How to block a transition if a value in field is missing

Question

I have 2 fields:

- Root cause

- Supplier

Root cause is a mandatory field, Supplier isn't.

When a user selects a root cause of '3rd party system issue' then I want them to always specify the 'Supplier'.

How do I block the ticket from being transitioned to resolved in this case? I can't seem to work out how to do this under the 'Conditions' tab of the workflow.

Andrew Grossman · Answer

+1 for Kara here. IMO, validators are the wrong choice, as the desired behavior is to direct the allowed transitions based on the field population in order to guide the user, rather than reprimanding the user for a disallowed transition after the fact.

Kara Nadarajah · Answer

Thanks, I don't understand from this point onwards:

To work around that, you could add 2 transitions to move from to resolved, using a Value Field condition to enable either option of the root cause field (empty or not empty). More or less like this:

Walter Buggenhout · Answer

Hi @Kara Nadarajah,

No, indeed. Conditions are triggered before you even let a user try to execute it. If you want to validate if something is filled out, you should use validators instead.

First of all, make sure you have a screen associated with the specific transition in your workflow that has your mentioned fields on them. Then, add a Field required validator to the transition, where you select the fields that should be mandatory.

If the required fields are not filled out, an error message will appear on your transition screen and the transition will be aborted.

You may find that you cannot make the validation of the supplier field related to the root cause. To work around that, you could add 2 transitions to move from to resolved, using a Value Field condition to enable either option of the root cause field (empty or not empty). More or less like this:

By using opposite conditions, only 1 transition to resolved will be available to your users. One can then have the validator for the supplier field while the other one doesn't.

Hope this helps!