A Lifecycle is the ordered series of States that an item progresses through during its lifetime. Lifecycles help ensure consistent processing of items such as changes, problems and software releases. A Lifecycle has an Initial Status, which it is given when created, and a list of Transitions, which are pairs of "from" and "to" statuses which define the valid paths through the Lifecycle.

In Cimera each Item Type must be assigned a Lifecycle even if it is only a "Single State Lifecycle" with a status of 'Exists'

The Status (position in the Lifecycle) of an item can be used to determine which information is mandatory and which is unchangeable, or can be used by security rules to govern who has what level of access to the item or to individual fields on it

For example:

If customer complaints were being managed in Cimera then Items of Item Type "Customer Complaint" may be allocated a Lifecycle with an Initial Status of "Open" and the Transitions:

Open > Assigned

Assigned > Resolved

Assigned > Withdrawn

Resolved > Closed

Examples

See the Cimera Administration Guide for full details of configuring rules

Mandatory on specific Status Change

Make a field mandatory when the item's status changes from status A to status B or C

Set the field's mandatory rule to

and([o:fld:o$cistatus]='STA:123',or([n:fld:o$cistatus]='STA:456',[n:fld:o$cistatus]='STA:789'))

Note

[o:fld:o$cistatus] is the symbolic for the old/from Status

[n:fld:o$cistatus] is the symbolic for the new/to Status

'STA:123' is the id for the Status A etc

Mandatory on all Status Changes

To make a field, for example a History control, mandatory on any promote

Set the field's mandatory rule to

NOT ([o:fld:o$cistatus] = [n:fld:o$cistatus] )

Mandatory if the Status does not Changes

To make a field mandatory when an item is updated but not promoted (a theoretical example more than a realistic one)

Set the field's mandatory rule to

[n:fld:o$cistatus] = ""

Lifecycle and Statuses

Lifecycle and Statuses

Mandatory on specific Status Change