Using Policies to Manage Requests › How to Specify Assignees › Use an API Plug-in to Specify Assignees

Use an API Plug-in to Specify Assignees

Specifying assignees is a required task when you create policies. To specify assignees, use an API plug-in as follows or use the Action Builder. An API plug-in is most useful when you query an external system for data used to specify the assignees. An API plug-in is also useful when the identities and number of assignees vary, depending on the data supplied in the request. Based on this data, the plug-in dynamically creates the assignee list and specifies the assignee levels.

Follow these steps:

1. Click Catalog, Policies, and open the policy.
2. Select Use Plug-in for Assignees. This check box appears under the Condition field.

   The Action Builder disappears, and the fields mentioned in the next step appear.

3. Complete the fields:

   Plug-in Id

   Specifies the ID of your custom plug-in for dynamically populating the list of assignees. You or another administrator must have previously written, tested, and loaded this plug-in.

   To view the list of plug-ins, select Administration, Tools, Plug-ins.

   (Optional) Variables

   Specify the list of variables for the plug-in, if necessary.

   If applicable, open the plug-in that you selected to display its details, including variables. On the details page, the Inputs section lists the ID values and descriptions of the input variables for the plug-in. Copy the ID values of the variables that you want from that page and paste them into the value of the Variables attribute. Enter variables as a JSON expression.

You have specified assignees for this policy.

Example: Use of Variables

For example, the list of assignees could vary depending on the context of the request. Use a plug-in to populate the list of assignees based on the context in which the policy runs. Here, context means the user, business unit, service, and so forth.

$({'form_field_value':_.sog['sog1'].serviceoption[2].form['form1'].txt1, 'est_service_cost':_.service.estimatedCost, 'est_sog_cost':_.sog['sog1'].estimatedCost, 'req_status':_.request.status})

These variables return data to the plug-in, as follows:

• form_field_value hold the value of the field named txt1. This field is in the form whose ID is form1. This form is in the service option in row 2 of the service option group whose ID is sog1.
• If necessary, use the product UI to find the row number of a service option. (The linked topic references policy conditions but the row number has the same value in this context. The row number is an object property that remains constant, whether you reference it in a policy condition, a JSON expression, or another type of code.)
• est_service_cost holds the estimatedCost property for the service.
• est_sog_cost holds the estimatedCost property for the service option group.
• req_status holds the request status.

The data from the variables populates the list of assignees and the levels of approval, according to the code specified in the plug-in. For example, you can write the plug-in to specify that if the following conditions are true, then trigger the following action:

Conditions:

• If The txt field in form_field_value equals Deluxe
• If est_service_cost is greater than 5,000
• If est_sog_cost is greater than 500
• If req_status equals 200 (Submitted)

Action: Create the following assignment table:

• Level 1 Assignee is the manager of the IT department
• Level 2 Assignee is the manager of the Purchasing department
• Level 3 Assignee is the Vice President of the business unit of the requested-for user