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What's the difference between approval state and cumulative state?


mark byrd (14712330) | asked Jun 23 '14, 1:50 p.m.
On a work item query, you can set Approvals State is, or is not, approved, pending, and rejected. 
You can also set Approval Descriptors Cumulative State is, or is not, approved, pending, and rejected.  
What do these settings mean when there is more than one approval request on the work item, and the approval requests have different states (IE one accepted, one rejected)? 
What does setting more than one approval state mean (IE: appproval state is approved, rejected)?
What does setting more than one cumulative state mean (IE: cumulative state is approved, rejected?


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sam detweiler (12.5k6195201) | answered Jun 23 '14, 2:06 p.m.
edited Jun 23 '14, 2:34 p.m.
the approval state is for THAT approval record.

the cumulative is the sum of all the individual approvals on that workitem
(you can force set this)
if there are three separate aprovals required, then the cumulative state is pending til all three are approved (or rejected).. rejected = if any ONE of the three is rejected, then the sum must be rejected too.

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mark byrd commented Jun 24 '14, 11:04 a.m.

Thanks for responding. Based on your answer I did some experiments ... 

If all approval requests are pending, cumulative status is pending is true.
If any approval request is rejected, cumulative status is rejected is true.
If any approval request is approved, cumulative status is approved is true.
If any approval request is not pending, cumulative status is not pending is true.
If any approval request is not rejected, cumulative status is not rejected is true.
If any approval request is not approved, cumulative status is not approved is true.

Given request 1 approved, request 2 rejected ... 
Since I can only use AND or OR conditions, there does not seem to be a way to say "return false if any request was rejected".  I need "cumulative status is not pending and not cumulative status is rejected".


sam detweiler commented Jun 24 '14, 11:10 a.m.

Ok, I missed a few words.. its not the approval, but the approvers that determine the cumulative state
each approval is separate


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