Update referring items

This workflow action is the successor of the old Fields to update in Workflow Transitions.

On the new action dialog, the followings need to be defined:

• Relation - The relation between the tracker item which is the source or the subject of the triggering event, and the items to update.
• Project - The project in which to update items (Only if there are possible target Trackers in projects other than the current one.).
• Tracker - The tracker in which the items are to be updated.
• Status - The status of the items to update.

from the upcoming cascading menu.

There are basically two types of updating the referring items:

• Upating items that is referred from the item ( outgoing references )
  Example for a Requirement type of field:
  Parent (Requirement) -> Requirements -> New
• Updating items referring to the item ( incoming references ).
  Example for a Requirement type of field ( which can also be read as its children ) :
  Requirements for Parent -> Requirements -> New

In our example from Forking sub-processes from processes (work items), we choose to update Subject (Issues) with Status In Approval in the Tracker Processes (of the current project Workflow Demo:

The only custom parameter are the Fields to update:


The field selector will show all updatable fields of the selected target tracker items in the selected status.

For each selected field, you can choose, whether to

• Set or
• Clear

the value of this field.

Depending on the field type, there are also additional type specific operations.

Text and Wiki fields also support to

• Prepend or
• Append

a value to the existing value (with an optional separator).

Numeric and Duration fields also support to

• Increment or
• Decrement

the existing value by the specified value.

In other words Add or Substract the specified value to/from the existing field value.

Multiple Choice fields also support to

• Add
• Remove

the specified value(s) to/from the existing field value(s), or to

• Retain

only those existing field values that are contained in the specified (collection of) values.

In other words, removes those existing values, that are not contained in the specified (collection of) values.

The value(s) to apply can be

• (a constant) Value, that you can enter/select via the appropriate value editor, or
• the Content of an assignment compatible field from the tracker item, that is source/subject of the triggering event, or
• the Result of evaluating an expression (on the tracker item, that is source/subject of the triggering event), that computes/calculates the value (see Computed Fields).

For example:

• Set the Status of the items to update to Approved and also
• Add all Comments/Attachments (of the tracker item, that is source/subject of the triggering event) to the Comments/Attachments of the items to update.

To Edit a field to update, you can:

• Click the field value you want to change/edit.
• Click on the small pencil behind the field value you want to change/edit.

To Remove a field to update:

• Click on the x icon after the name of the field you want to remove.

Please make sure, that you have committed all open field value editors with OK, before you save the action, otherwise the uncommittededitor values will get lost.

In CB-7.9.2 and newer, you can also apply multiple value update operations on parameters and fields, that allow multiple values.

For example:

• Assign the item to all Owners, except those having role Tester
  • Assigned to: Set to content of Owner, Remove Tester
• Assign the item to all Owners, plus user bond
  • Assigned to: Set to content of Owner, Add bond
• Remove all assignees in role Developer and newly assign users in role Tester
  • Assigned to: Remove Developer, Add Tester

There can be also constellations with three or more operations, e.g.

• Assign the item to all Owners, that have the role Administrator, except members of group System Admin
  • Assigned to: Set to content of Owner, Retain Administrator, Remove System Admin

To add additional field value update operations, click on the More... button of the field update editor.




To Remove additional field value update operations:

• Click on the x icon of the field value update operation, you want to remove.

Because the order of operations is significant, you can re-order additional field value update operations via drag-and-drop (in edit mode).

Editor options

This feature is available from version 9.5

This section of the workflow action configuration is available only for Create and Update referring item actions. The two options:

• Open Editor: by default the workflow action creates or updates a referring item and then updates the status of the original item. If this option is checked then the referring item is not updated/created automatically. Instead codeBeamer shows the editor page prepopulated with all the field values that the user specified in the workflow action definition. If the user clicks on save on this editor page then the referring item is created/updated and the status of the original item is updated. If the user clicks on cancel on the editor then the transition is not executed, meaning that the referring item is not created/updated and the status of the original item is not updated.
• Switch to Referring Item: if this option is checked then after the referring item was created/updated by the action the new item page is loaded in the browser.