Data Policy

From LongJump Support Wiki

Data policies model your business rules and enable automation of processes around data records - they are a series of checks and validations that will update data automatically.

Contents 1 About Data Policies 1.1 Action Based Data Policies 1.2 Calendar Based Data Policies 2 About Policy Triggering Criteria 2.1 Triggering Criteria in Action Based Data Policies 2.1.1 Available Triggers and Eligible Objects 2.2 Triggering Criteria in Calendar Based Data Policies 3 About Actions 4 Add a Data Policy 4.1 Build an Action Based Data Policy 4.2 Build a Calendar Based Data Policy 4.3 Add Actions to a Data Policy 5 Edit a Data Policy 5.1 Edit an Action 5.2 Reorder Actions 5.3 Delete an Action 5.4 Delete a Data Policy 6 About Data Policies in Workflows 7 About Data Policies in Tasks and Appointments 8 About Data Policies in SMS

About Data Policies

Two types of Activation Policies are available: Action Based and Calendar Based.

Data Policies are activated (by a trigger) to automatically take an action on a record if some conditions are met (criteria).

Activation Trigger

Initiates the policy to check if a record meets the criteria

Criteria

When record information meets the criteria, the data policy is executed and invokes specific action(s)

Action Based Data Policies

• Are invoked by any of the following selected Triggers
• Can be invoked before or after the record is applied to the database

Examples of action-based policies

• In a sales department, the local sales representative automatically receives an email notification when a prospective client requests information from the organization's web site. The data policy is triggered by the addition of a new record (prospect), choosing the email recipient based on the territory.
• In a manufacturing operation, the parts department wants to know if the inventory on a popular part is low. The data policy is triggered by an update to the quantity of units in inventory.
• When adding new records, validate the address/phone/email fields before allowing the records to be added to the database
• When importing records (leads file from a tradeshow, for example), verify that the record is not a duplicate of any already existing person/company

In this Action Based data policy, the following elements are defined: Trigger Add or Update a record in the Prospects object Criteria Check if the phone number and email fields are populated (not blank) Actions Send an email acknowledgment to the Prospect Assign a task to the customer representative

Calendar Based Data Policies

Calendar based data policy actions are triggered on a schedule, defined by the following parameters:

• Start Date and Time
• Non Repeating or Repeating (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly)
• End Date or Never-ending

Considerations

• Calendar Based Data Policies are submitted for processing at the time you request. However, processing time of the actions depend on the current system load, so actual time of execution may be delayed. Please schedule actions well in advance of your need.

Examples of calendar-based policies

• Drip Campaigns use Calendar-based data policies. These policies detect values and conditions of the data fields and based on them, execute a combination of actions including: sending an email, assigning a task, updating the record content, delivering a SOAP message to an external system, or running Java code.
• In a front-desk reservation system, set the criteria to verify that the check-in date must be in the future (after Today) and that the check-out date follows the check-in date
• In a doggy daycare system, check that the pet owner's account has enough pre-paid credits for that week's care

In this Calendar Based data policy, the following elements are defined: Trigger Already in place, no end date specified Date Fields Criteria Date Modified is Today or Workflow State Changed is Today Advanced Fields Criteria The Workflow Owner is a specific User Action Send an email message to the customer with a call to action

About Policy Triggering Criteria

When a data policy is triggered, the Policy Triggering Criteria is tested.

Considerations

• Policy Triggering Criteria is an Expression, which must resolve to TRUE or FALSE
• If the Expression described by the criteria is FALSE, the associated actions are not applied. If TRUE, the Data Policy is executed, and any associated Actions are invoked.
• Policy triggering criteria can be empty/blank, in which case the criteria resolves to TRUE
• Calendar Policies have additional, date-based Triggering Criteria available

Triggering Criteria in Action Based Data Policies

In these action-based criteria expressions examples, note that the Field Display Type and Formula Function are used together to create a Logical result for the Policy Triggering Criteria.

These examples are presented as questions, because the result must be Logical: YES/NO or TRUE/FALSE.

Example	Expression
Is the submitted date more than seven days before the departure date?	DATECOMP(submit_date, departure_date) > 7 Note that the Field Display Type is DATE for both arguments
Is the inventory count less than 25?	Inventory_Count < 25 In this example, the Field Display Type for Inventory_Count is NUMBER
Is an essential field blank?	IF (state = '', 'CA', state) In this example, if the state field is blank, the state field is changed to contain CA. Note that the test for blank is two single quotes (''), not the double quotes character (").

