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Reference

Creating Deletion Rules for Relationships

You can set the deletion behavior of objects that are linked by a custom relationship. You can set different default deletion behavior for each related object, and you can define rules for exceptions to the default behavior. For example, if you create a custom relationship from Asset to Employee, you could set the deletion behavior to null out the employee reference on the asset when the employee is deleted. However, you might want to create an exception rule for employees that are contractors.

Deletion rule conditions are defined using the object model and can take the form of complicated logical expressions. Deletion rule conditions work in a similar manner to validation and state rule conditions.

You can create deletion rules for the following types of relationships:

•	Referenced by Many

•	References Many

•	References One

•	Referenced By

•

Scopes

•

Scoped By

You cannot create deletion rules for these types of relationships:

•	Contains One

•	Hierarchy Parent

•	In Hierarchy Of

•

Owned By

•

Owns Many

You can also select a custom message to be displayed instead of the generic deletion message.

This topic explains how to set up deletion rules for existing custom relationships:

•	Select a default rule for the relationship, and for the inverse relationship (see To Set Default Deletion Behavior for a Custom Relationship).

•	You can also create rules for exceptional default behavior for both sides of the relationship (see To Enter Rules for Exceptional Behavior).

•	When you are finished, you should test your rules (see Testing the Rules).

To Set Default Deletion Behavior for a Custom Relationship

1.	From the Site window, click on the tool bar. The Enterprise window appears.

2.	Select the Customization Center view.

3.	Click Lock for Customization. The APM icon in your Task bar now has a key on it:

4.	Open one of the custom classes in the relationship.

Note: You can set the deletion rules from either class in a relationship.

5.	Make sure that editing is enabled.

6.	On the Data Members view, select the Custom Relationships tab.

7.	Double-click the relationship that you want to edit. The Relationship dialog appears.

8.	Select the Deletion Rules tab.

9.	Set the default deletion behavior for when an object from each class in the relationship is deleted:

Setting Name

Description

Default behavior

Select the appropriate default behavior for the relationship: • Delete: Deletes the related object without warning the user • Delete with warning: Deletes the related object, but warns the user. The user can cancel the deletion. • Do not delete: Neither object is deleted. An information message appears. • Do nothing: Nothing happens to the related object. (Not available for Scopes, Scoped by, References many, Referenced by many, or Referenced by relationship types.) • Set references to null: The reference to the related object is set to null (blank)

10.	To save the relationship, click OK.

To Enter Rules for Exceptional Behavior

1.	Double-click the relationship that you want to edit. The Relationship dialog appears.

2.	Select the Deletion Rules tab.

3.	To add exceptions to the default behavior, click New. The Deletion rule dialog appears.

4.	Create one or more conditions under which the exception behavior is applied. To add a condition, click New. The Deletion Rule Condition dialog appears.

5.	Enter the condition type, relationship (if required), and the attribute:

Setting Name

Description

Criterion is based on

Select whether the condition is based on an attribute or a relationship. If you are basing the condition on an attribute in either the class being customized or a related class, select Attribute. For example, Classification is an attribute of the Asset class. However, if the condition is to be based on the content of a relationship, select the Relationship option. For example, Asset Type (along with other value lists) is a separate class that is related to the Asset class.

Relationship from

The join path used to navigate to either the relationship on which the condition is based or to the related class that owns the attribute on which the condition is based. You can select any relationship that points to a single instance of the related object. This includes the following relationship types only: • References one • Owned by • Scoped by • Hierarchy parent • Contains one For example, to base the condition on an asset’s asset type, you would select the References one AssetType relationship. To select a join path, click . Expand the hierarchy until you see the relationship that you want, select it, and click OK.

Attribute to test

Select the attribute on which the condition is based. You can select any attribute from either the custom class or the class selected in the Relationship from box. This setting only applies to conditions that are based on an attribute.

For example, to create an exception for employees that are contractors you would select (starting from the Employee class):

•	Criterion type: Based on an attribute

•	Relationship from Asset: ContractorInfo

•	Attribute to test: Contractor

6.	Select the Type of value to test for:

•	Fixed: Select this option to test the condition based on a specific value that you enter.

See Fixed Value Settings.

•

Variable: Select this option to test a condition using a relative value. The value used in the filter is only determined at the time the filter is used by looking up the current value of the selected attribute or relationship. You can use any attribute or relationship that can be reached through a join path starting from the class that you are customizing. A specific value cannot be selected.

For example, you may want to test that Classification attribute of the asset’s parent matches that of the current asset. To do this you would set the join path to Hierarchy1 (which represents the relationship to the parent asset), and select Classification as the Test value attribute.

To create a variable value filter, see Variable Value Settings.

7.	Select the condition and value to use for the condition:

Fixed Value Settings

Setting Name

Description

Conditional operator

The conditions that are available in the list depend on the data type of the attribute or relationship that is selected. For example, when the attribute is a date and time, the list contains conditions such as Last week, Next week, In the last, and so on.

Test value

Select a Test value. If are testing a fixed value, enter the specific value that you are testing for.

Variable Value Settings

Setting Name

Description

Conditional operator

The conditions that are available in the list depend on the data type of the attribute or relationship that is selected. For example, when the attribute is a date and time, the list contains conditions such as Last week, Next week, In the last, and so on.

Join-path to filter value

The join path to the value that you want to test for. This setting applies to variable conditions only. The join path always starts at the class being customized. To select a join path, click . Expand the hierarchy until you see the class that you want, select it, and click OK.

Test value attributes

Select the attribute that contains the value to be tested. For example, if you are testing a value in the Asset class, you might select the Classification attribute. This setting does not apply to fixed filter value types. The list contains attributes that are owned directly by the specified class. However, it only includes attributes that are of the same type as the attribute on which the validation rule is based. For example, if the rule is based on the asset’s Classification attribute, only the Classification attribute will appear in the Test value list.

8.	If you are creating multiple conditions, you can organize them into logical groups in order to use “and/or” logic. To do this, enter the number of the appropriate group for each condition.

9.	Click OK to save the condition.

10.	To create more conditions, repeat steps 4 to 9.

11.	If necessary, you can change the logical operator for the rule condition and assertion groups:

Setting Name

Description

And/Or behavior

If you are grouping items to use “and/or” logic, select the and/or behavior for the groups: • ANDed within a group, ORed between groups: items within the same group are evaluated with ANDs; items in different groups are evaluated with ORs. For example, if A and B are different groups: (A>3 AND A<7) OR (B>7 AND B<10) • ORed within a group, ANDed between groups: items within the same group are evaluated with ORs; items in different groups are evaluated with ANDs. For example, if A and B are different groups: (A=3 OR A=7) AND (B=7 OR B=10)

12.	Select the deletion behavior to use when the conditions are met.

For example, you might choose Do nothing when the condition “employee is a contractor” is met.

13.	If you have selected either the Do not delete or Delete with warning option, you can specify a custom message to display when the conditions are met. Select Display the following message instead of the generic deletion message, and then select the appropriate message from the list.

Note: To add a custom message, see Creating Custom Messages.

14.	To add more deletion rules for either relationship, repeat steps 3 to 13.

15.	To save the relationship, click OK.

Testing the Rules

You should perform a thorough test of your rules, to ensure that the system behaves as you expected.

To test the rule, save and close the class, unlock the system, and navigate to the object to which the rule applies. Create some test objects and attempt to delete them under the conditions specified in your rules.