Rules, JS, SQL

Form rules, as the name suggests, are rules that define the behavior and appearance of form elements. When working with form rules, there may be a situation where execution of one function or subrule interrupts execution of the entire rule. Consequently, the rest of the rule is not executed. This article provides a detailed description of the reasons for this behavior and a proposal for creating rules so that they work as intended by their author.

Configuration of processes in WEBCON BPS indispensably involves the creation of rules, be it a business rule or a form rule. To optimize the work, it is a good idea to use the keyboard shortcuts available in WEBCON BPS and the keys provided by the operating system. This article describes how to use the keyboard when creating rules.

Setting the requiredness of form fields (or item list columns) depending on changes in values made in other fields is one of the most frequently used functionality of the WEBCON BPS system. In the previous version of the system, such a configuration required the developer to perform configuration activities in several system places. From version 2021.1.4.36, new built-in functions have been enhanced to WEBCON BPS. These functions are used to set the requiredness of fields on the form. They allow you to configure the form in terms of dynamic setting mandatory fields to be completed.

Form rules for attachments in WEBCON BPS allow you to receive information about attachments added to the workflow instances, without the need to know the WFDataAttachments table structure and to use SQL queries. Form rules operating on attachments increase the wide range of form rules available for use in WEBCON BPS and allow for easier retrieval of information about attachments from the form level, without the need to know the WFDataAttachmets table, which stores information about attachments. Rules will be presented using the “Change value of single field” action which has been configured for each rule separately.

WEBCON BPS 2021 introduces the new SELECT VALUES function that allows you to retrieve data from a selected item list column. This function enables saving data from all rows of a given column in a form field indicated in the configuration. Data are saved as a collection separated by semicolons. The function ignores empty values. In this article, we will copy values from the item list to the “Approvers to notify” form field. In this field, we select people who will receive a notification about an instance to be approved.

In the 2021 WEBCON BPS version, business rules were added that make it easier to work with item lists and allow you to color and dynamic style modification of the selected cells. The coloring of the item lists is shown on the example of a process for handling orders in a restaurant. The process has two form fields – Total number of orders and Orders – delivered, and one item list – Orders (that contains all orders). For each order, the Status field is set that informs the employee about the current status of the order.

Read this article to learn what functions are available when creating your business and form rules and how you can use them. The description includes 15 brand-new functions introduced in WEBCON BPS 2021.

In this example, the new functions will be used in business rules. However, you can use the same functions in your form rules. What is more, some functions can be used only in form rules; they are presented at the end of this article. You can also create custom rules by using the SQL COMMAND function or by creating a Plugin business rule.

In WEBCON BPS 2021, the form rules have been enhanced with new functions operating on text such as: CONCAT - combines two or more text strings into one text, SPLIT - splits the provided text into parts, according to a specified separator. The function returns strings separated by the semicolons ‘;’ (default separator). If no separator is found in the provided text, the function will result in one line of text, and INDEX OF – searches the provided text and returns the position where the specified string first occurs. Searching will start from the indicated position; the position of the first character is 1.
This article presents the configuration and operation of the above-mentioned functions on the form created for this purpose.

Nesting business rules in the form rules allow you to refer to data contained in Active Directory or external data sources. This extends the functionality of form rules and allows you to use data outside the form when defining the process logic. By using the business rules, you can create a condition that defines a certain group of users for which the form rule should be executed. By using the function in the “Users” section, you can enter a list of users or groups from Active Directory or defined BPS groups.

WEBCON BPS allows you to specify substitutions for users, which may be defined:
1) Globally – substituting person may perform the substituted person's tasks in all processes with the substitution option turned on.
2) Per process – substitution(s) can be defined per process. It is possible to indicate few substitutes for one user depending on the process in which they have tasks to perform.

The substitute is given a task in the form of substitution for the workflow instances with the active tasks and a possibility to modify them. Permissions are not being substituted. If the user has permissions to modify an instance but they do not have any tasks there, the system will not provide analogical permissions for the substitute.

Substitutions for the historic tasks (tasks already active at the moment of substitution start) are created by the workflow service according to schedule. For new tasks, substitution is created at the moment of assignment.

Starting with BPS version 2019, you can define substitutions on your Portal.