A transition is a path used to move a record from one state to another in the workflow or can be used to assign the record to another user. A transition can include fields called Task Fields that require a user to enter some information into a record before it moves to the next step in the workflow. In some cases a transition may be a loop (a transition which keeps the record in the same state). A loop transition is used when a record simply needs to have information added to a field, but does not move to another state and / or does not move to another assignee.

Defining Transitions for a State

To define the transitions for a state:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Define Workflow button
4. Click on the Transitions button to the left of the state for which you want to define transitions. Use the steps in the sections below for adding, editing, or deleting a transition.

To add a new transition:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Define Workflow button
4. Click on the Transitions button to the left of the state for which you want to define transitions
5. Click on the Add Transition button
6. Make selections for the properties described below
7. Click OK to save the transition

Properties of Transitions

The following options will be presented when you add or modify a transition:

Transition Name
Enter a label that will be used as the name of the transition during the Task operation

Order
The order of the transition. This will determine the order in which it appears in the transitions table as well as in the list displayed during the Task operation. Transitions which have the same value specified in the order field will be listed alphabetically.

New State
The state to which the record will be routed when this transition is selected during the Task operation. For this option, you may select one of the following:

• A specific state
  Any state in the Workflow State table can be selected as the new state for a transition.

• Prompt with <State Group>
  Selecting this option will allow the user performing the Task operation to choose from a list of all states within a particular state group as the new state for the record. When selecting this option, please select a state group from the second pulldown listed after New State. Review the Defining State Groups section for information on creating a state group. The current state of the record will be selected by default during the task operation if the current state is part of the state group selected. Otherwise, the states in the state group will be listed in alphabetical order.

• Previous State
  This option will send the record to the most recent state the record was in prior to its current state. ProblemTracker will examine the Record History to determine the previous state.

New Assignee
The user to whom the record will be assigned when this transition is selected during the Task operation. For this option, you may select one of the following choices listed below:

• <State Manager>
  The record will be routed to the State Manager based on the New State for this transition and the value of the Product field in the record. State Managers can be set in the Workflow Properties section and can be defined per-product.

• <Same Assignee>
  This option can be used for transitions where a record does not need to be assigned to a different user. For example, if a record simply needs to be updated by the user who is currently assigned to the record.

• Prompt with <User Group>
  This option enables you to restrict the list of possible assignees to the members of a user group. The user performing the Task operation will select the new assignee from a list of users within the User Group that you specify for this option. When selecting this option, please select a user group in the second pulldown next to New Assignee. In the third pulldown next to New Assignee, select whether the user "TBD" should be included or excluded from this user group when presented during the task operation. TBD is a built-in user that can be used as a place holder or can signify "assigned to no one". Please review the User Groups Help section for information on creating a user group. The current assignee will be selected by default during the task operation if the current assignee is a member of the user group displayed. Otherwise, the users in the user group will be listed in alphabetical order.

• <Last Assignee for New State>
  When selecting this option, ProblemTracker will examine the Record History to find the last user who was assigned to this record when it was in the state specified in the field State for this transition. For instance, if the New State is "Scheduled", ProblemTracker will look in the record history for the record and find the last entry where this record was in the Scheduled state. The assignee listed in this entry will become the new assignee for this record. If the record has not passed through the state selected as the New State, another transition will have to be used to process that record since there is not a user who was the Last Assignee.

• Last Assignee for <State>
  When selecting this option, please select a state in the second pulldown next to New Assignee. With this option selected, ProblemTracker will examine the Record History to find the last user who was assigned to this record when it was in the state specified in the second pulldown. For instance, if the state selected is "Scheduled", ProblemTracker will look in the record history for the record and find the last entry where this record was in the Scheduled state. The assignee listed in this entry will become the new assignee for this record. If the record has not passed through the state selected for this option, another transition will have to be used to process that record since there is not a user who was the Last Assignee.

• <Reporter>
  This will assign the record to the original user who reported the issue according to the value of the Reported By field.

• <LoginUser>
  This will assign the record to the user performing the Task operation. An example where this option can be used is in cases where a record is assigned to another user, such as TBD, and the user needs to assign the record to his or herself using the Task operation.

• A specific user
  Any user with "Internal" selected as the user type can be selected as the new assignee for a transition. The user type is set when the user account is created in the Workgroup Management System.

History Comment

• Selecting Required for this option will require the user to enter a history comment when selecting this transition during the Task operation.
• Selecting Optional will allow the user to leave this field blank when this transition is chosen during the Task operation.
• When Do Not Display is selected here, the history comment field will not be presented to the user when this transition is chosen during the task operation. Even though the history comment is not displayed, the record history will still reflect that the task operation was performed on a record. In addition, if Do Not Display is selected and there are no task fields configured for the transition, the transition is set up for fast tasking. Up to 2000 characters can be entered into the History Comment.

Clone Record

• If Yes is selected for this option, ProblemTracker will first create a copy (clone) of the record which the user selected for the Task operation (a new record will be added with all field values the same as the record that was selected), then it will perform the Task operation on the newly created record (clone). The originally selected record ("parent" of the clone) will only have its Record History updated to note that a clone was made of the record. The clone ("child" record) will also have an extra Record History entry to note that it was created as a clone of the parent. Whether or not an Email Notification Rule (with a condition such as "change of Assignee") is triggered by this Task operation will be based on a comparison between the parent record (record being copied) and the child record (copy) after the Task operation completes (e.g. is the Assignee different for the child than for the parent). No "Add" Email Notification Rules will be triggered (to avoid getting one notification for an Add and a second one for a Task for what, to the end user, is a single Task operation). Additional general information on cloning a record is available in the Cloning a Record section of the View page help in the Users Guide.
• If Yes is selected for this option, you can also choose to have the file attachments and/or source code file associations copied from the parent record by checking the Attachments and/or Source Code Files boxes.

