About deleting, deactivating, and disabling rules

For a rule that you no longer want to use with a study, you can delete, deactivate, or disable the rule. The behavior of the rule in the InForm application depends on the action that you choose.

Delete —Removes the rule from the study. Deleted rules are not validated or deployed to the InForm application.
- If you deploy to an InForm release prior to release 6.1.1, the rule is not deleted in the InForm application.
- If you deploy to InForm release 6.1.1 or later, the InForm application marks the rule as Inactive when you deploy your study. The rule does not appear in the InForm user interface.
Note: If you deactivate a rule in any release of the InForm application after deployment, it is not deleted in the Central Designer application. As a result, if you do not delete, deactivate, or disable the rule in the Central Designer application, the next time you deploy the study, the rule is deployed to the InForm application in the Active state.
Deactivate —Retains the rule in the database, but prevents the rule from running in the InForm application. Deactivating a rule also allows you suspend execution of the rule on a temporary basis.
- Deactivated rules are:
  - Validated in the Central Designer application.
  - Deployed to the InForm application in the Inactive state.
  - Run only manually in the InForm application.
Note: To deactivate a rule, set the Evaluate on Event precondition to On demand (batch mode) .
Disable —Allows you to more easily perform testing for a study during a development process in which forms and rules are being developed collaboratively by different users, by viewing the study in the InForm application, without having to validate rules.
Disabling a rule does not prohibit you from performing rule-related tasks, such as editing the rule, and creating and running test cases for the rule. You can successfully run a test case for a single disabled rule. However, if you run more than one rule at a time, the Central Designer application will not run the test cases for disabled rules.
- If you deploy to an InForm release prior to release 6.1.1:
  - Disabled rules are not validated in the Central Designer application.
  - Disabled rules are excluded from the deployment package.
  - A validation warning appears and indicates that the study contains disabled rules.
- If you deploy a study to InForm release 6.1.1 or later:
  - Disabled rules are deployed to the InForm application as read-only.
  - A validation warning appears and indicates that the study contains disabled rules.
Note: If you disable a rule in any release of the InForm application after deployment by marking it Inactive, it is not disabled in the Central Designer application. As a result, if you do not delete, deactivate, or disable the rule in the Central Designer application, the next time you deploy the study, the rule is deployed to the InForm application in the Active state.