Create a rule or action for a Procedural Status term

You can require fields to be entered or tasks to be completed before saving an Object record or Activity record with a Procedural Status term. You can also set messages to appear, require sign-off, and set actions to run.

Overview

Conditions

You can use conditions in a variety of ways. Here are two common examples:

  • Prerequisite Conditions: You can use this field to prevent users from saving a record or warn them if the record does not meet a specific condition. For example, this can prevent a user from saving a record as Accessioned if there is no Accession Date. This is a more specific tool than mandatory fields as you can create cataloguing requirements for each Procedural Status. For example, before an Object can be made Deaccessioned, it must have information in the Deaccession Reason, Method, and Authoriser fields.

  • Next Status Conditions: You can use this field to control the conditions a Procedural Status requires before it is available as the next stage in a record's life cycle. For example, one possible Next Status after Accessioned could be Education Specimen, but only on the condition that the department entered for the Object is Natural Sciences.

Tasks

You can require tasks to be completed before a record is saved with a procedural status. You can also assign tasks when a record is saved. The Tasks To Do field opens up a list of tasks that need to be completed for an Object or Activity. For example, when an object is saved as Accessioned, the user will see the tasks Photograph Object and Label Object. They can select the tasks they want to schedule (set a date for) and assign to a person.

Sign-off

You can require a user to sign off with their details and a date for any changes to the Procedural Status field in an Object record or Activity record.

The Actioned by Person and Date Actioned fields may have defaults entered, but these can be overwritten. These details can be viewed along with a history of Procedural Statuses in the Diary window for the record.

Actions

There are a range of actions that can be created automatically after an Object or Activity is saved with a new procedural status. Some common actions are:

  • Open the Bulk Move tool for all Object records in an Activity record.

  • Send an email to the person in the Borrower field.

  • Update information in an Object record from an associated Activity record.

If you are interested in using actions, or would like one created, contact support@vernonsystems.com.

Messages

You can write a message that will appear when an Object or Activity is saved with that Procedural Status. For example, when an Object is saved for the first time with the Procedural Status "Accessioned", a pop-up window will appear with the message to "Remember to label the object with its Accession Number".

Open the Procedural Status term

  1. Go to the Database menu and click Other Files.

  2. In the Other field, enter status and press Enter on your keyboard.

  3. From the list of Procedural Status files, select Object: Procedural Status (or the Activity Procedural Status that you want, such as Outward Loan: Procedural Status) and click OK.

  4. With the Procedural Status file window open (for example, the Object: Procedural Status window), click Advanced to open a list of your status records.

  5. Select the Procedural Status term and click OK.

Require a field to be completed

  1. On the Rules/Actions tab, under Prerequisites, click into the Condition to check field.

  2. Click Go To to open a new Condition record, then enter the details: 

    1. In Name, enter a name for the condition. For example, Deaccession Method not Entered.

    2. In Field to be checked, enter a field name or click Options to select a field. For example, enter Deaccession Method.

    3. In Comparison, enter Equals.

    4. In Pattern, leave this field blank.

    5. Optional: In Message displayed if this error is found, you can enter a message for the user about why they have been unable to save the record, or to appear as a warning.

    6. Click Save and then close the Condition record.

  3. Next to the Condition to check, in the Effect field, select either Warn or Prevent Save.

  4. Click Save to save the Procedural Status record.

Require a task to be completed

  1. On the Rules/Actions tab, under Prerequisites, click into the Tasks field.

  2. Click Options to select a task and click OK.

  3. Click Save to save the Procedural Status record.

Assign a task after saving a record with a status

  1. On the Rules/Actions tab, under Actions, click into the Tasks To Do field.

  2. Click Options to select a task and click OK.

  3. Click Save to save the Procedural Status record.

Require sign-off on procedural status changes for all users

Object records

  1. Go to the Tools menu > System Maintenance > Customised Configuration.

  2. Go to the Objects tab.

  3. Under Objects, tick the Enable Sign Off checkbox and the Enforced? checkbox.

  4. Click OK.

Activity records

  1. Go to the Tools menu > System Maintenance > Activities Configuration.

  2. Go to the Sign-Off & Scheduling tab.

  3. For any Activity files, tick the Enable Sign Off checkbox and Enforced? checkbox.

  4. Click OK.

Create a message

  1. On the Rules/Actions tab, click into the Message field.

  2. Enter a message to appear when a record is saved with the Procedural Status term.

  3. Click Save.