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Using the Change Event System - v1.4.6

Change events give users a powerful way to program automatic updates to the information stored in Fundipedia. Field data can be automatically changed based on other field value changes and the rules you configure. This feature is available from version 1.4.6.

Adding a new change event


From your main page click Admin
 

   


Click on Schema in the left-hand column



A list of all entities will be displayed. Expand the entity and then expand Fields to show a list of all fields. Right click on a field and then click Properties.



This will show detailed information about the field. To add a change event, click the ‘Manage Change Event' button in the change events section. If this field already has a change event, the fields that it is listening to will be listed here, additionally any fields that are listening to it will also be listed.


Edit a Change Event


To add a change event onto a field you will need to first select the fields to listen for changes on. Use the ‘Select Fields’ link to open the field selector. Selected fields are shown on the right while available fields are on the left. Fields are ordered alphabetically but you can also search both lists separately to find fields you are looking for. Once you have found the fields you are interested in, use the arrows to add and remove fields from your selection. Once you have chosen the fields click select to add them to the event.

The fields in this selector are chosen from an object’s relationships. Currently, it’s not possible for a parent to listen to changes on a child. This is to prevent instances where multiple children could have conflicting changes impacting a parent.

There is also a circular reference check on chosen fields to ensure to prevent scenarios where A listens to B, B listens to C, and C listens to A which would result in an endless cycle of changes.




You also need to give the change event a comment to submit with any changes it makes. 

  


The last piece of functionality from this screen is deciding whether this change event should be used by the system. Change events can be switched on at anytime by marking them as active and saving the changes. Change events that are not active will not be used by the system when publishing changes.




Edit Change Event Rules

Once you have chosen the fields that will trigger the change event to update a record you can add rules. Multiple rules and conditions can be combined to achieve complex results with minimal effort. By default change events come with a single empty rule, with no conditions and an empty outcome. To view the rules use the navigation bar in the left hand menu or the Add rules button.



Rules allow you to build custom scenarios for updating the field, by adding conditions and outcomes. Clicking on 'build conditions' will add an initial condition you can build upon. The initial rule has no condition so the rule will always be used, and it has no outcome so it will submit a blank value into the approval process.



You can toggle between the rule having custom conditions or having none. Conditions determine the scenario when a rule will be used. For example, you can add a condition to specify the rule will only submit a value for approval when one of the fields that are being listened to has a specific value. You are able to change the field and condition using the drop down arrows. You are restricted to your selected fields here. If you want to use a field as a condition you will need to listen for changes to it. The condition selector also changes its options depending on the field that you have chosen.



Condition Options:

Is Empty or Null - Include records where the field doesn't contain a value, or that value is blank.
Is Not Empty or Null - Include records where the field does contain a value, and that value is not blank.
Is Null - Include records where the field doesn't contain a value.
Is Not Null - Include records where the field contains a value, even if that value is blank.
Equals - Include records where the field exactly matches a value.
Does Not Equal - Include records where the field does not exactly match a value.
Is Less Than - Include records where the field value is less than a value.
Is Less Than or Equals - Include records where the field value is less than, or equals, a value.
Is Greater Than or Equals - Include records where the field value is greater than, or equals, a value.
Is Greater Than - include records where the field value is greater than a value.


This list is restricted by field type, is less than, is less than or equals, is greater than, is greater than or equal can only be applied to date or numeric field types.

If you have selected equals, does not equal, is less than, is less than or equals, is greater than, is greater than or equal then there will also be an option to add a value.


You can add additional groups using the add condition group link and add additional conditions to a group using the green plus icon.



Groups and conditions can be linked together using the operator drop down to select And/Or. They can be removed using the ‘Remove Group’ link and red cross button.



This allows you to build up complex logic with minimal effort to ensure that Fundipedia is only submitting values for approval when you want it to. Condition groups need to have at least one condition and you need to have at least one condition group. You are always able to swap back to the rule using the 'no condition' toggle at the top of the condition section of a rule.


Once you have configured the conditions you can set up the outcome; this is the value that Fundipedia will submit for approval if the conditions are met. The default behaviour is to submit a blank value but this can be replaced with a custom value, by toggling the add custom value option.



Once you have toggled on ‘Add custom value’ you will have the option to add a specific value, or in some instances the option to use a field value.
Adding a specific value will bring up the same field input that you would get if editing the record in Fundipedia. If you are adding a change event to a look up, you will have a drop down for look up items. If you are adding a change event to a date field, you will have a date selector.




The option to add a field value will only appear if you are listening to a Field of the same data type (e.g. a date field can only use another date field as its value, a decimal field can only use a decimal field as its value etc). This is to limit scenarios where Fundipedia might submit an invalid value. Once adding a field value, you are able to pick from fields of the same datatype using a drop down.

Text fields are an exception; they can take any field value as their own, and they also support concatenations. A concatenation can be made from a combination of field values and specific values. The example below will submit the umbrella name followed by ' - (' then the name of the company then ')' if the umbrella name was "example umbrella" and the company name was "example company", then Fundipedia would submit "example umbrella -(example company)" for approval.



