Need help with Serena Business Manager TeamTrack - Transition-field attribute question

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bglangston's picture
bglangston asked on March 9, 2011 - 4:36pm | Replies (9).

Background:
A submitter opens an new item. Among all the fields on the form, Field A (unpopulated) is supposed to be visible but Read Only. The user selects the Submit transition and sends the form to the REVIEW state.

In the REVIEW state, Field A must appear as a Required field (that is, it must be populated by the Reviewer).

Question:
How do I make that happen?

I'm not the Mashups Admin, but here's the way he has it set up. Field A appears in the REVIEW state as Read Only.

Reviewer selects a transition. The form cycles. An error message appears that "Field A is required" and Field A appears as editable and required. NOW, the Reviewer can populate Field A. Reviewer then selects the OK button. Apparently this occurs because the attribute is set as "Required on Transition." How do we make it "Required BEFORE Transition."

Thanks for any and all help.

Tags: 
configuration management

9 Answers

jptownsend's picture

Billy,

Here is how this can be accomplished:

The Administrator needs to go to the Workflow Design tool in Mashup Composer and click on the Submit Transition and go to field overrides and set the Field you want to be in Read Only to Read Only.

Then go to the Mashups Admin Tool Click on the Project that controls things, for example if you have a project and sub project, if the project controls the subproject click on the project other wise go to the sub project and click on it. Then Select the Default Fields tab and select the field you want to require and select edit button, then select attributes and click override and then make it a required field. Then it should work.

If this makes no sense send me a email and I can call you.

Regards,

Joe

bglangston's picture

Thanks. But would that not make it a Required field for the submitter as well? Also, after the field leaves the REVIEW state, it should be Read Only for the remainder of the workflow.

By the way, what is the behavioral difference between a Transition Field and a State Field when an item enters a new state and when an item leaves a new state.

Here's what I mean. For a Transitiion field, If a field enters a state as Read Only, but for Transition X to the next state it is Required. In order to access the field, the user must select Transition X, receive the error message, enter the data, and select OK.

Would a State field behave differently?

bglangston's picture

Just one additional statement...Serena's documentation says there are Transition fields and State fields, but says nothing about any differences.

jptownsend's picture

No it would not make it required because you are overriding it in the Submit Transition.

No it would be required because transitions are set individually, so if it was in a future state it would be Required in Transition unless you told it to override that attribute.

There are differences in Transition and State Fields, mainly in the arena of Overriding in the transitions, you cannot override a State field. Sometimes they don't tell you the whole story in Serena documents.

Regards,

Joe

bglangston's picture

So in essence, each type (Transition or State) of field only tells you which attributes are in control?? And the hierarchy of power goes something like this???
State attributes trump all
Transition attributes trump everything else.

Sort of like, Required to "carry an open umbrella when leaving (transition) my house in the rain" gets overridden by your house (state) rule that says "close your umbrella and leave it on the porce before you come inside."
And the default may be "carry an umbrella at all times."
Is that the idea???

jptownsend's picture

Billy,

I believe that is correct. I was able to get my Mashups here to do what you requested below. So I know it can be done. Let me know if you need anything else.

Regards,

Joe

jptownsend's picture

Here is how I think rights work, to make sure we are on the same page.

Fields in the Data Design tool control the attributes of Transitions and State.

If you wish to override that, you can in transition, and you can also override in a State for Updates, which is a type of Transition.

So you can override all States in the Update Transition or any other type of Transition. So with States it is all or nothing.

Regards,

Joe

bglangston's picture

Thanks Joe. I'll pass it along to the admin guy and see if he can do it.

I'm trying to get my boss to let me take the developer and admin courses as I"m really a babe in the woods here. So, one more question. I'm wondering if this is another way.

Set the Transitions default as "Read Only" then make it "Required" as a state-field attribute in the one state where it is required.

I ask because using the Update transition is not much different that cycling the form through Select Transition, form reappears with required field, input data, Select OK.
(This is not very efficient for the user who has to do it.) Put yourself in his place:

User scrolls the form.
Sees no required fields.
Selects the transition (Reviewed or Update).
Receives error message "you didn't fill a required field."
User thinks, "WTH! There were no required fields; I looked!"
User scrolls and uncovers (now) required field.
User thinks, "What's wrong with this thing. That field wasn't required before."
User picks up telephone and calls Help Desk.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.

First, can the above be done (i.e., Read Only as default for transitions and Required for the one state)?
Second, would it require less work than changing all transition attributes to "Read Only." I gotta get into that class.

jptownsend's picture

Billy,

Your Question -"First, can the above be done (i.e., Read Only as default for transitions and Required for the one state)? "

I don't think it can be done that way. Because the Field in the Design is either Read Only, Required or blank meaning its not required. The field controls the whether it is Required or not. The Transition can override the State setting of it being required.

Your Question - Second, would it require less work than changing all transition attributes to "Read Only." I gotta get into that class.

Your going to have to make that change on each transition unfortunately.

Yes the Admin class will help you a lot.

Regards,

Joe

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