Conditional Coding Rules Overview

Administrators use the Conditional Coding Rules application to set up rules that validate user input on a layout. If the data entered does not follow these rules, an error message prevents the information from being saved until corrected.

Conditional Coding Rules only support validating layouts associated with the Document object or Relativity Dynamic Objects (RDOs). It does not support validation on any system objects.

You will define the rules that are considered invalid when the user is coding fields within a layout. The following list outlines important concepts necessary for constructing these coding rules.

  • Basic Information—define the rule name, which Object Type it applies to, and optionally which layout. The Enabled toggle determines whether this rule is active in the workspace. If no layout(s) are selected, the rule will affect all layouts on the object.
  • Condition—the validation rule. This defines the invalid data or scenario that is not allowed. You build conditions by performing these tasks:
    • Identifying a validation type (field or user validation).
    • Selecting a field or group name and an operator for evaluation purposes.
    • Choosing a choice or value.
  • Action—the message shown to the user when the conditions are met and their attempt to save the layout data is not permitted. It should instruct them which field(s) are set incorrectly or which group they should or should not be a member of.

For example, you may have a layout that includes fields called Responsive and Issue Designation. You could add a condition that results in an error message when the user selects true for the Responsive field but hasn't selected an option for the Issue Designation field.

Conditional Coding Rules support five field types: Long Text, Fixed-length Text, Single Choice, Multiple Choice, and Yes/No fields. You can use only the supported operators for each field type when building a coding rule. If you add multiple conditions, you can choose to evaluate them as a series of expressions connected by the AND or OR operators. See Creating Conditional Coding Rules.

In addition to these key concepts, review the following functionality that characterizes the coding rule behavior:

  • Triggered only for updates to a single record—Your coding rule executes when a user clicks Save, Save & Next, or Save and Back. They are not executed on mass operations.
  • Read-only fields and propagation—Propagation does not occur when a field populated by an event handler condition is set to Read Only=Yes and propagation is enabled on the field.
  • Not retroactive—The functionality is not retroactive. The conditions defined in your coding rule will only apply to coding that takes place after you enable the rule within the workspace. Previously reviewed documents must be re-coded for the validation to take effect.