Moving Entities Across Business Modules

1.   Introduction

2.   Requirements

     2.1.   Action Management

     2.2.   Business Module Group

3.   Configuration

4.   End User Guide

5.   Notes

This feature allows the user to move entities from one business module to another. This is useful in various cases.

An example could be if a solution has a Projects business module which contains all active projects, and another Projects module used to store all archived projects. This feature makes it possible to move a finished project from the active Projects module to the Archived Projects module for storage. This makes the solution more scalable and help respect limitations on entity counts. WorkPoint Business Modules performs best if the entity count is below 5000 because of Microsoft SharePoint software boundaries and limitations. This is especially true if unique permissions are assigned to many entities. So, in case a solution approaches this count, but many of the entities are completed, it is now possible to move these to a separate storage module using this feature.

Another example could be moving items from a pipeline module to a project module. When a lead in a pipeline module becomes a project, it can now be moved to a project module. So instead of combining many modules/stages into one module it is now possible to divide the module into multiple modules and move the entity through the modules during the entity lifecycle.

Another great aspect about this feature is that it is possible to set up security settings tailored for both the active projects and the archived projects, should these differ for the solutions users.

This feature can be used through the WorkPoint 365 WebAPI. For more information about the WorkPoint 365 WebAPI, visit this website: https://support.workpoint.dk/hc/en-us/articles/206969638-WorkPoint-365-Web-API. The Move Action is described technically in detail in this link: https://wp365webapi.azurewebsites.net/Help/Api/POST-api-Entity-Move.

It can also be used in combination with the Action Management feature. E.g. when a project changes stage to “Archived”, it would automatically trigger an action to move the entity to the archive module

It is important to note that the site for the entity does not get copied. The site for the entity is still the same after moving the entity.

For use through Action Management an Action Management license is required.

The two business modules to move an entity from and to need to have the same module group name. If no match is found between any business modules, none will be selectable through the creation interface of Action Management.

When creating or editing a business module the group name can be set, as shown in the green box in the image below:

It is important to note that if using this feature through the WorkPoint 365 WebAPI and no Module Group Name is defined, an error will be returned in the result information for the WorkPoint365.WebAPI.Model.MoveEntityResult call.

In order to use this feature through Action Management, an action and a trigger need to be set up through the Action Management interface.

In the Action Management interface, you can set up an action to move an entity:

1. Navigate to the Action Management interface for the business module for which the action is needed.
2. Click the “Add Move Entity Action” button.

In the window that opens, the settings for the action can be set:

1. A title for the action can be set.
2. If the action should be active, check the Active checker.
3. Select the target business module. This is the module to which you wish to move an entity to.
4. Select the stage you want the moved entity to be stored as. If there is a stage on the target module that matches the stage that the source is currently in, that will be chosen unless you choose differently in this field. If nothing is selected, a default stage will be chosen.
5. Clicking the “Add” button finalizes the creation of the action.

After having created the Action, you can create either a Stage Change Trigger or a Manual Trigger to execute the move action. Here is described how to set up a Stage Change Trigger with the action:

1. For the Title, choose one that describes what the action does.
2. Choose the stage change when the trigger should activate.
3. Select the Action that needs to be executed when this trigger activates (the one created earlier), and click “Add”.
4. Finalize the creation of the trigger by clicking the “Add” button.

After creating both the Action and the Action Trigger, the Action Management interface should look something like this:

It is important to understand that when moving an entity from one business module, the site does not change. Only the entity gets moved. This is illustrated in the image below:

As shown in the image, the first item from the Projects module is moved to the Projects Archive module, but the site stays where it is and the link from the moved entity to the site also persists.

It is also very important to note that fields are mapped solely by looking at field names and field types. If internal field names and field types match between the two business modules, the values will be moved over. If not, the values will be ignored and not moved over. It is therefore important that the relevant fields match between the two modules in case the information is important to keep through the move action