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Intelex configuration7 min read

Business rules vs workflows vs action handlers in Intelex

A corrective action cannot be given a past due date: the three points where that rule can be enforced and which survive an API load.A corrective action cannot be given a past due date: the three points where that rule can be enforced and which survive an API load.

The tell that an Intelex environment was configured by someone learning on the job is a validation rule that works perfectly in the browser and does nothing when the same data arrives through a data import. That is a view action doing a job that belonged to a business rule or an action handler.

Business rules, workflows and action handlers overlap enough to look interchangeable and differ enough to produce that failure. Here is what each one is, and the rule for choosing.

user edits Save stored View action in the browser, pre-submit Business rule every save attempt Action handler after the save Reaches it via API, EDIS or data import? no (bypassed) not documented yes
The choice turns on when each one runs and what reaches it. A constraint enforced only by a view action is not enforced at all against an import. The platform documentation does not say either way for business rules, so an action handler is the defensible choice.

What is each mechanism?

Business rule. An object-level constraint stating what must always be true of every record in that object. The expression is written positively (what must hold), and the system throws an error when it evaluates to FALSE. Two validation types: an XScript Validation Rule (expression plus configurable error message) and a Unique Field Set (no two records share a value or combination of values).

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