Available Triggers and Eligible Objects

This list describes the available triggers, and eligible objects:

Note: Data policies can be created for all objects, except Products and Price Books

Triggers	Eligible Objects
Add	All
Update	All
Delete	All
Ownership Change	All, except Tasks/Appointments
Workflow State Change	All
Import Batch	All
Import Record	All, except Tasks/Appointments
Merge	Prospects and Accounts Only
Convert to Account	Prospects Only
When Due	Tasks/Appointments Only
On View	All

Triggering Criteria in Calendar Based Data Policies

Calendar Based Data Policies offer an additional, date-based criteria, as well as field-based policy triggering criteria.

Learn more: Filter Expressions

About Actions

• When a data policy meets the specified Policy Triggering Criteria, the actions associated with the policy are invoked
• Multiple actions can be added to a data policy
• Several action types are provided, and they can be invoked in any order (or reordered as needed)

In a Calendar Based Data Policy, all of the following actions are available In an Action Based Data Policy, the Activation Sequence determines which actions are available
Actions	Description	Activation Sequence Before Triggering Actions (Pre)	Activation Sequence After Triggering Actions (Post)
Create Task	Create a task and assign it to selected users (Record Owner, Supervisor of Record Owner, Specific User, System Administration)	--	Yes
Send Email	Send an email message based on roles; optionally, send the message to an individual email address	--	Yes
Change Record Owner	Change the record owner, reassigning the record and effectively managing data flow	--	Yes
Update Record	Update the record; change the value of any field, using any formula you define	--	Yes
Send Outbound Message	With this data policy action, REST messages can be sent to a valid end point	--	Yes
Execute Java Code	Execute a custom action by writing Java code and making calls to the Java API	Yes	--

Add a Data Policy

1. Click Setup | Customize | Objects | <object name>
2. Click the Data Policies tab
3. Click the [Add Policy] button
4. Enter the following information:

   Name

   Policy name

   Enabled

   Check the Enabled checkbox icon to enable the policy

5. Select the Activation Trigger:

   Action Based

   Calendar Based

Follow the instructions in the following sections to build Action or Calendar Based Data Policies:

Build an Action Based Data Policy

Complete the steps at Add a Data Policy.

1. In the Policy Information section, complete the following information:

   • Activation Sequence

     Select whether to invoke the policy before or after the triggering actions

   Before Triggering Actions

   Use this sequence to validate data before committing it to the database; For example, to check for and prevent the addition of duplicate records, or to verify that an essential field is not empty (blank)

   After Triggering Actions

   Use this sequence to take some action based on the data in the record

   • Triggering Actions

     Choose to invoke the data policy when any of these activities are applied to a record in the current object

   Learn more: Available Triggers and Eligible Objects

   

   

   • Add activates the policy when a record is added
   • Update activates the policy when a record is updated
   • Delete activates the policy when a record is deleted
   • Ownership Change activates the policy when a record changes ownership (not available in Tasks/Appointments)
   • Workflow State Change activates the policy when the workflow state changes
   • Import Batch activates the policy during a batch import
   • Import Record activates the policy when a record is imported
   • Merge activates the policy when the Merge option is selected while Converting Prospect to Accounts
   • Convert to Account activates the policy when converting Prospect to Accounts
   • When Due activates the policy when a Task or Appointment becomes due (on End Date) (only available in Tasks/Appointments)
   • On View activates the policy when a record is viewed

2. Optionally, in the Policy Triggering Criteria section, complete the following information:

   Enter additional field-level checks in Policy Triggering Criteria

   Learn more: Formula Expressions

   Note: When building a Function, click the [Check Syntax] button to validate the expression; Remember that Policy Triggering Criteria expressions must resolve to a Logical type

3. Click the [Save] button to save the policy

Build a Calendar Based Data Policy

Complete the steps at Add a Data Policy.

1. In the Policy Information section, complete the following information:

   Activation Date

   The date when to start the actions

   Activation Time

   The time when to start the actions

   Repeating Frequency

   Whether the actions repeat at an interval

   End Date

   The date when to stop invoking the actions

   Run As

   Executes an action using the permissions of the specified User, (not the User initiating the action); Choose the Name of a User with the required Role Based Access Permissions

2. Optionally, in the Date Fields Criteria section, complete the following information:

   Date Fields Criteria

   • Select a field from one of the following fields (Date Created/Date Modified/Workflow Date Change), then select an operator from the list (a range of dates)
   • Optionally, add an additional date criteria

   

   

3. Optionally, in the Advanced Fields Criteria section, complete the following information:

   Advanced Fields Criteria

   Additional data fields are available to create Filter Expressions

   • Select a field from the list, choose an operator and a value:

   

   

4. Optionally, in the Advanced SQL Writer section, complete the following information:

   Advanced SQL Writer

   Enter MySQL functions that refer to the object's fields. MySQL functions that refer to the object's fields that the platform uses in the WHERE clause of a SELECT statement

   Learn more: Drip Campaign Advanced SQL Example and MySQL

   

   

   Example SQL code

5. Click the [Save] button to save the policy

Add Actions to a Data Policy

Add actions that are invoked when the Data Policy is executed.

