Title

Using Lookups for Lifecycle

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Using-Lookups-for-Lifecycle

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Answer

Using Lookups for Lifecycle

Lookup columns can be used to set the expiry date when a requestor selects a value from a drop down column. This could be a Project Type column or Business case.

To understand more about Lookups read 'What are Lookups?'

Create a drop down column - this will be displayed on the request form
Create a lookup column - this will be a drop down column with Lookup added to the name, this will need to match the previous column with additional values needed, in this case number of days.
Add the Non-Lookup Column to a Form - this allows the column to be displayed on the request form
Link the Form to a Service Definition - This allows new requests to display the form.
Configure the Lease or Lifecycle - Ensure your lease or lifecycle's expiry type is set to the lookup column.

Watch this short video to see how to configure or read the instructions below:

Create a Drop-Down Column

First, we need to use an existing drop-down column or create a new one. For Example, Project Type,

Go to Admin > Settings > hover over Forms > Columns.
Create a new column or check an existing Drop Down. This will be added to a form allowing users to request the project type they have.
Each line will be an option in the list. Copy and paste this list for later.
Save the column.

Create a Lookup Column

A lookup column must have the exact same setup as the Drop Down it will link to with the following additions:

The name will be the same with Lookup added, for our example this means Project Type Lookup
The Drop-Down List will have additional properties we can use. they are separated by #

Create Lookup Column

When we look in our list of columns we will see both Project Types listed.

Lookup Drop-Down

Add the Non-Lookup Column to a Form

The Project Type column must be linked to a Form.

This form will be added to the default options already configured in your service definition and will always be on the right-hand side of the screen. If you already have a form linked collecting other metadata add this column in or create a new form.

Go to Admin > Templates > Forms and Add columns to the form as needed. Each column must be added individually and the order set. You can make columns mandatory and show them on the info page of the workspace.
If you are using the Date to calculate the lease we recommend making this required.
Save the Form.

Link the Form to a Service Definition

Before we can configure the lease the form must be linked to the Service Definition.

Go to Admin > Service Definitions.
Edit the required one and go to the 'Request' tab and scroll to the 'Request Form' section.
Select the form you saved from the list of active forms.
Save the Service DEfinition

Configure the Lifecycle

Finally, we can configure the lifecycle Policy:

A Lifecycle will, apply an expiry date to the workspace that will run multiple stages either before, on or after the expiry date set.
Email reminders can be sent before each stage and emails can be sent when each lifecycle action is run.

Check lifecycle Stages are available, that will be used in the lifecycle policy
1. Go to Admin > Policies > Lifecycle Policies > Stages
2. If you do not have any stages created, click +Add lifecycle stage and complete the configuration
  1. Name, provide a descriptive name of what actions will be run
  2. Description, give more details of what will be configured
  3. Click +Add Action
  4. Select the Action type that will run - for example 'Change Archive State'
  5. Setup any additional configuration
  6. Enable
  7. Add notifications if needed, an email will be sent once the action is run
  8. Click Save on Action
  9. Add any other action types that should be run for this stage
3. Save the stage

Check the Lifecycle policies
1. Go to Admin > Policies > Lifecycle Policies
2. If you do not have any policies created that set expiry to request form fields, click +Add lifecycle policy and complete the configuration
  1. Name, provide a descriptive name of what actions will be run and how the expiry date is calculated
  2. Description, give more details of what will be configured
  3. Set Expiry type to Request form field
  4. Type the name of the lookup column to be used and add the lookup value that will provide the number of days [1]
  5. Set the Default lease length (if the lookup is not selected or fails, this number of days will be assigned
  6. Click +Add Stage
    1. Select from the list of stages you created
    2. Set the Trigger to either
      1. On Expiry date
      2. Or Expiry date - #of days before
      3. Or Expiry date + #of days after
    3. Enable reminders if you want emails to be sent before the stage is reached
    4. Save
    5. Set who reminders will be sent to
    6. Save
3. Repeat for more stages to be added
4. Enable the Policy

Add the lifecycle policy to the Service definition
1. Go to Admin > Service Definition > open the definition > Lifecycle tab
2. Click +Add Policy
  1. Select the Lifecycle policy to use
  2. Show the lifecycle stages in the info pages, set 'show service instance lifecycle tab' to yes
  3. Add a lease description on request form
3. Click Save
Save the Service Definition

Change the Expiry date after creation

If you need to change the date you can use the following actions:

Change the Lease.

This allows the requestor to set the number of days it will now last, the maximum will be the default lease length.

To trigger the lifecycle to run today, set to 0 days.