Bookshelf v7.5: Assignment Rule Sequencing

Assignment Manager can evaluate assignment rules in a specified sequence. When you assign sequence numbers to assignment rules, Assignment Manager evaluates those rules in that sequence in ascending order. Assignment rule sequencing provides a means for you to prioritize the rules that apply to any given assignment object by order of importance, thereby limiting the number of rules that Assignment Manager checks for assignment.

If none of the rules have a sequence number, or if all of the rules have the same sequence number, then Assignment Manager processes all the rules. However, if some of the rules in the group have sequence numbers and other rules do not, the rules with no specified sequence number are considered to have a sequence number of 0 and are evaluated first. Therefore, you should give every rule a sequence number if you use sequencing.

Assignment Manager can also evaluate, at periodic intervals in the sequence, whether or not an item has been assigned; and if it has, Assignment Manager stops evaluating the rest of the rules in that sequence. The sequences are specified in segments so that Assignment Manager can pause between segments to find out whether assignment has been made, as shown in Table 5. When a rule results in successful assignment, Assignment Manager processes the rest of the rules having the same sequence number and then stops processing. Subsequently, the rules with higher sequence numbers do not get processed.

Assignment Manager identifies the beginning and end of a segment within a sequence by the change in sequence number. For example, Assignment Manager first evaluates rules with a sequence number of 1, then evaluates rules with a sequence number of 2, and so on. It does not matter, however, how rules within a segment are evaluated.

At runtime, Assignment Manager evaluates the rules in the first segment (Segment 1) first, then stops to find out whether an assignment has been made. If it has assigned, Assignment Manager does not continue. If it has not assigned, then Assignment Manager continues to the next sequence (Segment 2).

Table 5. Example of a Rule Sequence
Segment	Assignment Rule	Sequence #
1	Assign Sales Rep West	1
	Assign Sales Rep North	1
	Assign Sales Rep East	1
2	Assign Sales Rep West	2
2	Assign Sales Rep North	2
3	Assign Sales Rep West	3
	Assign Sales Rep North	3
	Assign Sales Rep East	3

If Assignment Manager is running with multiple groups loaded into memory, each with its own sequence, then Assignment Manager evaluates the rules as if they are part of one big group with one sequence.

For example, if there are two groups loaded by the same Assignment Manager instance with the sequences shown in the following table:


Group A	Group B
1	1
1	1
1	2
2	2
2	3
3	3
3	3

Sequence numbers can be assigned to assignment rules when creating new assignment rules or can be added to assignment rules at a later time. For more information about assignment rules, see Defining Assignment Rules.