Fast Tasking
Fast Tasking is the process where a transition is chosen and the user clicks on the OK button, the record will immediately be updated because it is set such that there are no task fields and the history comment should not be displayed. If a transition is configured to allow fast tasking and is configured to display alert settings during the task operation, the alert settings will not be displayed during the task operation. The default alert settings for the transition will be used instead.

To edit a transition:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Define Workflow button
4. Click on the Transitions button to the left of the state where the transition is defined
5. Click on the Edit button to the left of the transition
6. After making changes to the transition, click OK to save your modifications. For details on the properties of a transition, see the Properties of a Transition section above.

To delete a transition:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Define Workflow button
4. Click on the Transitions button to the left of the state where the transition is configured
5. Click on the Delete button to the left of the transition
6. Click OK to confirm, then OK again to complete the operation. The transition will be removed from the transition list.

Defining Fields For the Task Operation

For each transition within a particular state, you can specify which fields should be presented to the user for the Task operation. By only presenting the user with the necessary fields, you can ensure each user will correctly adhere to the workflow process.

To add Task Fields to a transition:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Define Workflow button
4. Click on the Transitions button to the left of the state where the transition is configured
5. Click on the Task Fields button to the left of the desired transition
6. Click on the field in the Not In Use column, then click on the Add button
7. Click on the Edit button to configure properties for the field when it is presented during the Task operation. The properties are described in the next section below.
8. Click on the Update button to save your selections
9. Click on the OK button to return to the Transition list

To edit the properties of a Task Field in a transition:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Define Workflow button
4. Click on the Transitions button to the left of the state where the transition is configured
5. Click on the Task Fields button to the left of the desired transition
6. Click on the field in the In Use column, then click on the Edit button
7. Make changes to the properties for the field when it is presented during the Task operation. The properties are described in the next section below.
8. Click on the Update button to save your selections
9. Click on the OK button to return to the Transition list

To remove Task Fields from a transition:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Define Workflow button
4. Click on the Transitions button to the left of the state where the transition is configured
5. Click on the Task Fields button to the left of the desired transition
6. Click on the field in the In Use column, then click on the Remove button
7. Click OK to return to the Transition list

Properties for Task Fields

The following properties can be set for Task Fields when they are presented during the Task operation:

Order
The order in which the Task Field will appear on the page during the Task operation relative to the other task fields configured for the same transition. By default, the order will be the order value as listed in the Define Record section. Select an integer value. If multiple task fields have the same value for the order field, the task fields will be listed in alphabetical order.

Type
Specifies whether the field is required, optional, or read only when it appears during the Task operation. Selecting Required indicates that a user will not be able to complete the Task operation until something is entered or a different value selected for the field. For Integer, Float, Text, TextArea, or Date types this means that a blank value will not be allowed. For pulldown fields, this means that the user must select a value other than the initial value displayed on the form. Selecting Optional indicates that the user is not required to enter information into the field to complete the Task operation. Selecting Read Only indicates that the contents of the field will be displayed for the user's reference, but the field cannot be modified.

Initialize (Reset)
For Date fields, this property specifies whether the field should be automatically initialized to the current date/time when it appears on the Task page. You may wish to use a combination of setting the Type to "Read Only" and Initialize (Reset) to "Yes" for date fields. This combination will allow the date field to be set to the current date and time when the Task operation is performed, but the user will not be allowed to modify the date field.

For Text, TextArea, URL, Integer, and Float fields, this property specifies whether the field should be reset to blank. By setting the Initialize (Reset) property to "Yes" and setting the Type property to "Required", you can force a new value to be entered for a Text, TextArea, URL, Integer, or Float field. This property can be useful in combination with the Clone Record option in a Transition as you may find that you would like several fields to be reset when creating a copy (clone) of an existing record.

Note 1: For Float and Integer fields, if you set the Initialize (Reset) property to "Yes" and the Type property to "Read Only", the field value will be set to 0 (or 0.0) because Float and Integer fields must always have a value (blank is not a valid value for Float or Integer).
Note 2: For all field types, if you set the Initialize (Reset) property to "Yes" the existing value (if any) of the field will be overwritten. Any data previously entered in the field will be lost.

For Pulldown fields, this property specifies whether the field should be reset to its default value. By setting the Initialize (Reset) property to "Yes" and setting the Type property to "Required", you can force a user to select a value other than the default.

For Dependent Pulldown fields, if the parent pulldown is set to be initialized, the parent pulldown will be set to its default value. The value of child pulldown menus may be changed to its default relative to value of the parent pulldown if:

• The child pulldown is also a task field in the same transition and is set to be initialized OR
• The child pulldown is also a task field in the same transition and a value other than the default is selected in the parent pulldown (selecting another value in the parent will cause the items listed in the child pulldown to be updated based on the dependencies configured between the two fields).

For RelNum fields, this property specifies whether each component of the field should be reset to its default value.

For YesNo fields, this property specifies whether the field should be set to "Yes", its default value.

Alerts are email notification messages that can be sent automatically by ProblemTracker at a later date and time to remind a user or group about a record. Alert settings can be configured for each transition. When an alert is set for a transition, when the Task operation is performed on a record using this transition, the alert settings will be applied to the record. It is also possible to allow users to be prompted to configure the Alert settings during the Task operation. Information on configuring default Alert settings for a transition can be found in the Administration section for the Alerts feature.