The Visionary Rules: Basic app is 100% free to download and use.
Why use Visionary Rules: Basic App?
Visionary Rules addresses and overcomes three major limitations associated with Business Rules including the ability to nest rules and to decide when to run the rule. This provides you with a lot more flexibility and power and puts you in control.
What’s Included?
Visionary Rules offers every capability available within Microsoft Business Rules (Set Visibility Yes/No, Lock/Unlock Field, Set Business Required, Set Field Value, and Set Recommendations)
| Basic Action Type | Usage | Real World Example |
|---|---|---|
| Hide Field | Make a field invisible | If the Account Type is ‘Prospect’, then Hide the ‘Customer Number’ Field |
| Show Field | Make a field visible | If the Account Type is ‘Customer’, then Show the ‘Customer Number’ Field |
| Disable Field | Lock a field; Make a field read-only | If the Account Type is ‘Customer’ then Disable the ‘Customer Start Date’ Field |
| Enable Field | Make a read-only field modifiable | If the Account Type is ‘Customer’ then Enable the ‘Customer Number’ field |
| Required Fields | Make a field required, recommended, or not required | If the Account Type is ‘Customer’ then require a ‘Customer Number’ |
| Set Field to Other Field Value | Set a field value to the same value stored in another field. | If the ‘Home Address’ is the same as the ‘Business Address’ then fill it in automatically |
| Set Field Value | Set a field value to a specific value. | When the ‘Account Type’ is changed to ‘Customer’, set the “Customer Start Date” to ‘Today’ |
| Set to Null | Blank out a field value | If the “Home Address” is not the same as “Business Address” blank out the Business Address fields |
| Confirm | Ask the user to select 1 of 2 possible paths; modify the system depending on their selection. | On a Confirm Dialog Box, if user selects “OK” THEN Run Rule A. If they select “Cancel” then Run Rule B |
| Set Field Notification | Display an error message next to a field with an incorrect data value | If the Opportunity Type is “Renewal” AND the Expected Revenue is less than $10,000, AND the Expected Date is after 1/1/2021, THEN display a notification on the ‘Expected Date’ field that says “Deals under $10,000 are expected to close within 12 months” |
| Save | Save the record | |
| RUN RULE | Implement ‘Nested IF’ conditions. In other words, IF one thing is true, test something else. If that is also true, then do the actions specified. | If the Account Type is ‘Customer’ then Run the Rule called ‘Process New Customer’ |
Limitations of Microsoft’s Business Rules solved by Visionary Rules
While Business Rules are easy to build, there are three major limitations that affect the usability of your system.
(1) Business Rules won’t let you combine AND and OR in a condition set
With Microsoft Business Rules, all conditions are linked as “AND” conditions. In other words, ALL of the conditions must be true in order for the Action to be performed.
With Visionary Rules, you can combine conditions with OR, AND, and parenthesis to implement the precise set of conditions required giving you much more freedom and flexibility.
(2) With Business Rules, you can’t control WHEN a rule runs
Business Rules run onLoad of a form, and onChange of a field. This can cause user interface problems. For example, a simple rule that sets a limit on a field value will display an error as soon as the form loads, before the user even has a chance to input data:
With Visionary Rules, you can run a rule onLoad, onChange of a field value, or onSave. In addition to the data validation you can add with onSave events, you can control an event to JUST run onChange, and NOT onLoad. In that case, the simple rule that checks for data will not fire onLoad, only when that field changes. So the form appears blank, and only after the user inputs data into the ‘Salary’ field will the “Set Field Notification” rule run, and that message will then appear, appropriately.
(3) In Business Rules, you can’t link or cascade rules together
When using Microsoft Business Rules, it is not possible for the system to take action on a field that has been changed by a code update. So, if a user enters data into a field, which then changes a second field, Business Rules will ignore that second changed field. However, with Visionary Rules, the system will recognize and acknowledge that as a valid entry and will follow any associated rules. In short, if you set a field value in code, the system will react the same way as if a user modified that field value.
Visionary Rules for Dynamics 365 gives you complete control over when your business rules are evaluated.
