What is it?
Trigger Types describe the action that will be performed by the system after a user clicks on an action button. You can combine all Trigger Types which allows you to, for example, create a rating, then change the phase of an Element, then send a notification to users. The limitations of workflow trigger types for Convert Entity and Enrichment are that these can not be combined and that the URL trigger type can also not be combined with any other trigger.
Find more about the following trigger types:
- Phase Change,
- Workflow status change,
- Value change,
- Value add,
- Comment,
- Enrichment,
- Notification,
- Rating,
- Convert entity,
- Date Value Change, and
- URL
How does it work?
Phase Change
If the Workflow is activated for an Entity, the Elements that belong to that Entity are always connected to a Workflow Field. This is usually represented as Phases and/or Gates.
The workflow is then visualized as a pearl chain on the Elements’ detail page.
The Phase Change trigger type defines which workflow step the Element will be changed to. The Element can move forward linearly, but also skip a workflow step or move back one or several steps. On the detail page of an Element, the workflow steps are visualized as the pearl chain.
Workflow status change
The Workflow status change trigger type defines which visual status indicator on the pearl chain the current phase should/will get after the action button is clicked.
- Pending: The current phase will be colored in gray.
- Active: The current phase will be colored in the system color.
- Done: The current phase will be highlighted with a green checkmark symbol.
- Canceled: The current phase will be highlighted with a red cross symbol.
In the example above, the first four phases are marked as Done and the current phase “Scale” is marked as Active.
Value change
The Value change trigger type defines which value of a specific data point should be set automatically. Here, you can choose a dropdown list field and a respective value.
In this example, you will change the Health Status to Critical.
Value add
The Value add trigger type defines which pre-configured single value or multiple values shall be added to a multi-select field automatically. Here, you can choose from multi-select list fields to append values.
Comment
You can use the Comment trigger type to create publicly visible comments or to share a comment with selected Users, User Groups, Roles, Business Units, and/or User Search Fields.
Enrichment
You can use the Enrichment trigger type to add or change specific information in different phases or stages. You can select kinds of fields and group fields from the Enrichment dropdown field. Note that you can also select individual fields used in a group field, but then not select the underlying group field in the same enrichment trigger, and vice versa.
To specify how the fields that you just selected should be displayed and placed in the pop-up window (Form), click Save in the Button Configuration. In the overview of all configured action buttons, locate the Enrichment button (in this case Add Project Details) that you just created and click the Form Configuration action icon.
Note: If you want to get specific information or get certain fields filled out at a later stage, do not include the relevant fields in the general View/Edit configuration of that Entity. Those fields will then only be enriched via action buttons.
Notification
You can use the Notification trigger type to send predefined or custom emails to the Creator, Users, User Groups, Roles, Business Units, and/or User Search Fields.
If you mark Manual Message options with Yes, the following pop-up window will appear when clicking the respective action button.
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There are 3 options to select (1)
- Send default notification if you want to send the default text that is stored in the email template to the predefined recipients.
- Send custom notification if you want to edit the Subject (2), the Message (3), the language (4), or the recipient list. You can also show and hide the tokens that can be used in the custom Message.
Rating
You can use the Rating trigger type to set ratings in specific phases or gates, but also only allow certain users to rate (only those who have access to the Rating button).
Note: You can select General Rating criteria but also Rating Groups. This can help for example if specific rating criteria should be rated by selected experts and other rating criteria by the management only.
Convert entity
You can use the Convert entity trigger type to easily convert one entity into another.
Destination Entity is the element type to which you want to convert the Source Entity (1)
Select what happens with the original element (Source) after conversion (2)
- Archive source entity
- Keep both entities in the system
- Delete source entity
Select several options that should be taken over to the Destination entity (3)
- Take over relations
- Take over references (file attachments)
- Create relation to the source entity
- Take over ratings
- Take over the creator of the source entity
After clicking the Save button, you can configure the Field mapping. Open the Mapping tab and click on the Edit action icon.
- In the Mapping tab you find a table with two columns that lists the fields of the Source Entity and lists the fields of the Destination Entity (1) (2)
- Select the fields from the Source Entity (1) and map them to the matching ones in the Destination Entity (2)
- A cross symbol is shown at the end of each row. By clicking it, the field mapping in that row will be removed (3)
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If you map dropdown fields, an additional Field Mapping button will be shown below the Destination Entity. Click this button to open another Field Mapping popup where all dropdown values can be mapped individually.
Note: This also applies to Ratings (4) - With the Add more fields (5) button you can add additional fields
Note: You cannot map all field types to each other. For example, you cannot map dropdown fields to text fields, rich text fields not to single-line input fields or multiple-selection dropdown fields to single-selection dropdown fields.
Note: Convert Entity can be combined with Phase Change, Workflow status change, Value Change, Comment, Notification, Rating, Date Value Change. However, Convert Entity cannot be combined only with Enrichment trigger type.
Date Value Change
You can use the Date Value Change trigger to change the date of a Date Picker field easily.
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You can use the Date Value Change trigger to change the date of a Date Picker field easily:
- Select the Trigger Type Date Value Change.
- In the Select the Date Value Change Field, select the Date Picker field which you want to change. In the screenshot, the Review Date field is selected.
- Define the Date Value Change Option to one of the following options. The date will be changed after clicking the button:
- Current Date
- Current Date +1d
- Current Date +3d
- Current Date +1w
- Current Date +2w
- Current Date +1m
- Current Date +3m
- Current Date +6m
URL
You can use the URL trigger link to any external or internal website. This trigger enables you to link for example to a SharePoint site, blogs, a specific Knowledge Base article or within ITONICS to a specific site, for example to a custom tab with KPIs or the Radar.
Note: The URL trigger can not be combined with any other workflow trigger.