Feedback Request: Conditional Actions

[ecetron]

Yes the action blocks will be executed sequentially. We've never had END blocks so I don't think there's a need to add that now. Folks appear to understand the logic as is.

I think I was very unclear -- the END was not so much to delineate the end of the block (colors work well) but to exit out of the event itself to stop any further processing.... more of an ABORT/RETURN/EXIT if you will....

[macromark]

I think I was very unclear -- the END was not so much to delineate the end of the block (colors work well) but to exit out of the event itself to stop any further processing.... more of an ABORT/RETURN/EXIT if you will....

Can you give me a real world example of where this would be needed?

[Uncle Michael]

Just to be clear, am I correct that conditions that follow a THEN apply only to actions before the next THEN, but all actions are affected by conditions that appear before the first THEN?

[ksum]

Can you give me a real world example of where this would be needed?

I believe the thought may be such as shown below. I wanted to keep the Run Event action as well but my image editor didn't allow. Apologies for that but I think it gets the idea across. If one condition is met, stop processing further. Of course, for many actions you could make sure orders and conditions are good, but this becomes as helpful as Return statement in the middle of any function. I wonder if it could be handled by multiple events, but know the goal of some is to limit the number of events they have.

Indenting items under each Then would make reading a little easier, but the THEN sections do work.

[Uncle Michael]

I assume from this that ELSE is not an option, even within a THEN group, correct?

[John245]

I assume from this that ELSE is not an option, even within a THEN group, correct?

ELSE is already a FR. macromark did indicate that ELSE will maybe in a next itteration.

---
John

[TC1]

I assume from this that ELSE is not an option, even within a THEN group, correct?

This has been discussed (either earlier in this thread or in the forums), ELSE IF will not be considered at this time. maybe in future updates. Also, given what's being proposed ELSE logic is easily implemented.

Old way:
IF a = 1
THEN do Something
ELSE do SomethingElse

New way:
IF a = 1
THEN do Something
IF a <> 1
THEN do SomethingElse

In my mind, just getting what MacroMark proposed is a HUGE win and will reduce my Event count considerably.

[stefxx]

I think I was very unclear -- the END was not so much to delineate the end of the block (colors work well) but to exit out of the event itself to stop any further processing.... more of an ABORT/RETURN/EXIT if you will....

If this gets implemented, there is hardly any need for an ELSE anymore

[ecetron]

Can you give me a real world example of where this would be needed?

Usually it would be if I was processing through and I got an error -- or I tested a condition and it made no sense to keep going through the rest... and I think Karl, above, gave another clear example...

And again -- sorry for the nit-picking but just having this enhancement is HUGE... and greatly appreciated...

[macromark]

I believe the thought may be such as shown below. I wanted to keep the Run Event action as well but my image editor didn't allow. Apologies for that but I think it gets the idea across. If one condition is met, stop processing further. Of course, for many actions you could make sure orders and conditions are good, but this becomes as helpful as Return statement in the middle of any function. I wonder if it could be handled by multiple events, but know the goal of some is to limit the number of events they have.

Indenting items under each Then would make reading a little easier, but the THEN sections do work.

Karl - If I understand what you're saying the END in your example serves as a FULL STOP for the event.. that the next 2 THEN blocks would not execute if the first THEN block does. Am I getting that right?

[ecetron]

Karl - If I understand what you're saying the END in your example serves as a FULL STOP for the event.. that the next 2 THEN blocks would not execute if the first THEN block does. Am I getting that right?

That is what I had intended -- and I think that matches Karl's interpretation of my original comment...

[ksum]

Karl - If I understand what you're saying the END in your example serves as a FULL STOP for the event.. that the next 2 THEN blocks would not execute if the first THEN block does. Am I getting that right?

Correct. An End of the processing without doing any further Then statements beyond that point. Just like an End or Exit() statement in some programming languages. Or, if you prefer, the same as the Return statement in most languages stops the execution of a function/subroutine at that point and goes back to the calling statement.

[rjh]

In regard to the "END", a simple way to implement this would be to have a new action like "End Actions". You can then add that as the last action in your condition group to stop action processing. This action would only be available if you were editing a "Then" block with a condition.

[ksum]

In regard to the "END", a simple way to implement this would be to have a new action like "End Actions". You can then add that as the last action in your condition group to stop action processing. This action would only be available if you were editing a "Then" block with a condition.

I believe this may work and the conditional availability makes sense.

[randy]

So, there are number of considerations involved with adding this feature. Certainly, one of the biggest is that we don't want to "break" the event engine for those who have no interest in using this feature and simply want to continue to use it as they always have. For those folks, the essential format will remain the same. These are the proposed changes:

The trigger group up top will be untouched except for the following changes.

• Master trigger dividers will be changed from IF and OR IF to WHEN and OR WHEN
• Row colors and/or dividers will be changed to this: Red-hued colors will be used for triggers and trigger dividers, existing blue-hued condition rows will now have blue-hued divider blocks (AND IF).

The action group will have these changes.

• THEN dividers will be colored green and will extend the length of the row. These dividers will signal the beginning of ACTION GROUPS. If conditions are not added to any actions, there will only be 1 action group (as there currently is)
• Clicking the [+] button as the end of a action group will add another action group
• A new "add condition" icon will be added to actions. Clicking this will open the existing screens for creating conditions immediately above that action in the same action block.
• As before, it will be possible to edit, move, enable/disable, delete and add more actions to/within a group. It will now be possible to move, enable/disable, delete and add action groups in the same manner.

The example below includes 3 action groups. The first group will execute when 2 conditions are met, the second group will always execute when the master trigger fires and the third group will execute when its single condition is met.

I like it!