Bookshelf v8.0: About Serialization Rules

Whenever a new case is created, Public Sector can use configured serialization rules to stamp it with a unique, customized serial number. This serial number is generated from a combination of fields in such a way that the numbers are meaningful to an agency. For example, in the case serial number NY-2B-2, the serial number could be used to denote geographic territory (NY—New York) and case category (2B—aggravated assault). The third field (2) is used to uniquely identify the particular case.

Case serialization is also used to hierarchically serialize evidence, leads, and attachments associated with the case. Using the case serial number in the example above, the number generated for an evidence item could be NY-2B-2-3—the item inherits the parent serial number and a suffix code is added to make the item itself unique.

Serial numbers for cases, leads, and evidence are generated automatically as soon as the user has created and saved a new record. In some instances, the user can also choose to generate a serial number by clicking a Serial Number button—an example of this is in the Cases screen > Case List > Attachments view. See Adding Attachments and Notes to Cases for more information.

The Public Sector application provides several rules which can be configured to control the format of serial numbers on cases, leads, and evidence. The out-of-the-box rules are described in Table 6.

Table 6. Serialization Rules
Rule	Description
Case Rule	Determines the serialization of cases. The Case Rule pulls the user's entries from two fields in the Cases screen; Territory and Category. For example, if the user selects New York as the territory for the case, the category code NY is included as part of the generated case serial number. The information from these two user interface fields is stored in the HLS Case business component's Territory Code and Category Code fields. The Case Counter attribute type is also selected for this rule to add incremental numbers at the end of the serial number. See Serialization Rule Attribute Types for more information. By default, the HLS Case business object is serialized as the parent object—the Case Rule is the parent rule for all the other rules. See Parent and Child Serialization Rules for more information. This rule is triggered as soon as the user successfully saves a new case record.
Case Lead Rule	Determines the serialization of leads associated with a case. This rule is a child of the parent Case Rule. It is triggered as soon as the user successfully creates a new lead record, a task which includes selecting an associated case.
Case Evidence Rule	Determines the serialization of evidence associated with a case. This rule is a child of the parent Case Rule. It is triggered as soon as the user successfully creates a new evidence record, a task which includes selecting an associated case.
Case Attachment Rule	Determines the serialization of attachments to case records. This rule is a child of the parent Case Rule. It is triggered as soon as the user clicks the Serial Number button on the Cases screen > Case List > Attachments view. See Adding Attachments and Notes to Cases for more information.
Evidence Attachment Rule	Determines the serialization of attachments to evidence records. This rule is a child of the parent Case Rule. It is triggered as soon as the user clicks the Serial Number on the Evidence screen > Evidence List > Attachments view.
Lead Attachment Rule	Determines the serialization of attachments to lead records. This rule is a child of the parent Case Rule. It is triggered as soon as the user clicks the Serial Number on the Leads screen > Lead List > Attachments view.
Lead Sub-Lead Rule	Determines the serialization of leads associated with a parent lead. This rule is a child of the parent Case Rule. It is triggered as soon as the user successfully creates a new sublead record, a task which includes selecting an associated case. The user performs this task in the Leads screen > Lead List > Sub-Lead view.

Parent and Child Serialization Rules

Parent rules are rules generated from serialization on an independent business object and component. This means that the serial number generated by the rule is unaffected by the serial numbers generated by any other rules. By default, the Case Rule is the parent rule for the serialization rules provided with the Public Sector application. See Table 6 for a description of the Case Rule.

Parent rules can have several child rules. Child rules include serial numbers already generated for their parent rules. For example, the Case Attachment rule is configured so that it begins with the serial number generated by the Case Rule—its first attribute type is Parent Serial Number. See Serialization Rule Attribute Types for more information.

About Editing the Default Serialization Rules

Public Sector provides you with several out-of-the-box rules which you can modify to suit your organization's requirements. It is also possible to create new rules to change how serialization is performed. See Adding New Serialization Rules for more information.

If you modify the default rule values to pull information from different fields, users must make sure that they enter all the information required to generate the serial numbers. For example, you change the Case Rule to include the Sub-Status value in the serial number instead of the Category Code. Unless the user enters a value in the Sub-Status field, an error message is displayed, stating that a serial number cannot be generated for the case because one of the fields required is empty. Error messages are not displayed if you leave the rules as they are because Public Sector fills in default values to the required fields so that they are not left empty.

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