2331851 - Employee Central - Business Rules

This is a collection of useful Knowledge Base Articles related to Business Rules.

Please be sure that before you open a support case with Product Support, you have performed the following sanity checks on your configuration/data, bearing in mind most issues are due to a configuration issue.

• The feature is correctly enabled as described in the related Business Rules in Employee Central chapter in the Implementing Employee Central Core Guide.
  
• Has the configuration changed recently?
• Was it working before the recent changes?
• Can the recent change be undone so retesting can be performed?
• Did the rule work previously/ever?
• Can the issue be reproduced for just one or multiple users?
• If the issue is reproducible for all, it is still likely to be a configuration issue.
• If it seems to be related to one or a small user population, the next step is to check and verify the users' data does not have any issues.
• Is the rule missing conditions to satisfy all possibilities?
• Have you verified that, according to the related Business Rules in Employee Central chapter in the Implementing Employee Central Core Guide, the rule is configured according to Best Practices recommended in the handbook?
• Have you identified which rule is causing the error?
• Have you removed ALL of the Business Rules from the UI or Element you are having issues with? Did the issue persist?
• If no, then add the Rules back to the configuration one at a time (retesting after each rule is added back) to determine which rule is causing the error.

 

 

Tips & Tricks

Below are some tips and tricks recommended by Product Support which you should consider first before opening a Support case.



FAQ Index

• Common Implementation Issues
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Rule Configuration
• General "How To" examples
• Hire Wizards
• EC Alerts
• Imports & Mass Changes
• Business Rule does not trigger
• Application Errors
• SAP for Me

 

Common Implementation Issues

Typically, most Business Rule implementations issues are caused by incorrect or invalid configuration or behaviour expectations, unsupported rule conditions, or the Base Object having certain expected limitations. Please ensure you refer to the Business Rules section in the Employee Central Core Guide (found here) which include how to manage and configure Business Rules. Some notes about implementing this feature:

1. Business Rules were implemented very early in the instance configuration. Best practice is to first ensure that the configuration for the element/portlet you are working in is completed before starting to build automizations using Business Rules.
2. The test user you are testing with has been used extensively for many tests and has data issues somewhere in their data structure (like null values in required fields) causing rules to fail or error when triggered.
3. Part of the configuration for the element/portlet is incorrect, having an impact on the rule(s) you are trying to trigger.
4. You did not follow the guide exactly for the rule you were trying to configure.
5. You used the "Manage Parameters" function, which is not supported for EC rules. (Any handbook which explicitely requires you to add a Parameter is an exception, as application handles these specific scenarios.)

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Rule Configuration

Some general quick reference guidelines - please always refer to the Business Rules section in the Employee Central Core Guide found here:

• 2277956 - How to create a Business Rule
• 2079920 - Employee Central - How to Create a Business Rule
• 2092617 - Effective Dated Business Rules
• 2080252 - How to amend the “Rule Type” picklist values
• 2437420 - Which Portlets Support Cross Portlet Business Rules

 

General "How To" examples

Some examples of Rule "How To" questions we have had in the past:

• 2080138 - How to Propagate fields using Business Rules
• 2092849 - How to create a Business Rule to validate data on change/save, and provide a Warning or Error message
• 2250044 - Using HTML Tags in MessageDefinition MDF Object 
• 2320050 - How to prevent users from filling in the Dependents Information portlet in Hire or Rehire wizards
• 2286350 - How to automatically generate email addresses for new hires using rules
• 2297965 - How to Create a Business Rule to Format a Phone Number
• 2277199 - How to configure HRIS Sync for Pay Component Group values (like Annualized Salary) using Business Rules
• 2260431 - How To Enable Business Rules for Workflow Derivation and Event Derivation
• 2324639 - How to populate object information from Employee Central to Custom Portlet or Objects via Business Rule
• 2331495 - How to disable/prevent EC Rules from triggering when publishing Compensation Form back to EC Compensation Info portlet
• 2344097 - How to Default "OK to Rehire" to Yes in Termination MSS UI
• 2345108 - How to create a Business Rule to calculate Age
• 2416185 - How to prevent Hire/Rehire when multiple required Job Relationship Types have not been added
• 2409838 - How to default Probation Period End Date in the Add New Employee Wizard
• 2420396- How to set the Amount of one Pay Component, based on the combined Amount of 2 other Pay Components
• 2426526- How to use a Business Rule to apply a Format/Regular Expression to a Field
• 2557647 - How to create a Business Rule to enforce the use of Latin characters only

