Strange WAS CHANGED Behavior

GertV

I'm creating a BO TourBookings that dynamically needs to update a sales price based on the Agent that makes the Booking. TourBookings has a field TourBookings.Agent that is linked to the Agents table, but it can also be undefined, meaning that it is a direct booking. I have the following dynamic rule defined:

IF TourBookings.Agent WAS CHANGED TO DEFINED Then TourBookings.SalesPrice = TourBookings.Agent.SalesPrice

Whenever I change the Agent on the TourBookings form it updates the SalesPrice dynamically and this works correct.

However when I change TourBookings.Agent to UNDEFINED I want to restore the RetailPrice to the SalesPrice. For that I have created following dynamic rule:

IF TourBookings.Agent WAS CHANGED AND TourBookings.Agent IS UNDEFINED Then TourBookings.SalesPrice = TourBookings.RetailPrice.

The above rule however is not executed as the rule evaluation reports that TourBookings.Agent WAS CHANGED evaluates to FALSE, but TourBookings.Agent IS UNDEFINED evaluates to TRUE.

I also tried to achieve the above by using the following condition:

IF Agents WAS REMOVED FROM TourBookings.Agent

This also evaluates to FALSE.

Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

aware_support

Is it only with dynamic rules? Does it work with standard rules?

technopak

Hi,

I can't tell why your code doesn't seem to be working but I came across this before and got around it by using a single dynamic rule for each possibility. Here's how I'd tackle your issue -

Rule 1 - dynamically calculated

IF TourBookings IS NEW AND TourBookings.Agent IS DEFINED THEN
TourBookings.SalesPrice = TourBookings.Agent.SalesPrice
ELSE IF TourBookings IS NEW AND TourBookings.Agent IS UNDEFINED THEN
TourBookings.SalesPrice = TourBookings.RetailPrice

Rule 2 - dynamically calculated

IF TourBookings WAS CHANGED AND NOT (TourBookings IS NEW) AND TourBookings.Agent IS DEFINED THEN
TourBookings.SalesPrice = TourBookings.Agent.SalesPrice
ELSE IF TourBookings WAS CHANGED AND NOT (TourBookings IS NEW) AND TourBookings.Agent IS UNDEFINED THEN
TourBookings.SalesPrice = TourBookings.RetailPrice

From my experience, it is always best to keep things as simple as possible in Aware. Evaluation of complex expressions sometimes doesn't produce the expected results. But it is very good at checking simple rules - and fast too !

Hope this helps,

Peter

GertV

Thanks to both for your replies.

To AwareIM Support: Yes, the rules work fine if I execute them as standard rules. They only fail once I make them dynamic.

To Techopak: Thanks for this suggestion. The rules work as you defined them, but it creates another problem for me. Your rules set back the retailprice on ANY change on the form. However the retailprice can be modified by the user and any modification made by the user is overwritten by your rule. I tried to change this by changing the rule to:

IF TourBookings WAS CHANGED AND NOT (TourBookings IS NEW) AND TourBookings.Agent IS DEFINED THEN
TourBookings.SalesPrice = TourBookings.Agent.SalesPrice
ELSE IF TourBookings WAS CHANGED AND NOT (TourBookings IS NEW) AND TourBookings.Agent IS UNDEFINED AND NOT(TourBookings.SalesPrice WAS CHANGED) THEN
TourBookings.SalesPrice = TourBookings.RetailPrice

Unfortunately the above rule gives me the same problem as my original rules, i.e. the new part does not evaluate correctly when defined as dynamic.

technopak

Hi,

You didn't explain that a user could change the Price manually, you only said - 'when I change TourBookings.Agent to UNDEFINED I want to restore the RetailPrice to the SalesPrice' 🙂

I've done a quick bit of testing and it appears to me that when you change a referenced object field once, the value in that field doesn't seem to change when you change the reference field a subsequent time (not in my database anyway). As you say above, the log reports that it has been changed, but the reference stays the same as it was.

My guess is that because the reference value doesn't change, the dynamic rule is not implementing correctly. At some level (not the logging level), the system must see that no change has taken place.

Sounds very like a bug to me.

Peter

Aware 4.8 on Windows 7

GertV

Hi Peter,

You're right, I should have mentioned the manual price change in the first place. Sorry about that. And thanks again for your efforts.

I also think this is a bug, moreover because the rules execute correctly as normal rules.

SUPPORT: Can you confirm this is a bug?

aware_support

It does appear to be a bug. Would appreciate if you send the BSV with the description of how to reproduce the bug to us.

GertV

Hi,

BSV just send by mail. Thanks for looking into this and looking forward to your reaction.