Transition ALL to "Blocked" and "Blocked" to ANY

[Jason Cagle]

Part 1 (Solution Known): I want to create a "Blocked" status. You should be able to transition to this status FROM any other status.

- Part 1 is solved by setting the "Allow all to transition to this status"

Part 2 (Solution Not Known): From the "Blocked" status, you should be able to transition TO any other status.

- I cannot find a solution to Part 2 without creating every transition manually...which I'm hoping not to have to do. Ideally, I'd like to find another solution like Part 1 that maybe says "Allow this status to transition to any other status".

Any ideas?

[Brant Schroeder · Accepted solution]

Jason,

  Sorry but the transition from "Blocked" back to the different statuses will have to be created one by one.  The reason you can transition from many status to one using the allow all to transition to this status is the transition can be reused because the destination status is the same for all statuses.  When going from "Blocked" to the different statuses the transition has to be different since the destination status is different.  A transition in a workflow can only be the same if is leads to the same status.

Example:

Open -> (Transition: Block) -> Blocked
In Progress -> (Transition: Block) -> Blocked
Researching -> (Transition: Block) -> Blocked

Blocked-> (Transition: Unblock) -> Open 
Blocked-> (Transition: Working) -> In Progress
Blocked-> (Transition: Researching) -> Researching 

Hope that makes sense.  If you have transitions that are already in place you can reuse those to cut down on management in the future.

Example:

Blocked-> (Transition: Unblock) -> Open 
Open -> (Transition: Working) -> In Progress 
Blocked-> (Transition: Working) -> In Progress

[Jason Cagle]

Thanks. Yes, that makes sense. Can you explain that last comment/example? I'm not 100% sure I'm following you there.

[Brant Schroeder]

The other statuses in the workflow have transitions that point to them that already exist.  You can use an existing transition when you create you transitions from Blocked back to the other statuses.  This will make it easier to maintain the transitions and workflow in the future.  In the example above there is a transition Working that already exists from open to in progress. You can reuse this transition from blocked to in progress since the destination is the same.  Then if you make changes to the screen, validator, etc.  in the future it is easier to maintain. 

[Jason Cagle]

Ok, so, instead of having 2 transitions coming into "In Progress" (one from Blocked and one from Open), I could just have the one from Open and add the transition from Blocked to Open, correct?

[Brant Schroeder]

Jason,

  You can do that as well and to tell you the truth that might be a better solution just from a business process perspective.  I can give you an example.  We have a workflow that any status can go to validate.  But validate can only go back to the review status through needs review or to the ready for production status from the migrate to production transition. 

What I was explaining above 

I think will be easier to see in an image.  Mark as done is a single transition that has been reused three times. 

When adding the transition I use the reuse a transition tab to set this up.  Then I only have a single transition to maintain but it has been used three times.

[Jason Cagle]

Ah ha...I get it now. I do remember that "Reuse a transition" now. Thanks for setting me straight.