An If-Else activity is used to conditionally run one of two or more alternative branches depending on the conditions defined on the branches. It contains an ordered set of branches and runs the first branch whose condition evaluates to TRUE. You can add as many branches as you want to an If-Else activity, and you can add as many activities as you want to every branch.
Each branch of an If-Else activity may have an individual condition set on it. When an If-Else activity starts, if evaluates the condition on its first (leftmost) branch. If that condition is met, Active Roles runs the activities of that branch; otherwise, Active Roles evaluates the condition on the next branch (from left to right), and so on.
When configuring If-Else branch conditions, consider the following:
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Active Roles runs only the first branch whose condition is evaluated to TRUE.
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An If-Else activity can finish without any of its branches being initiated, if the condition of each branch is evaluated as FALSE.
If no condition is defined for a branch, Active Roles considers that branch to be always TRUE. Therefore, the final (rightmost) branch normally must have no condition, so that it is always evaluated as TRUE. This way, the final branch acts as the Else branch that runs if the conditions on the other branches are not fulfilled.
TIP: To ensure that at least one activity is run from a branch, make sure that you define no running condition for the last branch of an If-Else activity.
An If-Else activity is intended to select exactly one branch of the activity from a given set of branches. For each branch, the activity checks the branch conditions and executes the first of the branches whose condition evaluates to TRUE.
When you configure an If-Else branch, you need to add at least one condition, but you are not limited in the number of conditions that you can add for a given branch. You can add, delete, and group conditions using various operators. It is possible to nest condition groups within other condition groups to achieve the results that you want.
A condition group contains one or more conditions connected by the same logical operator. By grouping conditions, you specify that those conditions should be evaluated as a single unit. The effect is the same as if you put parentheses around an expression in a mathematical equation or logic statement.
By default, a single, implied condition group is created when you add a branch condition. You can create additional condition groups to group a set of conditions and nest grouped conditions within other condition groups.
In a condition group, conditions are connected using the AND, OR, NOT AND, or NOT OR logical operator:
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AND group evaluates to TRUE if all conditions in the group are TRUE.
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OR group evaluates to TRUE if any condition in the group is TRUE.
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NOT AND group evaluates to TRUE if any condition in the group evaluates to FALSE.
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NOT OR group evaluates to TRUE if all conditions in the group evaluate to FALSE.
By default, AND is the logical operator between the conditions in a condition group. It is possible to change the logical operator by converting the condition group to a different group type: Click the name of the group, point to Convert condition group to, and then click the option appropriate to the desired logical operator.
By default, AND is the logical operator between the conditions in a condition group. It is possible to change the logical operator by converting the condition group to a different group type.
When you add a condition, the Workflow Designer first prompts you to specify what you want the condition to evaluate. The following options are available:
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Property of workflow initiator: This option is intended to evaluate the value of a certain property of the user whose request started the workflow. You can select the desired property when you configure a condition.
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Activity execution status: This option evaluates whether Active Roles encountered an error when running a certain activity. You can select the activity when you configure a condition.
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Workflow parameter value: This option is intended to evaluate the value of a certain parameter of the workflow. You can select the parameter when you configure a condition.
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Property of object from workflow data context: This option is intended to evaluate the value of a certain property of the object that will be selected by the If-Else activity on the basis of the data found in the workflow environment at the time of executing the workflow. When you configure a branch condition, you can choose the property and specify which object you want the activity to select upon evaluating the condition at workflow run time.
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Value generated by rule expression: This option is intended to evaluate the string value of a certain rule expression. By using a rule expression, you can compose a string value based on properties of various objects found in the workflow environment at the time of executing the workflow. Active Roles calculates the value of your rule expression upon evaluating the condition at workflow run time.
Within a change workflow, the following options are available in addition to the options listed above:
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Property of workflow target object: This option is intended to evaluate the value of a certain property of the target object of the request that started the workflow. You can select the property when you configure a condition.
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Changed value of workflow target object property: This option is intended to evaluate the value that is requested to be assigned to a certain property of the workflow target object, which represents the requested change to the property of the target object of the request that started the workflow. You can select the property when you configure a condition.
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Approver action choice: This option is intended to evaluate the name of the action button applied by the approver to complete the approval task created by a certain Approval activity. Use this option to determine which action button the approver applied to allow the operation that was subject to approval. You can select the Approval activity when you configure a condition.
Once you have specified the entity or field that you want the condition to evaluate, you can choose a comparison operator and specify a comparison value. The list of options that are available to specify a comparison value depends upon the entity or field you have configured the condition to evaluate. The following table summarizes the comparison value options.
Table 52: Comparison value options
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Property of workflow target object
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Property of workflow initiator
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Changed value of workflow target object property
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Workflow parameter value
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Property of object from workflow data context
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Value generated by rule expression |
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Text string
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Property of workflow target object
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Property of workflow initiator
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Changed value of workflow target object property
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Workflow parameter value
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Property of object from workflow data context
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Value generated by rule expression |
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Activity execution status |
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Not executed
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Completed successfully
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Encountered an error |
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Approver action choice |
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For a brief description of comparison operators and comparison value options, see Search filter.
When configuring an If-Else activity, you can choose whether to suppress errors encountered by that activity. The following option is available: Continue workflow even if this activity encounters an error. If this option is not selected (default setting), then an error condition encountered by the activity causes Active Roles to stop the workflow. If you select this option, the workflow continues regardless of whether or not the If-Else activity or any activity within the If-Else activity encounters an error condition.
A Stop/Break activity is used to immediately end all activities of a running workflow instance. You can use it within a branch of an If-Else activity, so as to terminate the workflow once a certain condition occurs.
An example is a requirement for the validation of the requested data changes to deny certain operations because applying such operations would result in unacceptable data being written to the directory. To address this requirement, you can use a workflow with an If-Else branch that runs upon detection of unacceptable data in the requested operation, and add a Stop/Break activity to that branch. In this way, your workflow will block the unwanted operations, safeguarding the directory data.
The Stop/Break activity logs a message when terminating the workflow instance. You can specify a message text as an activity setting to provide the reason for the workflow instance termination. The activity includes that message in the event that is recorded to the Active Roles event log on the computer running the Active Roles Administration Service.
