Rules

Administration → Rules is where you tell the product what to do by itself — refuse a status change, set a field, raise a work order, send a notification — and where you find out whether each rule is actually doing it. A rule is a condition over a record, asked at a named moment, with one or more actions that run when it holds.

The rules screen, listing the published rules with what each has matched

Who can use this screen

Writing, publishing and retiring rules takes Configure workflows and rules — System Administrator and Maintenance Administrator by default. Anyone without it sees Rules are configured by an administrator instead of the list. See roles.

The list

Element	What it shows
rules	How many rules exist, in any state
live	How many are published
unevaluable	How many times, across all rules, the server ran a rule and could not read it
Write a rule	Opens the editor for a new rule
How to read this list	A reminder of what the counts on each rule mean

Each rule is a card:

Part of the card	What it means
Name and status pill	Draft, Published or Retired
Description	The line you wrote saying what the rule is for
Register · moment	What the rule is about and when it is asked, for example Work Order · Before a status change
priority	The order rules are asked in
N action(s)	How many actions it carries
matched N · last …	How often the rule has held and done something, and when it last did
unevaluable N	The server ran the rule and could not read it, usually because a field name refers to nothing. It will never match, and nothing else will tell you
live and has never matched	Published, asked, and never once held — either wrong or unnecessary
Edit	Opens the rule in the editor
Publish	Puts a draft live. Refused with Add at least one action before publishing this rule if it has none
Retire	Takes a live rule out of service and keeps its history
Delete (bin icon)	Removes a rule
Show what it has decided	Opens the last twenty times the rule was asked

Unevaluable is the worst of the three. A rule with a mistake in a field name is not switched off and does not look broken — it simply never matches. The count is there so somebody finds out before the notification that stopped arriving is missed.

A rule that refuses a status change does not appear in these counts: refusing rolls back the whole attempt, including the record of the refusal. The person making the move is told at the time instead.

What it has decided

A rule's recent decisions, showing the clause it tested and the value it found

Show what it has decided lists each recent evaluation with its outcome (such as MATCHED), how long ago it ran, and the reasoning clause by clause — what each clause expected and what it actually found, for example antenna.purpose eq “ENTRY” — was “ENTRY”. Nothing recorded yet. means it has not been asked since it was published, or that only matches are being recorded.

Writing a rule

Write a rule opens A new rule; Edit opens Edit this rule.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	What the rule is called in the list	Required
What it is for	A sentence saying why the rule exists	Shown on the card. Optional
About	The register the rule watches	Asset, Inspection, Maintenance occurrence, Software install, Tool, Work order or Work request. Decides which fields the condition and actions offer
Asked	The moment the rule is asked at	See the moments. The hint under the box explains the moment you picked. Default: Before a status change
When it applies	The condition	See the condition. Empty means every event of its kind
What happens	The actions	See the actions. At least one is needed to publish
Priority	A number deciding the order rules are asked in	Default 100
Stop after this one matches	When this rule holds, no further rules are asked for that record and moment	Off by default
Record every time it is asked	Keeps a line for every evaluation, not just the matches	Useful while working out why a rule is not firing; noisy afterwards
Try it against a real record	Runs the rule against a record you name	See trying it
Save as draft / Cancel	Saves the rule without putting it live, or closes the editor	Save as draft waits while any clause has no field chosen: “Choose a field for every clause before saving. A clause with no field never matches, so the rule would look configured and never fire.”

The moments

Moment	When it is asked	Can it block?
Before a status change	Before a move is written	Yes — blocking refuses the move
After a status change	Once the move has happened	Blocking undoes the change
When a record is created	After the record exists, so it can set fields on it	Blocking means the record is never created
When a record is saved	After a change is written	Blocking undoes the save
When a meter reading lands	A manual or handset reading is recorded. Sensor readings are not included	—
When a tagged thing arrives	An RFID reader sees a tag that had not been there. Carries the tag, the antenna and the place	No
When a tagged thing leaves	A tag has not been seen for long enough to count as gone — also raised when the reader itself has died	—
When a GPS tracker goes quiet	A tracker has not called for longer than its own offline window. Raised once per silence	—
When a GPS tracker loses power	The vehicle’s supply to the tracker fell away	—
When a GPS tracker is unplugged	The tracker reports being taken off its connector	—
When a GPS tracker’s battery runs low	Its backup battery is low; the reading is the percentage left	—
When somebody presses SOS	The tracker’s panic button. One held press is one alert	—
When a BLE tag’s battery runs low	An indoor tag’s battery is below its own threshold, once per low battery; the reading is the percentage left	—
When somebody presses a BLE tag’s button	A press of the tag’s button	—
When no gateway hears a BLE tag	A tag has not been heard for longer than its own silence window. Raised once per silence	—
When an asset is reported missing	Once the asset is in its missing status, however it got there. Carries what happened, when it was last seen and the reference — the condition can read What happened, Missing report — reference and Status before it went missing	No
When a missing asset is found	Once it has left the missing status for anything but retirement or disposal. Carries who found it and the status it came back in — the condition can read Who found it	No
When software is found on a device	A discovery scan finds software that had not been there. Carries the product, publisher, policy, device and asset	No

The GPS tracker, BLE tag and missing-asset moments are about an asset, so a rule on one of them is written for assets; saving one for another register is refused with “Write this rule for assets.”

