasks, etc. the Affiliate Routing record type is designed to send notification messages to affiliate users, regardless of the actual type of record routed to them. Conversely, rules designated for the other record types do not send notifications to the affiliate users who may have been routed the record. Note also that rules which operate on affiliate routings cannot perform reassignments.
  
  

Applies to Department - A rule can apply to records assigned to users in a single Department, or to all Departments. This enables maximum flexibility in defining the desired behavior. To have a rule apply to all Departments, select "-- All --" or leave the selection blank. If a particular Department is specified, it refers to the Department of the user currently assigned responsibility for the record, not the Department that initiated the record (which may or may not be the same).

Applies to Category - A rule can apply to a single Category (form), or to all Categories. This enables maximum flexibility in defining the desired behavior. To have a rule apply to all Categories, select "-- All --" or leave the selection blank. Note that the category list contains all categories in the CATSWeb system. If you select a category, be sure it is a valid category for the type of record you designate in Applies To. In other words, if the rule applies to Action records, be sure you have selected an Action category.

Rule is Active - Check the box to make the rule active.

Signature Request Rule - Check the box to make the rule operate on signature requests for records, rather than on the records themselves. When this box is checked, CATSWeb limits the types of signature requests acted on based on the Applies To setting.

For example, checking this box with Applies To set to Action will cause the rule to only operate on signature requests related to Action records. If the purpose of the rule is to operate on signature requests related to Issue records, check this box and choose either Disposition Request or Action Request for Applies To. The rules engine does not distinguish between different types of signature requests for Issue records.

When this box is checked, the Rule is limited to performing E-mail Notifications. Automatic Reassignment is not allowed for signature requests, so these settings will be ignored.

Trigger - Rules are triggered based on how many days it is until, or since, the due date of the task. Positive entries refer to days after the due date. Negative entries refer to days before the due date. For example, to configure a rule to send a reminder E-mail message 2 days before a task is due, enter "-2". To configure a rule to reassign a task on the day after the due date, enter "1". If the rule should run on the due date, enter zero.

SQL Filter - This field can be used to enter SQL WHERE clause statements that further restrict the set of records that the rule operates on. This SQL is combined with the record selection SQL via an AND statement (i.e. records selected by the rule must meet the due date and department selection criteria above AND the criteria entered in this field).

The SQL entered must use the actual field names from the underlying CATSWeb database tables, rather than the field captions which are arbitrarily assigned in the field definition pages. There are several methods of determining what these field names are:

• Field Definition List - View the field definition list and use the value stated for the Table Field.
  
  Query Form - An ad-hoc query can be entered and submitted with the optional Show SQL statement generated box checked. Be sure to enter data in the query field of interest. The query output will show the actual SQL statement generated, which will include the SQL WHERE clause with the actual table field names.
  
  Other Tools - Database management utilities, Microsoft Access, and many other tools allow the underlying table structure to be viewed.

Note that any of the underlying table fields may be used in the SQL statement, even maintenance fields that are not normally contained in CATSWeb forms. Note also that the table the records come from (and therefore the fields that are available) is dependent on the Applies To setting above.

When the Rule record is saved, CATSWeb will validate the SQL entered to be sure it has the proper formatting, contains field names that exist in the underlying table, etc.

The following examples illustrate common usages:

SQL Filter Mode - This setting is only present when the Advanced Rules option has been installed. It provides options that give the administrator full control of the records that the rules processing engine operates on.  Any criteria may be defined. For more information, refer to documentation accompanying the feature in the CATSWeb\Scripts\AdvancedRules folder of the CATSWeb CD-ROM or other electronic media. Customers with systems hosted by AssurX may request the documentation from technical support.

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• Message Enabled - Check this box to enable a notification message to be sent by the rule.
• Message to Assignee - Check this box to have the message be sent to the current assignee of the record.
• Message to Supervisor - Choose an option that determines if and how the E-mail message is sent to the supervisor of the department that the record is assigned to. Messages can only be sent to supervisors successfully if the Supervisor field of the Department record contains a valid CATSWeb Employee Name. The named supervisor's Employee record must also contain a valid E-mail address. See also the LookupSupervisorOf expression below, if you wish to send the message to the supervisor of a user named in an arbitrary field.
• Cc to Initiator - Check this box to include the initiator of the record on the Cc line of the E-mail.
• Alternate To - Notification messages are usually sent to the person the record is assigned to. If you prefer the notification message to be sent to someone else instead, enter an alternate address or addresses. If multiple addresses are entered, separate each address with a comma, or use a different delimiter if so instructed by your CATSWeb Administrator. This setting can also utilize lookup expressions as described for the Cc setting below.
• Cc - Enter additional E-mail addresses for the Cc line of the E-mail. Separate each address with a comma, or use a different delimiter if so instructed by your CATSWeb Administrator. Take care in entering the addresses. If a bad address is present in a message, it could result in the message failing to send to any recipients.
  
