Set Conditions for a Rule

You determine when a rule is applied by defining a condition. For example, you might create a rule that is applied only when the user is in Canada and has the Manager role.

There are two ways to define the rule's conditions. The first way is to use the basic condition builder to create conditions by selecting criteria and values. This way should be enough to define most conditions. However, if you need to create more complex conditions, and you are comfortable working with expressions, you can click Use Advanced Expression to open the visual expression editor. For more about using the expression editor, see Build Advanced Expressions.

Rules define overrides that are applied to properties only when the rule's conditions are satisfied at runtime. For conditions that use criteria in the User context, like User Authenticated ($user.isAuthenticated) or Roles ($user.roles), the condition is met if the logged-in user satisfies the condition.

Note:

When using the Roles criterion ($user.role) in a condition, start entering the role name you need in the Value field. The Value drop-down will display up to 25 matching Oracle Cloud Applications job and abstract roles; keep typing until the desired role displays. (The drop-down will not list any duty roles. If you want to specify a duty role, you can manually type the duty role name in the Value field.)

If the Roles drop-down list is empty, it might be because you haven't been assigned the correct role or privileges to see the roles. When extending a Human Capital Management (HCM) application, to see the roles in the list, you need to be granted the PER_REST_SERVICE_ACCESS_USERS_AND_ROLES_LOVS_PRIV privilege, or assigned a role granted that privilege (for example, Employee (ORA_PER_EMPLOYEE_ABSTRACT). Contact your instance administrator if you require this user privilege.

To create a condition for a rule:

Select the rule you want to edit, then click Edit to open the condition builder:

Description of the illustration metadata-rule-conditionbuilder-adv.png
In the condition builder, define one or more conditions.

When possible, Visual Builder starts you off by pre-populating the conditions with criteria used in the page, but you can use different criteria in your condition. The criteria, and their available values, depend on the object and what has been set for the page.

To define a condition:
1. Select a criterion from the dropdown menu.
  
  You can choose any of the listed criterion in your conditions, but you cannot change the list of available criteria to add your own.
  
  Some fields in the list of criteria might be grouped under Object Context or Component Context. These are fields the extension developer has explicitly selected as useful when creating conditions.
  
  If you know what criteria and values you're looking for, you can try typing in the field to filter the list:
  
  Description of the illustration metadata-rule-selectcriterion-adv.png
2. Select an operator.
  
  The options available in the operator dropdown menu are pre-defined based upon the criterion's type. So for a criterion like User Authenticated, the operator menu only has equals, and the only available values in the value menu are yes and no:
  
  Description of the illustration metadata-rule-setoperator-adv.png
3. Specify the values.
  
  Type a value or simple expression in the field, or select a value from the dropdown list. Depending on the criterion, you might be able to choose multiple values.
  
  To compare the criterion's value to the value of another field, you can select another field with the same type in the dropdown list.
To add another condition, click + Condition, and then define the new condition. To remove a condition, click .

When you have more than one condition, the rule is applied only when ALL the conditions are true (by default). However, you can change this to ANY, which means only one of the conditions has to be true in order for the rule's overrides to be applied:

Description of the illustration metadata-rule-conditionbuilder-any.png
To create a group, click the arrow next to + Condition, and then select Add Group in the dropdown menu. Grouping conditions lets you create more complex conditions for the business rule.
When you click Add Group, your existing conditions and groups are combined into one group, and a new group containing a condition is added.

Description of the illustration metadata-rule-groups-adv.png

Each group has a menu with options for managing the group:
- Add Condition. Adds a new empty condition to the group.
- Add Group. Creates a new group within the group.
- Unwrap Conditions. Ungroups the conditions, and the empty group is deleted.
- Delete. Deletes the group and all the conditions in the group.
After creating a group, you can add and define conditions in the group, and set the logic (any, all) for the groups.
Click Done to close the condition builder.

Conditions are always saved automatically, so you don't need to worry about explicitly saving your changes when editing a condition.

Note:
Keep in mind that different Oracle Cloud Applications actions (or pages) can interpret conditions differently, which is outside of the realm of VB Studio's knowledge or control. For example, suppose the Country condition is used for a given page in Human Capital Management (HCM). The Hire an Employee action may interpret this as the person who is being hired, while another action might interpret this as the person viewing the page. To understand how conditions are interpreted for a given Oracle Cloud App, consult that App's documentation.

To change the conditions for an existing rule (not a new one), click the rule in the list, then click Edit above the Conditions pane.

If you’re creating a new rule, the next step is to set properties for the fields.