To create a new group, click Rule Group. On the displayed page, provide a name and description and click Add. 

 

Configuring a Business Rule 

After creating a rule group, create a business rule.  

Hover over the rule group and click Add Rule. Fill out the displayed form using the following pointers.

Fields	Explanation
Rule name and Description	Provide an appropriate rule name, along with a brief and clear note on how the business can be used.
Execute on actions	Choose when to execute the rule in the request life cycle:   Created Edited Deleted Permanently Moved to trash If you choose Edited, you will have the option to choose whether to execute the rule every single time or only the first time, when you configure the Condition. If you choose Deleted Permanently and configure Abort process execution as the action, the deleted request will be retained in trash.
Execute during	Choose the rule execution time window: Any Time Within Operational Hours Outside Operational Hours
Cascade Execution	Choose the order of rule execution: Execute next rule Skip remaining rules in this group Skip remaining rules across all groups Cascade execution establishes an order in which the rules are executed. This is helpful when the result of one rule execution is the input for the following rule. Cascade execution can be incredibly useful for contexts that require multiple levels of approvals or the evaluation of various criteria for a specific decision.
Condition	Define the condition for the incoming request. Apply conditions based on criteria Under this selection, you can choose the required criteria from the drop-down list. Various criteria from across modules can be configured. You can configure a maximum of 100 criteria for each rule. Moreover, for each criteria, you can configure up to 10 additional nested criteria-conditions using the AND/OR logical operators. Apply conditions using custom function Under this selection, you can configure your own custom function to define the criteria for incoming requests. Apply no condition Under this selection, the business rule will be applied to all incoming requests.
Actions	Choose whether to Abort process execution or Execute custom actions. When you choose Abort process execution, you can add the required error message to be displayed to the user and click Save. When you choose Execute custom action, you can select from the following 6 custom actions, which will be executed when the incoming request fulfills the configured criteria. Field Update Custom Function Execute Script If-If If-Else Conditional Actions

Executing Custom Actions

Business rules are configured to execute various actions for requests that fulfill specific incoming criteria.

• Field Update

• Custom Function

• Execute Script

• If-If

• If-Else

• Conditional Actions

Field Update

This is one of the easiest and simplest of actions that can be accomplished through a business rule. It merely involves modifying the field of an incoming request.

Modifying the field may lead to various other actions due to associated configurations. Moreover, in one Field Update action, you can modify up to 15 fields.

For example, if the incoming request is a high-priority request, you can configure business rules to check for keywords in the request's Subject and accordingly update the Category field.

When you select Override field values the business rule configurations take precedence over the request values. That is, if the request contains some preset values for fields that will be modified if the configured business rule were to be executed, then the business rule values will be overwritten and the original values deleted.

Custom Function

For actions that cannot be performed out of the box, you can create custom functions by using the application data, along with data from external applications to perform actions required in your environment.

Some of the actions that you can use custom function for creating/closing a request or notes.

The custom functions in SupportCenter Plus are built on Deluge, Zoho's propriety scripting language.

• Click Create new custom function.

• On the displayed page, provide a name and description for your custom action.

• Create the custom function through simple drag-and-drop actions on the Deluge Script Editor.

• On the left pane, besides the various code snippets, several built-in functions are available for various actions, such as sending mails and notifying stakeholders. 

Execute Script

Scripts, like custom functions, are required to perform actions that are not available out of the box. Scripts are created by using the application data, along with data from external applications to perform actions required in your environment.

However, unlike custom functions, you cannot create scripts within the application. You will have to use an external executor file to configure scripts for your specific requirement.

Under custom actions, you can configure either Execute Script or Custom Functions. You cannot configure both these actions together.

If-If

The If-If custom action allows you to define actions when multiple conditions are met. You can configure up to 10 conditional actions using the If-If clause.

For each fulfilled If condition, you can configure Field Update, Custom Functions, Negate Action, and Execute Script.

To configure the If-If condition, click Select Custom Action, and select If-If.

On the pop-up, under Condition, click the criteria drop-downs and make the required selections.

You can click the + symbol to add more conditions. Use the drop-down to select between the OR/AND operators.  

Let's consider a simple scenario to understand how you can configure the If-If clause.

Let's say there's a maintenance activity scheduled for the printers in the company. Despite announcements regarding printers, users log requests for issues they face with printers. Note that users may use the same template to raise requests in other categories as well. Therefore, you cannot configure a business rule to stop the process (Abort process execution) even as the requests is being logged.

So, after a user logs an request, the first step would be to check the priority and accordingly place it in the right group using Field Update.

Then, the request must be checked for Category. For Printers, further processing of the request must be stopped and an appropriate message displayed to the users.  

You can do this by configuring the condition of Category as Printers and the corresponding action as Negate Action.

If-Else

The If-Else clause allows you to define actions when a set of conditions are met and also when they are NOT met.

The If clause configurations work exactly as the If-If clause. You can configure up to 10 conditions using the OR and AND operator. The Else clause is used when the configured If conditions are not met. Then, you can define the Else custom actions such as Field Update, Custom Actions, Execute Scripts, and Negate Action.

These actions for unmet conditions can be based on newer conditions. You can again configure up to 8 conditions for the Else-If clause.

On the pop-up, under Condition click the criteria drop-downs and make the required selections.

You can click the + symbol to add more conditions. Use the drop-down to select between the OR/AND operators.  

Let's consider the following scenario to understand the working of the If-Else clause. 

If the incoming request does not have the priority assigned, you could configure the If-Else clause to accurately assign the priority by checking various request fields. 

Note that priority can also be assigned using the Priority Matrix, which operates even as the request is being logged.

Conditional Actions

These are field update actions that can be automated based on a matching criteria.

For any given field in the incoming request, you can update a maximum of 5 field values in the request. Moreover, you can configure up to 20 such conditions, along with their corresponding field update actions.

Note that only one matching condition-action will be executed. Of all the conditions configured, only the first condition that matches the given criteria will be executed.