Clarify Rule Manager: The Final Answer
Clarify Rule Manager, and Dovetail RuleManager, are the all-important modules that manage the business rules such as when to escalate an open case to the next level of response. Being able to work with Rule Manager is crucial of course, and questions arise from time to time.
One conversation about Rule Manager and Time Bombs in the ITtoolbox forums lasted for six years. Started in August 2000 with a question about time bomb errors, the thread finally ended (or so it seems) last year, when Dovetail Software, experts in the Clarify install, supplied the last word.
“When a rule changes via the Clarify classic client, Clarify creates a timebomb with the title of the rule and the flag of 131076 (0×20004). No other information on the timebomb are relevant (relations are all null, the times are the zero time, etc.). This timebomb is generated when even something as minor as the description on the rule has changed.
“Unfortunately the information is not quite enough to load in just the rule and actions that might have changed. Rule title is not enforced to be unique in the database (it is only enforced to be unique in the same rule set). As a result Clarify’s RuleManager dumps and reloads all rules and actions when it sees the timebomb.
“Similarly, when an employee changes in Clarify, Clarify creates a timebomb with the login name of the employee and the flag of 65540 (0×10004). No other information on the timebomb are relevant (relations are all null, the times are the zero time, etc.). This timebomb is generated when even something as minor as the description on the rule has changed.” – Clarify Rule Manager and Time Bombs
More information about how Clarify’s Rule Manager works is accumulating lately in Dovetail VP of Services and Support Gary Sherman’s blog: posts on Clarify Rule Manager and Dovetail RuleManager
