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logan_t
logan_t
Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
October 17, 2016

Writing Null Values with the Rules Engine

  • October 17, 2016
  • 11 replies
  • 808 views
In certain situations, it would be very helpful to be able to write a null value to certain fields using the Rules Engine. 

For example, some of our customers use rules to map CSMs from the Account object to Gainsight. This is done in the Load to Customers rule. Any time a change is made in their CSMs, the rule updates correctly.

However, if the CSM value is deleted, the "null" value is not pushed to Gainsight. So on accounts where the CSM has been removed, this change is not reflected in Gainsight.

This means our customers have to manually delete the CSM from Gainsight at the same time as they remove them from the account as this cannot be done automatically in the rules engine.

Thanks for your time!
-Logan T.

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      johnpaul_dicks
      johnpaul_dicks
      Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
      November 13, 2017
      Adding my use case here, as I'd find this feature to be very helpful.

      We use rules engine to identify the latest renewal opportunity for each of our customers. We then load this to Customer Info, and use it to allow us to set renewal probability directly from Scorecard 2.0.

      The problem is that I need to be able to clear out the "latest renewal opp" field if the renewal opp for a given customer is closed as won or lost. This is because I do not want these opportunities to be considered as 'in play' going forward, and I don't want any changes to be made to them based on changes made in Scorecard.

      To clarify, I've set some conditions on the rule that updates opp probabilities from Scorecard to ignore opps that are closed. However, this still doesn't close the loop as a value (the opp id) remains on Customer Info linking to the opp that _used to be_ open but is now closed. The creates the possibility that invalid actions may be triggered on this particular opp. Writing a text value into the opp id field on Customer Info will technically address the issue, but adds unnecessary complexity to rule design (addl action and filter steps).

      I can also minimize this risk by joining in and filtering on values from the opp table in every rule that references this field, but this is approach is also cumbersome and error prone. It would be much cleaner to simply write a null value to this field when there are no open renewal opps for a given customer.

      Thanks for considering my use-case. Please keep us posted if this feature is to be included in the product roadmap~
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