The condition

The condition builder is the same one used by approval workflows, Form studio and Document studio.

Control	What it does
Add a condition	Starts the condition. No condition — this applies to every event of its kind means the rule holds for every event, which is a legitimate choice
How these clauses combine	All of these must hold or Any one of these is enough
Condition	Adds a clause: Field, operator and Value
Group	Adds a nested group with its own combination, up to a few levels deep
Not	Not — the clause below must not hold. A clause the server cannot read stays unreadable: negating it does not make it true
Field	The fields the record actually carries, plus your custom fields (… (custom field)) and, at a status change, Status (the record’s) and the status it is moving to. You can search

The operators offered depend on the kind of field:

Operator	Takes
is, is not	One value
is more than, is at least, is less than, is at most	One value (numbers and dates)
is between	Two values, From and To
is one of, is none of	Several values. A clause with no values matches nothing
contains, starts with, matches the pattern	One piece of text
has a value, is empty	Nothing (no value needed)
is more than N days ago, is within the last N days, falls within the next N days	A number of days (dates only)

Values are offered as the field’s own choices where it has them — statuses, priorities, records to pick — and can be typed otherwise. Fixed choices are offered in words rather than as stored codes. A clause on a field that names a record — a site, a category, a person — starts as is one of, with a picker you tick several rows in (Select all and Clear all are at the top of the list), because a filter on a record is almost always the jobs at these three sites. Change the operator to is for one value. Where a field’s values are added one at a time, Match any of several values — this becomes “is one of” turns the clause into a list. Two is clauses on the same field joined by All of these must hold can never both be true; the builder says so and suggests combining them into one is one of clause.

The actions

Add an action… offers every action; choose one and Add. Each action says whether it runs immediately or runs in the background — decided by the kind of action, not chosen. A background action is queued, so it cannot fail the save that triggered it. Drag actions to change the order they run in.

Action	Runs	Settings
Stop it happening	Immediately	What to tell them (required) — shown to the person at the record, so say what is wrong and what would fix it
Set a field	Immediately	Which field on the record (required); Set it to (required), offered as the field’s own answers where it has them
Move the asset	Immediately	Move it — to wherever the reader that saw it is or to a place named below; Site and Location when a place is named; Why it moved (left empty it reads Seen by a reader)
Set a field on the linked asset	Immediately	Which field of the asset this record is about, status included (required); Set it to (required)
Require approval	Immediately	Approved by somebody holding — a permission; anyone whose role carries it may approve
Send a notification	Background	As which notification — the templates and audiences already set up for that event decide who hears it. Left empty it goes out as the rule notification event (see Notifications)
Call a webhook	Background	Which endpoint (required) — called with the record and the rule that fired, signed. Endpoints are set up on Webhooks
Raise a work order	Background	Of which type (required); Called — the job’s title (required). The source record is recorded on it
Assign somebody	Immediately	Which crew — whichever crew covers this job or the crew named below; That crew; Or this person — naming a person puts them on it directly
Add a task	Immediately	The task (required), added unticked at the end of the checklist; Whether it has to be done — optional (default) or must be done before the job can be completed
Raise a work request	Background	Saying (required) — placeholders such as the software name, device host name and asset number are filled in; In more detail; How serious (low, medium — the default — high, critical); In which category. One request per rule and record a day, however often it matches
Produce a document	Background	Which document (required) — only published Document studio templates for this kind of record

Nothing happens yet. A rule with no actions cannot be published — it would evaluate on every event and do nothing with the answer.

Trying it before it is live

Try it against a real record runs the engine itself against the condition as it stands in the editor — saved or not — on a record you name in the id of a record to try it on. Nothing is performed and nothing is written. Run comes back with the outcome, the reasoning clause by clause and, under It would:, what the rule would do. Save the rule once before testing it.

Saving is not publishing

Saving a rule does not put it live. Publish does, and it is a separate button on the card.

Editing a published rule returns it to draft with its version advanced, because the decisions it has already recorded name the version that made them. Retire takes a live rule out of service and keeps its history.

Where else rules are used

The moves on the statuses and transitions screen point here for anything that has to be true before a move, or happen after one — use Before a status change and After a status change, and a clause on the status the record is heading for.

Setting up

Configuration

Who can use this screen

The list

What it has decided

Writing a rule

The moments

The condition

The actions

Trying it before it is live

Saving is not publishing

Where else rules are used