 

Hire Wizards (Add New Employee, Manage Pending Hires, Rehire Inactive Employee)

• 2079434 - New Hire process - Field level permissions are ignored
• 2080655 - How to hide fields in the Add New Employee wizard
• 2437075 - How to hide Global Information Fields onInit in the Add New Employee Wizard
• 2307689 - Global Info onInit Rules configuration (for Hire wizards)

EC Alerts Rules

Please refer to the "EC Alerts and Notifications" section in 2315275 - Employee Central - Workflows & Alerts.

Imports & Mass Changes

• 2080773 - How to trigger Business Rules in Job Info import
• 2283442 - Rules triggered on Mass Changes
• 2181998 - How to import MDF Object/Rule via ZIP file using Full Purge mode

 

Business Rule does not trigger

Most of the time, if a Business Rule does not trigger, either the IF criteria was not met or the rule/trigger is not supported for the desired hris-element. Otherwise, the rule usually does not trigger due to invalid rule configuration.

• 2202194 - Business Rule Doesn't Trigger for All Users
• 2317935 - Legacy Leave of Absence Workflow OnSave Rule Not Triggered
• 2239765 - Unable to trigger onEdit Rules for Personal Information and Employment Information pages

 

Application Errors

Some examples of Application Errors caused by invalid or broken Business Rules:

• 2439274 - Application Error When Viewing a Business Rule
• 2204584 - Business Rules - An Application Error has Occurred
• 2293654 - Unabled to click Save when creating/editing a Business Rule
• 2279954 - Application Error on viewing rule / ’Rule Type’ dropdown empty when creating a business rule
• 2541150 - Business Rules: Application Error when trying to expand Context > Current User

 

 

 You should also checkSAP for Me for any new Knowledge Base Articles that are not included in the above list.

 

 

 

When opening a Support case, please ensure the following information is attached to the case:

• Screenshot of the Error Message - also copy/paste the content of the error message to the case if possible (for JAVA errors or errorIds).
• Timestamp - copy/paste the text from the "Show version information" popup into the case.
• Is the issue replicatable for all users or just some/one?
• Screenshots of UI where the rule is failing (Is it New Hire, Manage Pending Hire, Job Info History, MSS UI, etc.).
• Ensure you have tested methodically to narrow down which rule is causing the problem, then please take a screenshot of the rule and include it in your documentation.
• Succession & Country Specific Succession Data Model XMLs.
• Please provide detailed steps to reproduce the issue you are encountering, preferably including screenshots. Please make sure that the screenshot is full screen to show the complete web page view.
• When creating an issue, please answer following questions (answer whichever is applicable - if a question doesn't apply in a scenario then answer "Not Applicable"):
• Did this issue start recently?
• Was the same feature or functionality working before?
• Is the issue reproducible for other users?
• If the issue is realted to a Picklist or Object field, then please attach an export of the Picklist/Object data.

 

MDF Rules, Business Rules, Rule Triggers, Employee Central 2.0, onSave, onChange, onView, onInit, postSave, saveAlert, FAQ , KBA , LOD-SF-EC-JOB-RUL , Job Info Business Rules , LOD-SF-EC-EDP , Import Employee Data (EC Core only) , LOD-SF-EC-PER-PRS , Personal Info - Config, Rules, RBP, UI , LOD-SF-EC-HIR-RUL , Business Rules , LOD-SF-EC-AAD , DO NOT USE - Use either EC-ADV or EC-DED , LOD-SF-EC-ALR , Alerts & Notifications (saveAlert - EC Core only) , LOD-SF-EC-CMP-RUL , Business Rules , LOD-SF-EC-DOC , Document Generation , LOD-SF-EC-GBF , Global Benefits , How To

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central all versions ; SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite all versions