  Expressions can also be entered that cause the rule to lookup E-mail addresses from fields in the record that is currently being operated on by the rule. For example, all CATSWeb records include the UDUserCreated and UDUserEdited fields. These fields contain the Employee IDs of the users who originally created the record and who last edited the record. Issue records contain the EnteredBy and IdentifiedBy fields which typically contain the names of the users who entered and identified the Issue. The following entry for the Cc field would include all of these people in the Cc list:
  

LookupIDTo(UDUserCreated), LookupIDTo(UDUserEdited), LookupNameTo(EnteredBy), LookupNameTo(IdentifiedBy)



In general, the following expressions can be used in place of any literal address in the Cc line:



• LookupIDTo(TableFieldName) - For fields that contain a CATSWeb EmployeeID
• LookupNameTo(TableFieldName) - For fields that contain a CATSWeb Employee Name
• LookupAddressTo(TableFieldName) - For fields that contain a literal E-mail address
• LookupSupervisorOf(TableFieldName) - For fields that contain a CATSWeb Employee Name, this expression returns the address of the named user's supervisor. As with the Message to Supervisor setting above, this expression will only work if:
  • The Supervisor field of the user's Home Department record contains the name of the supervisor, and the name is a valid CATSWeb Employee Name.
  • The named supervisor's Employee record contains a valid E-mail address.
    
    

Note: A field that includes names with commas (for example: last name, first name) should not be used with these lookup expressions. Since these expressions use a comma separated list of names, a name with a comma inside it will be parsed incorrectly.



• Message - Enter the message to send. If this is left blank, CATSWeb will supply a predefined standard message. When the CATSWeb Rules Engine sends the message, it will automatically append basic information about the task (who it is assigned to, when it is due, etc.) and include a link that allows the recipient to go directly to the referenced record.

• Reassignment Enabled -Check the box to enable the record to be reassigned (escalated) when the rule executes. Reassignments are not allowed for rules that operate on affiliate routings, or for rules that operate on signature requests.
• Reassign To
  • Supervisor - Record will be reassigned to the supervisor of the department that the record is currently assigned to. Supervisor reassignments will only be successful if the Supervisor field of the Department record contains a valid CATSWeb Employee Name. When this option is enabled, the entries for Reassign to Department and Reassign to Employee are ignored.
  • Parent Record Assignee - This option applies only to Subtasks. Check the box to cause the subtask to be automatically reassigned to the assignee of the parent record. For example, a Subtask created for an Action will automatically be reassigned to the person assigned the Action. When this option is enabled, the entries for Reassign to Department and Reassign to Employee are ignored.
  • Employee Below - Record will be reassigned to the specific Employee/Department specified in the Reassign to Department and Reassign to Employee fields.
• Reassign to Department - Select the Department to reassign the record to when Reassign To = Employee Below.
• Reassign to Employee - Select the Employee to reassign the record to when Reassign To = Employee Below. The Employee selected must be a member of the Department selected above.
• Due Date Increment - When the rule reassigns the record, it can automatically increment or decrement the due date. For example, if a rule is defined to run when a task is 2 days late, it might be desirable to extend the due date by 3 days to give the new assignee 1 day to complete the task. Enter positive values to extend the due date forward in time. Enter negative values to subtract days from the due date.
  
  

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• Event Hooks Enabled - Check the box to enable the Rule or Form Event Hooks to be launched during Rules Processing. The Event Hooks must also have the "Active on Rules Processing" checkbox checked.
• Event Hook Type
  • Form Event Hooks - Event Hooks that have been added to the Forms that the Rule applies to will be processed if the “Active on Rules Processing” checkbox on the Event Hook is checked.
  • Rule Event Hooks - Event Hooks that have been added to the Rule will be processed if the “Active on Rules Processing” checkbox on the Event Hook is checked.
• Process Event Hooks
  • On Rule Trigger - Event Hooks will only be launched on selected records that trigger the Rule. The E-mail Notification Message and Automatic Reassignment will also be launched if they are enabled.
  • On Rule Applies To (all records) - Event Hooks will be launched on selected records regardless of whether or not they trigger the Rule. The E-mail Notification Message and Automatic Reassignment are disabled when this setting is selected.
  • Event Hook Only (Only valid on Rule Event Hooks) - Only Event Hooks added to the Rule will be launched. This setting is primarily used for launching an Event Hook that calls an ActiveX DLL. The E-mail Notification Message and Automatic Reassignment are disabled when this setting is selected.

Event Hooks cannot be processed on Signature Request Rules or Rules that apply to Affiliate Routing records.

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