REQUEST A DEMO

How To Customize the Clarify Rule Properties form to support function-based Rule Properties

Recently I discussed function-based rule properties, which allow you to add your own code for calculating a rule property value.

I was asked last week about these – specifically, what if you’re using Dovetail Rulemanager, but not using Dovetail Agent. How do you define these properties?

clarify-form-header

 

Background

The property can be defined as a function using the Rule Property UI within Dovetail Agent.

But if you’re not using Dovetail Agent, but you are using Dovetail Rulemanager, you can still take advantage of these.

Rule properties are stored in table_prop_name. There is a new custom field named x_is_function that defines this property as a function. If set to 1, this property will be evaluated as a function. If set to 0 (default), it will not be.

So you can simply create your rule property as normal, then you just need to set the x_is_function column to 1 for that property.

You can do this using a DAT file, using SQL, or using Dovetail Admin.

Or, you can do a simple Clarify customization, which I’ll cover here.

 

Clarify Customization

The Clarify Client provides a form for managing rule properties. We can simply customize that form, adding in controls for the new x_is_function field.

While I’m here, I’ll also add in controls for the x_description field and the x_is_canned_response field. (More details on canned responses can be found here)

  1. Open up form 15250 in UI Editor
  2. Save it with a new user version.
  3. Add that user version to the appropriate resource configuration.
  4. Add a checkbox for Is Function, pointing to the x_is_function field on the recPropName contextual object.
  5. Add a checkbox for For Canned Response, pointing to the x_for_canned_response field on the recPropName contextual object.
  6. Add a multi-line text box for the Description, pointing to the x_description field on the recPropName contextual object.
  7. Save the form

 

edit-form-15250

 

Bonus:

Add these 3 columns to the clbPropName grid as well:

edit-grid-15250

 

Test it

  1. Start the Clarify Client
  2. Apps – Policies and Customers
  3. Setup – Rule Properties

 

PropertyName

 

Looking at the form, we can see:

  • checkboxes for Is Function and For Canned Response
  • Description text area
  • Is Function, For Canned Response, and Description columns in the grid

That’s it. Pretty simple.

 

DAT file

And in case you didn’t want to go through this exercise on your own, I’ve exported my form as a DAT file, so you simply import it into your database using dataex, DIET, or UI Editor.

Get it here: https://gist.github.com/gsherman/955cb728637b915811cf4a10d9456857

 

Summary

I’m super excited about these function-based rule properties.

I’m not super excited about using UI Editor and the Clarify Client, but I do understand that there are customers who still do, and I’d love for them to be able to take advantage of this new capability within Rulemanager. So for y’all – I’m willing to suck it up and do a little Clarify customization. Smile

We already have customers who have created their own custom rule properties, and are using it in production. In fact, because of this, one customer reported that they were able to consolidate over 200 business rules down to about 60. That’s HUGE!

As always, if you have any questions, need assistance, or just want to rap about Clarify/Dovetail stuff – don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m happy to help.

Rock on.

 

Dig This?

Sign up to get information like this delivered right to your inbox.