Designing the Procedure Logic › Advanced Action Diagram Features › Exit States › Set Exit States

Set Exit States

In an action diagram, exit states are set according to the action performed, and its outcome.

The outcome of an action may be signaled by the:

• Return condition of a data action (for example, WHEN NOT FOUND)
• Value of a return code attribute exported from a USEd Action Block; (for example, “processing successful”)

These are options for ensuring that an appropriate exit state is always set:

• Set an exit state only after each action is successfully achieved or each exception condition is discovered.
• You must ensure that every possible exception condition is identified.
• Set a positive default exit state at the beginning of the procedure logic, then test for each positive outcome and every exception that can be foreseen, and reset the Exit State accordingly. (This is currently the most widely adopted option.)
• If no other exit state value is set, then the default value is used.
• You must ensure that every possible exception condition is identified to avoid giving a false “positive” result.
• Set a negative exit state at the beginning of the procedure logic, then test for each successful outcome that is part of the procedure specification (and as before, every exception that can be foreseen), and reset the Exit State accordingly.
• If no positive or known negative exit state value is set, the default value is used. This ensures that any unexpected exception condition will not be assumed to be a successful outcome.

For ease of logic design and maintenance, each organization should try to adopt a single, consistent option for all online and common action block logic.

Where a mixture of these options is already adopted, you must be aware of which option is employed by existing logic with which their procedures must inter work.