Working With Task Rules

Task rules affect task behavior. These rules enable users to assign rules directly to tasks when assigning rules isn’t appropriate at the Template, Schedule, or Task Type level. Rules apply to the tasks for which the rules were configured.

Available task rules:

  • Auto Approve Task: Automatically completes specified approvals only if specified conditions have been met.

    Examples of conditions that could apply to this rule include:

    • Attributes have specified values (including calculated attributes)
    • Predecessor task contains an attribute with a specified value

    When conditions are satisfied, the specified approver levels are marked as complete, thus progressing workflow to the next approval level, or to Closed if no additional approval levels exist.

    This rule runs when the Task status changes to Open with Approver.

  • Auto Submit Task - Automatically submits a task if specified conditions are met.

    When conditions are satisfied, the assignee role is marked as complete, thus progressing workflow to the first approval level, or to Closed if no approval levels exist.

    This rule runs when the Task status changes from Pending to Open with Assignee.

  • Prevent Task Approval: Prevents approval of a task based on attribute values, or other characteristics. This rule runs when the Approver clicks Approve or when the approver clicks Actions > Update.
  • Prevent Task Submission: Prevents submission of a task based on attribute values, or other characteristics. This rule runs when the Assignee clicks Submit or when the assignee clicks Actions > Update.
  • Prevent Task Rejection: This rule prevents rejection of a task based on attribute values, or other characteristics. This rule runs when the Assignee clicks Submit or when the assignee clicks Actions > Update.
  • Send Email on Update: This rule runs based on user actions on the task. Hence, you must set the conditions for the rule appropriately. The most common condition is to have a condition with the Status attribute or the Status Detailed attribute:
    • Status attribute: The only valid value that you can select is Closed. Pending, Open, and Error are all statuses that result from automated actions on the task.
    • Status Detailed attribute: The valid statuses are with the approver.

    The rule runs when a user using the task action dialog:

    • Claims, releases, submits, approves, rejects, reopens, force-starts, or force-closes a task
    • Updates an attribute value
    • Answers a question
    • Adds a comment
    • Deletes a comment
    • Adds a reference attachment

To work with task rules:

  1. On the Home page, click Tasks, and then Scheduled Tasks Schedule Tasks.
  2. Open a task.
  3. Click the Rules tab. You can view the following information:

    • Order: The order of precedence.

    • Rule: Name of the rule.

    • Conditions: The choice of what conditions must exist before running the rule.

  4. To create or edit a rule, on the Rules tab, click the New icon New icon or select an existing rule and click the Edit icon Edit icon.
  5. On the Properties tab:

    • Rule: Select a rule.

      Note:

      When you make changes to a rule definition, the additional information is added to the audit log. You can view the changes both in the History tab as well as the Audit Report.

    • Description: Optional. Explain why you configured the rule and how it should be used. You can enter a maximum of 255 characters.

    • Run When: Indicates the events associated with the rule.

    • Approver Level: Select All Levels or select the Approver levels.

  6. On the Filter tab:

    • Select Create Filter and populate the conditions section or select Use Saved Filter, and then select a filter. The filter selected and configured for the rule determines the conditions that trigger the rule to apply.

    • Filter Task: Specify for which task the condition should be selected:

      • Current Task
      • Any Predecessor
      • Specific Task: Provide the Task ID

    • Conditions:

      • Use Saved Filter: The Conditions section displays a read-only version of the conditions associated with the saved filter.

      • Create Filter: The Conditions section is enabled and you can click Create Condition or Create Condition Group to specify conditions.

        Conjunction, Source, Attribute, Operator, and Value behave as they do for the existing advanced filter feature.

  7. See also: