Objects in the Null State

If the knowledge base contains records that were created before the rule base for that record type was activated, those records are considered to be in a null state.

This means that the records will not be processed by the rule base when they are next edited, unless you move them into an active state in the rule base. Records might also need to be reassigned to an active state if you delete the state where they previously existed, so that the rule base will process them when they are updated.

If records associated with the rule base are in a null state when you activate the rule base, you will see a message similar to:

Move the 114362 contacts in state with ID value of Null to ____

You can then click the drop-down list to select the state where the records should be assigned.

The records you move to an active state are not processed by the rule base just because you move them to a new state. However, they will be processed the next time they are edited, unless they remain in the Null state or a state that has been deleted. In those cases, they will never be processed.

Note: If you have deleted escalation levels when editing a rule base, you must also select new values for those levels. If you select Null to replace the existing escalation level value, pending escalations are deleted and the objects are not escalated. See Rules for Escalation of Answers, Incidents, Opportunities, and Tasks.