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How can we specify two actions from the same state which goes to the same state (with different resolutions)?


Susan Hanson (1.6k2201194) | asked Apr 29 '14, 5:32 a.m.
 Within a single Workflow, I would like to have a single state called "Closed" with two resolutions: Done and Not Done, and I want to have 2 different Actions "Complete" and "Cancel" which go to Closed -> Done and Closed -> Not Done, respectively.

I have defined the Actions:
     Cancel    with Target State Closed, with Resolution Not Done
     Complete  with Target State Closed, with Resolution Done.

However,in the workflow Transitions, the dropdown for the transition from In Progress to Closed only allows me to specify 1 and only 1 Action for the transition from In Progress to Closed (I need two of them).

Is there a way to do this??

Comments
sam detweiler commented Apr 29 '14, 8:15 a.m.

I don't think so.. also, I don't think there is any mechanism to select the resolution (unless its the only one available?)

4 answers



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Alexandre Stegani (8664) | answered Apr 30 '14, 2:29 p.m.
Hi Susan

Only 1 action is allowed when configuring a transition from State A to State B.

From my understanding you don't need 2 actions. You can simply create 2 resolutions (Done and Not Done) and link both to a single Action (Complete, for example).

The Action "Complete" will transition the WI from "In Progress" to "Closed" and the user will be prompted to choose one of the two resultions (Done and Not Done)

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sam detweiler commented Apr 30 '14, 2:37 p.m.

>and the user will be prompted to choose one of the two resultions (Done and Not Done)

how do you do that? I have never seen a prompt for resolution code


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Alexandre Stegani (8664) | answered Apr 30 '14, 6:49 p.m.
Hi Sam,

In the workflow configuration, for each action you can configure what resolutions to display. When taking the "Complete" action, the user will be able to choose between 2 resolutions (Done and Not Done)



Comments
sam detweiler commented Apr 30 '14, 6:51 p.m.

ok, I got that.. unfortunately they are not forced to pick on.. prompted was the word that motivated me to ask.. 

Susan (and I) wanted something more definitive. it can ONLY be this way or that.


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Alexandre Stegani (8664) | answered Apr 30 '14, 7:17 p.m.
Yes, I see. "prompt" is not exactly the word. When the user take the action "Complete", the Resolution drop down will now be available. The user can choose the resolutions listed there (Done and Not Done, in this case). It is not possible to leave the resolution attribute blank (because there is no blank option). The resolution drop down will be automatically populated with one of the resolutions (Done, for example).

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Susan Hanson commented Apr 30 '14, 9:03 p.m.

i was really trying to also have the "Cancel" action, since that is what everbody in my team will look for ... If there is no action called "Cancel" ... they wont' know what to do no matter how many times I tell them to use "Complete" and pick "Invalid, not done".

We want to try to keep a few resolutions to separate out
Closed -> Done  (yes, we did the work)
Closed -> Invalid (no work to do .... this is the Cancel one)
Closed -> Valid but not done (prioritization for example)

The last could be something like the "wont' fix" that we see here and there in different project areas where we "could" fix it if we wanted but we have decided we "won't" fix it.

But I wanted to keep one Cancel action that ewnt directly to Closed -> Invalid.  However it seems I can't.  So either I'll have to use a Cancel action, or I'll have to try to train my whole team to use "Close" as an action for both valid and invalid items.


Donald Nong commented Apr 30 '14, 9:36 p.m.

I think your challenge comes as you use the states a bit differently from the norm (Closed is normally the final state). Is it possible to move the Done/Invalid/Valid states before the Closed state? Will it be easier to configure such a work flow?


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Alexandre Stegani (8664) | answered May 01 '14, 5:09 p.m.
Another possible workaround is to make Done and Not Done two different states (instead of resolutions)

Example.

Action: Complete > target state: Done
Action: Cancel > target state: Not Done

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