1. Click Setup | Customize | Objects | <object name>
2. Click the Data Policies tab
3. Click the [New Policy] button to add a new policy, or click the name of an existing Data Policy
4. Click the [New Action] button to add a new action
5. Select the action to execute:

   Create Task

   To create a task, complete the following fields:

   Action Name

   Name of the action

   Assigned To

   Select one of the following:

   • Record Owner
   • Supervisor of Record Owner
   • Specific User
   • System Administrator

   Subject

   Subject of the Task

   Days from trigger for when task is due

   Automatically make this task due for a specified number of days after the policy is triggered; '0' will use the Trigger Date as the Due Date

   Description

   Task description

   Send Email

   To send an email message, complete the following fields:

   From

   Sender, choose from: Record Owner, Record Owner Supervisor, or a Specific User (opens a lookup window to Users)

   To

   Recipent(s), choose from: Record Owner, Record Owner Supervisor, Specific Email Addresses (opens a lookup window to Users and Contacts), System Administrator, Primary Contact, or other Related to options

   Cc

   Email address of person(s) who should be copied

   Bcc

   Email address of person(s) who should be blind-copied (these email addresses are hidden from all recipients, and is visible only to the sender)

   Subject

   Subject of the email message

   Editor Type

   Select a type of editor

   Learn More: Send Email

   Description

   Description of the message

   Change Record Owner

   Assign the record to a new owner

   Update Record

   Change a field in the record (status, date, description, etc.)

   Execute Java Code

   Enter the Java code you want to execute. Click the [Choose Function] button to select a available functions; See Java API for more information

6. Click the [Save] button to save your changes, or [Cancel] to stop the action
7. Optionally, add additional actions, or [Reorder] the actions

Edit a Data Policy

1. Click Setup | Customize | Objects | <object name>
2. Click the Data Policies tab
3. Click the Data Policy Name link
4. Click the [Edit] button
5. Make changes to the fields
6. Click the [Save] button

Edit an Action

1. Click Setup | Customize | Objects | <object name>
2. Click the Data Policies tab
3. Click the Data Policy Name link
4. Click the Action Name link
5. Click the [Edit] button

Reorder Actions

1. Click Setup | Customize | Objects | <object name>
2. Click the Data Policies tab
3. Click the Data Policy Name link
4. Click the [Reorder Actions] button
5. Select an action in the list and click the up or down arrow buttons
6. Click the [Save] button

Delete an Action

1. Click Setup | Customize | Objects | <object name>
2. Click the Data Policies tab
3. Click the Data Policy Name link
4. Click the Action Name link
5. Click the [Delete] button

Delete a Data Policy

1. Click Setup | Customize | Objects | <object name>
2. Click the Data Policies tab
3. Click the Data Policy Name link
4. Click the [Delete] button

About Data Policies in Workflows

When a record is processed through a Workflow, it is associated with a workflow state, or condition. If that workflow state contains a data policy, the data policy is executed on the record. This combination of workflow plus data policy will automate record processing for Actions in the platform (actions appear as [Buttons] in a record).

Data Policies can be used with Workflows for two purposes:

Calendar Based Data Policies

Can be created to automatically to trigger a record into a new workflow or move the record into a different state if it already exists in a workflow

• Usage Examples:

• If a request is waiting in IT Manager inbox for more than three days, send a reminder email

This is identified using Last Workflow State Change Date field, which is available in every object

• If a request is waiting in Supervisor inbox for more than two days, use Java API to move the request to the IT Manager inbox

Action Based Data Policies

Designed to be triggered on a Workflow State Change action, and can be linked with any state in a Workflow

When a record arrives in a state that has data policy linked to it, that policy is executed

• Usage Examples:

• Send additional email notifications when record arrives in certain state
• Throw errors if some specific requirements are not met

About Data Policies in Tasks and Appointments

Data policies can be added to Tasks and Appointments to trigger these actions:

• Send Email
• Update Records
• Execute Java Code

Data policies in Tasks and Appointments are triggered when the Task or Appointment is due. Learn more:

• Data Policy in Tasks
• Data Policy in Appointments
• When Due

About Data Policies in SMS

• Using Data Policies with SMS