Configuring conditional validation and conditional edition on a process grid field
This article describes the procedure to be followed in order to define a validation condition on a field in a process grid and to define conditional editability based on a condition. The conditional validation mechanism enables you to define a behavior related to data entry in process grids. The conditional edition
Defining a Validation Condition
The definition of validation conditions is performed in the Admin Portal interface of the beqom application, under the (Undefined variable: CompoVariables_AP.Design). This article assumes that you have already created your process and performed the basic configuration steps of the process design.
To configure a validation condition on a process field, proceed as follows:
In the (Undefined variable: CompoVariables_AP.Design), open the process that you want to configure, and then navigate to Setup > Conditional Validation.
In the grid containing all the available fields in the process, click the field on which you want to setup a validation condition. A secondary panel is displayed under the grid, as illustrated in the following figure:
Start defining your validation condition using the text field and the calculator. You can add other process fields by clicking the Add to button at the right of the field record in the grid. You can also define a complex condition using multiple criteria and the AND and OR operators.
Click the green tick in the toolbar located at the bottom of panel to check that your validation condition is valid.
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Open the "Action when false" tab and configure the behavior of the field when the condition is not met:
Allow saving/Do not allow saving: determine whether or not the user can save the value(s) entered in the field if the defined validation condition is not met.
Show warning message: define whether a message should be displayed to the user if their entry does not meet the criteria of the validation condition. You can use the text field to define the warning message that you want users to see.
Show warning on change: define whether the defined warning message should be displayed when the field is edited. This option is available only when the Show warning message box is enabled.
Use field style: check this box if you want to apply a specific formatting to the process field when the criteria of the validation condition are not met. Upon checking this box, the Text color, Border color and Background color become available, as well as the Reset default and Preview buttons.
Click the save icon in the toolbar at the bottom of panel.
Open the "Action when true" tab.
Check the Use field style in order to apply a specific formatting to the process field when the validation condition is met. Upon checking this box, the Text color, Border color and Background color become available, as well as the Reset default and Preview buttons.
This is an attention message.
The formatting that you define for the field is applied only when using the process in the Admin Portal interface. When using the process in the Web App interface, the formatting of the field when the validation condition is not met is conditioned by whether or not the user can save a value. If the user can save (i.e. the Allow saving option is selected), then an orange warning icon is displayed at the left of the field and the border or the input field is orange. If the user is not allowed to save (i.e. the Do not allow saving option is selected), a red warning icon is displayed at the left of the field and the border of the input field is red.
Disabling Client-Side Validation
Once a validation condition has been configured for a process field, the field is always validated client-side (i.e. in the application interface) after a cell is edited in the process grid. In addition, the system checks the initial value of the cell and highlights the cell if the condition is not met. In other words, the system always applies the conditional validation on the process field.
It is however possible to disable the client-side validation. When the client-side validation is disabled, the warning message and the color formatting of the field will not be displayed in the user interface. Additionally, the values in the field will not be controlled against the condition by the client either initially or at edition. In effect, the conditional validation is performed in the application back-end, but none of the results are displayed in the application interface.
This feature is mainly used to define complex validation conditions that apply to the same field.
This is an note/information message.
The enabling/disabling of the validation on client-side is available only for Web App.
To disable the conditional validation on client-side, proceed as follows:
On the database side, open the k_m_plans_field_validation table and locate the field for which you want to define conditional editability.
Set the value of the enable_client_side_validation column to 0 (false).
This is an note/information message.
The default value of the enable_client_side_validation column is 1 (true) and the column is not nullable.
Configuring Conditional Editability on a Process Field
Conditional editability enables you to specify that a field should not be editable if the condition defined on another process field is not met. This is a security mechanism that forces users to stay within the boundaries defined for the process.
This is an attention message.
Conditional editability is available only for Web App. Any conditional editability configuration will be ignored if the process is used in Admin Portal.
Operating Principle
The operating principle for the conditional editability is the following: consider a process grid with Field A and Field B. A validation condition is defined on Field A indicating that Field B should be more than 100. If conditional editability is put in place in the database for Field A, then if a value <100 is entered in Field B, then Field A is not editable.
This is a warning message.
When the conditional editability is configured on a field and the criteria of the validation condition are met, certain parts of the conditional validation logic are no longer operational, namely:
The warning message is not displayed
The user cannot be prevented from saving
The cell formatting (color) is not applied
Configuring Conditional Editability on a Process Field
To enable the conditional editability on a process field, proceed as follows:
Configure the validation condition that should be met for the field to be editable (see Defining a Validation Condition, above) in the Admin Portal interface.
On the database side, open the k_m_plans_field_validation table and locate the field for which you want to define conditional editability.
Set the value of the action_false_allow_editing column to 0 (false).
This is an note/information message.
The default value of the action_false_allow_editing column is 1 (true) and the column is not nullable.