Controlling Dynamic Changes to Forms

Use the Dynamic Defaults tab of the Edit Step dialog box to set the value of one property based on the value the user selects for another property. For example, using dynamic defaults, if the user sets the Severity of a change request to High, the value of Responsibility can be set to Jack automatically.

For each property in the property list, you can place one or more of its values in the When Equals Value list. The value <otherwise> substitutes for any values not explicitly specified in the When Equals Values list.

For each value in the list, you can specify one or more other properties and the values to which they should be set. For example, suppose you add Severity to the Property list. While it is selected, you add High and Low to the When Equals Value list. While High is selected, you add Responsibility/Jack as the property/value pair to the Assign Values To Other Properties list. While Low is selected, you add Responsibility/Jill and a Short Comment “As time permits” to the Assign Values To Other Properties list.

The result is that when a user sets the Severity to High, the Responsibility property is automatically set to Jack. When the user sets the Severity to Low, the Responsibility is automatically set to Jill and the Short Comment property becomes “As time permits”.

A common use of dynamic defaults is to set a revision comment for the revision created at each step. For example, when the workflow control property for a change request is set to “1. New”, the comment can be set to “Status: 1. New”. Users can then see the steps in the history pane when they select the item in the application and review the revision comments.

The user can change the settings created by dynamic defaults. The idea is that, normally, these are changes that the user would be making and, therefore, setting them dynamically saves the user time.

You cannot use a date/time property as the triggering field for a dynamic default.

To set properties based on the user’s changes to other properties:

1. Double-click an existing step. The Edit Step dialog box opens.
2. Click the Dynamic Defaults tab.
3. Select a property that the user would be expected to change at this step:
   1. Click the Add button beneath the Property list. The Select Property dialog box opens.
   2. Select the property.
   3. Click OK to return to the Dynamic Defaults tab.
   4. Select the property from the Property list. The <otherwise> value appears in the When Equals Value list.

4. Select a value to which the user might set the selected property:

   1. Click the Add button beneath the When Equals Value list. The Select Condition Value dialog box opens (which can vary depending on

      the type of the selected property). Select one of the following:

      • A specific value for this property from the Value list. For example, if the property is Severity, you might select High. If the user changes Severity to High, dynamic changes will occur.
      • Another property of the same type from the Value Of Property list. If the user changes the selected property so that it matches the value of this property, dynamic changes will occur. For example, if the selected property is Severity, an enumerated field, only enumerated properties appear in the Value Of Property list. If the user selects High for the Severity property and this property, for example, the Priority property, is also set to High, then the dynamic changes will occur. These same changes would also occur if the both the Severity and Priority properties were set to Low.
      • The current user (available for user ID properties).
      • None (available for enumerated types that have an empty value).
   2. Click OK to return to the Dynamic Defaults tab. The selected value or the property to be matched appears in the When Value Equals list.

5. Specify a dynamic change:

   1. Select the value in the When Value Equals list.
   1. Click the Add button beneath the Assign Values To Other Properties list. The Select Property and Value to Assign dialog box opens.
   2. Select a property (such as Responsibility) to be changed and the value (such as Jack) to which it should be set. This dialog varies depending on the type of the property. The property types are User ID, Date/Time and Enumerated.
   3. Click OK to return to the Dynamic Defaults tab. The property to be changed and its value appear in the Property and Value columns of the Assign Values To Other Properties list.
6. (Optional) Repeat step 5 for other dynamic changes to be made if the property selected from the Property list has the value selected from the When Value Equals list.
7. (Optional) Repeat steps 4 through 5 for other values of the property selected from the Property list.
8. (Optional) Repeat steps 3 through 5 for other properties.
9. Click OK or another tab.

If you use the workflow control property in the Dynamic Defaults tab, avoid confusion by never using it as a property to be changed. That is, avoid placing the workflow control property in the columns entitled Assign values to other properties. When you use the workflow control property in the leftmost column (the Property column), always set it to the value that corresponds to the step. Otherwise it will be ignored. For example, in the step “5. Testing”, you can set dynamic defaults for the workflow control property when it has the value “5. Testing”. If your dynamic defaults specifies a change to the Comment field (for example to “Workflow Status is 5. Testing”), that comment would appear in the history for the item and indicate which revisions had that status.

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