Values can be reordered using the grab handles on the left or removed using the red cross signs on the right. Once you have configured the conditions and outcome of the rule, you can save the change event or add additional Rules using the plus icon. When saving a change event you will be required to leave a comment that can when be viewed when viewing the history of a change event. (See Version History)




Rules are evaluated top to bottom, once a change event meets the conditions of a rule, it will attempt to submit that value into the approval process and stop evaluating rules. For easy management

Renamed - using the pencil next to their name.

Collapsed/expanded individually - using the collapse/expand buttons in the top right corner on the individual rules.

Collapsed/expanded as a group - using the collapse/expand link at the top of the rule list.

Removed - using the remove button in the top right corner on individual rules.

Reordered - using the grab handle on individual rules.




Manually trigger field update


Once an event has been saved and made active you have the option to manually trigger a field update. This will re-evaluate all active records in Fundipedia against the new change event.



This option is only available if:
  1. You don't have changes pending
  2. The change event is in an active state
  3. You are not viewing the change event for a parent variation field
Once you click the manual trigger link you will get a confirmation box, as this process can be intensive.



Version History


Previous versions of a change event can be viewed under history on the left-hand navigation panel.



A new version is created whenever the rules or the fields that trigger the change event are updated. Other changes, such as to the active state or the description, will be saved on top of the current version. This allows you to turn events on and off without cluttering up the history.

The previous versions page shows a brief summary of the change event and its use.

  1. Version - This is a version reference number for the change event, the highest number is the most recent.  

  2. Created Date - This is the date that this version of the change event was saved.  

  3. User - This is the user who saved this version of the change event.

  4. Comment - This is the comment the user left when saving the new version of the change event. 

  5. Last Run Date - This is the date that Fundipedia last evaluated this change event.

  6. Total Run Count - This is the total number of times that Fundipedia evaluated this version of the change event.  

  7. Actions - This is a link to view this version of the change event. For previous versions you will be taken to a read only view.  



When viewing the read only version the outcomes highlight whether it was a specific value or a field value by prefacing the value with 'Specific: ' and 'Field: ' respectively. 




Execution Summary

Every time a change event is evaluated a record is logged in Fundipedia for auditing purposes. This 'Execution Summary' can be viewed when viewing any version of a change event.



This execution summary shows the following information

1. Run Date - This is the date that the execution took place
2. Destination Change  - this is a count of the number of records that had a new value submitted for approval
3. No Destination Change - this is a count of the number of records where the value that was submitted for approval was the same as the old value.
4. Validation Error - this is a count of the number of records where the new value did not pass the validation on the field, such max length
5. No Conditions Met Error - this is the count of the number of records where there was no matching rule
6. Actions  - this takes you to the detailed execution.




When viewing a detailed execution summary the top bar will show you 
1. The name of the field this change event was executed for
2. The cause of this execution, this can be either a manual trigger, a new record being created, or a record being updated.
3. The date and time this execution took place.
4. the number of records impacted by this execution, approving multiple changes could affect multiple records.


The executions in the detail are grouped by their record and the outcome,
1. Destination Change - will show the record, the rule that submitted the value, the old value, and the new value
2. No Destination Change - will show the record, the rule that submitted the value and the old value. as there is no new value to display
3. Validation Error - will show the record, the rule that submitted the value, the old value, the attempted new value, and the error that prevented the change from being submitted.
4. No Conditions Met Error - will show the record and the old value, as there was no rule that was used and so no value submitted for approval.




Viewing Change Event Information

There is an additional Index page to get an overview of all change events in Fundipedia on the top header. This change event icon will display a badge showing if any change events have encountered Validation or No Conditions Met errors on the most recent execution of active change events. 




Clicking this link takes you to the 'Change Event Summary'. This summary shows an execution summary for all change events. In the action column you are able to switch to a view of the change event, open a dialog showing the execution summary of just that change event, or view the detail of that execution.




The reason there is only 1 shown in the badge as a total of errors is because the 4 No Conditions Met errors all occurred on the same change event so only the most recent is counted. You can switch to a grouped view using the links in the top right of the page, to only show the most recent of each active, or inactive change event.


You can also switch to an inactive view which will show change events that will show the same information for change events that are not in use. This index does not include previous versions.



Change event information can also be seen when viewing a record. Fields that have or are involved in an active change event will have a cog This can be clicked to display which fields are populating the field and if that field is populating another.

 



The final way to view change event information is through Fundipedia reporting. Admins with the change event permission are able to see the following options on the field selector:
  • Event Active State
  • Field the event is attached to
  • Object (such as Fund or Share Class that the event is attached to)
  • Version number of the event
  • Fields that the event is listening to
  • Objects (such as Fund or Share Class that the event is listening to)
These can be ordered and filtered the same as normal reports.






 

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