Considerations for configuring advanced UI rules

Well-designed UI rules require some planning. This topic provides some guidelines to help you construct useful UI rules that do not have unwanted results.

Considerations for configuring advances UI rules

Pay attention to the following when configuring advanced UI rules:

Consideration Details
Consider all possible events and negative cases

  • Make sure you handle what happens when the page is loaded, when field values change, when the page is saved, and so on.

  • If you set up a rule to be triggered whenever a field contains a particular value, make sure you handle what happens when the field is changed to a different value. You may need additional rules for that.
Consider field security and dependencies

  • If you set a field as required based on a specific value in another field, you must ensure that you set the field as not required for other possible field values.

  • If you enable only one user to view or edit a field by using the field level security, make sure you don't enable other users to view or edit the field by UI rules.

  • If a field's Display attribute is set to No or the field is set to be invisible by its status dependency, you cannot make it visible on the Web UI by using UI rules.
Pay attention to the field validations
  • If you configure SQL rules to set values for auto-complete lists, make sure that you only set valid values.

  • PPM uses #@# as a separator. Make sure that:

    • Values used in SQL rules do not contain & or #@#.

    • SQL rules do not contain #@#.

  • The Dependencies field supports these validations: Text field, Auto-complete list, Drop-down list, and Date field (short, medium, and long)

  • The validations supported in the Results field. For details, see Validations supported in Results field.

Validations supported in Results field

The Results field supports the following validations:

Rule

Validation

setFieldRequired1

setFieldEditable2

setFieldVisible3

setFieldStyle

 selectAll unselectAll

Text field

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

 Not supported Not supported

Text area

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

 Not supported Not supported

Auto-complete list

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

 Not supported Not supported

Drop-down list

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

 Not supported Not supported
Check box Yes Yes Yes Not supported Yes Yes

Radio buttons

Yes

Yes

Yes

Not supported

 Not supported Not supported

Date field

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

 Not supported Not supported

Web address (URL)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

 Not supported Not supported

Link

Yes

Not supported

Yes

Not supported

 Not supported Not supported

Password

Yes

Yes

Yes

Not supported

 Not supported Not supported

Attachment

Yes

Not supported

Yes

Not supported

 Not supported Not supported

Table component

Yes

Not supported

Not supported

Not supported

 Not supported Not supported

Staffing profile

Yes

Not supported

Yes

Not supported

 Not supported Not supported

1. setFieldRequired UI rule does not work for the above validations when the Display attribute in the field property is set to No or the Visible attribute in Status Dependencies is set to No.

2. setFieldEditable UI rule does not work for the above validations when

  • Display Only attribute in the field property is set to Yes, or
  • Display attribute in the field property is set to No, or
  • Visible attribute in Status Dependencies is set to No, or
  • Editable attribute in Status Dependencies is set to No.

3. setFieldVisible UI rule does not work for the above validations when the Display attribute in the field property is set to No or the Visible attribute in Status Dependencies is set to No.

    

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Considerations for configuring rules in table component

Note the following considerations when you configure SQL rules and/or UI rules for table component:

  • Set Process subsequent rules? option to Yes or No for different validations.

  • Dependencies field is not required for Apply on creation rule event, but required for Apply on field change rule event.

  • Dependencies field supports the following validations:

    • Text field

    • Auto-complete list

    • Drop-down list

    • Date field (short, medium, and long)

  • Results field supports the following validations:

    • Text field

    • Text area

    • Auto-complete list

    • Drop-down list

    • Radio buttons (yes/no)

    • Date field (short, medium, and long)

    • Web Address (URL)

    • Link

  • UI rules support the following JavaScript functions:

    • setFieldRequired ()

    • setFieldEditable ()

    • setFieldVisible ()

    • showMessage ()

    • setFieldStyle ()

      Note: To modify CSS styles, locate and access the RequestRulesUserCSS.css file in the following directory: /opt/ppm/[instance name]/server/[instance name]/deploy/itg.war/web/knta/crt/css/.

    For more information about these JavaScript functions, see Predefined JavaScript Functions (Advanced Rules Only) or access the Request Rules JavaScript Function Help by clicking the icon next to the Logic field in Rules window of the Validations Workbench.

  • You can set table component as a dependency to trigger request type rules.

  • When using SQL rule(s) on text field with Apply on creation rule event, make sure not to use strings "~^~^~" and/or "~&~&~" in any text field as they are reserved.

  • When SQL rule(s) with Apply on creation rule event are triggered to override default value of a table component column, the default value may still display for a very short period of time (say 0.5 second) due to server speed.

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Limitations

Pay attention to the following limitations when configuring advanced UI rules:

  • Rules can be executed on the printable version of Request Details, but with the following limitations:

    • Only SQL rules and the setFieldVisible() UI rule are executed.

    • Only the Apply on page load rule event is supported.

    • The printable version should be opened from the request details page instead of by entering the URL address directly.

  • If you use special commands, for example, ksc_store, in a workflow execution step to change a field value, it does not trigger rules.

  • SQL for Hierarchical Display (tree validation) now supports resolving such static tokens as [SYS.USERNAME] and [SYS.USER_ID]. Other types of tokens, such as Request Details or Context related tokens, are not supported.

  • If a request contains a rule that uses KNTA_MULTI.Find_User_full_names([SYS.USER_ID]) from sys.dual, you cannot save the request, or remove associated entities from the request. . Use KNTA_MULTI.Find_UserNames([SYS.USER_ID]) from sys.dual instead.

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