Feature Overview
Conditions can allow for easier generation of needed “Standard Conditions” documents, as well as prevent users from taking actions on cases(Issuing, Scheduling Inspections, Issuing COO Documents) until required conditions have been completed.
Condition Anatomy
Each condition can either affect the case it is attached to or can simply be used for informational use, such as when generating a Conditions Notice for a contractor. The behavior of the condition is controlled by the conditions Severity.
Additional details about the available configuration fields for conditions can be found in the Conditions Administration documentation.
Condition Group and Type
The conditions Group and Type are used to categorize conditions into different groups and further into types within that group. This allows for easier organization and finding of conditions when adding them to a case. Both Group and Type are always required. The default options of “General” can be used if further grouping is not desired.
Examples of Groups
Groups are commonly similar to Application Types, such as Accessory Dwelling Unit, CUP, etc. However, they can be anything that makes grouping conditions together more useful for you.
Examples of Types
Types can be any additional grouping that is helpful in classifying conditions. Some common examples are Aesthetics, Air Quality, etc. As with Groups, the name of the types can be anything that makes further categorization of the conditions easier.
Severity
The Severity of the condition, determines if a condition must be completed(or marked N/A) before a particular action can be completed on the case the condition is on.
General conditions do not affect the ability to perform actions on the case and are typically used when generating the Conditions Notice for the case.
Required conditions must be completed(or marked N/A) or they will prevent a specific action from being allowed on the case.
Conditions can be configured to apply to cases either on initial add or when inherited onto a case after linking to another case(or both).
Rules
For conditions set to a severity of “Required”, one of the rules must be selected. These rules will prevent the defined action from occurring, unless the condition is resolved or marked N/A.
When one of the actions that can be controlled by conditions occurs or is attempted, the system will check for any incomplete conditions that apply to the case, that would prevent the action. If incomplete conditions are found, the users actions will be blocked and they can choose to view a list of the conditions preventing the action from being completed.
Actions
The following actions can be prevented/controlled with Required conditions.
Case Issuance
Certificate of Occupancy Document Generation
Scheduling of inspections
Inheritance
Inheritance allows for conditions that are inheritable to be automatically added to a case when another case is linked to the case that has conditions. This allows for adding conditions to a case, such as a planning case, that will also affect a later building or public works case when the other cases are linked to the original planning case.
Conditions inherit in only one direction. When a case is linked to case with inheritable conditions, the case initiating the link will inherit the conditions from the case linked to.
For example, a Planning case is created that contains several conditions that implicitly prevent issuance of the Planning application(Apply on add), another condition we want to provide the contractor on the main conditions document, but it doesn’t prevent the issuance of the planning case(it’s applies on inherit). That condition will show on the planning case but not prevent the issuance of the planning case; later when a building case is linked to this planning case, the condition will be inherited and since it’s applies on inherit, it will be enforced on the building case and prevent issuance of that case until the condition is resolved.
This same situation could also be done with a condition that is set to “applies on both”, with the only difference being that it would prevent issuance of both the planning and building case.
What data is inherited?
When a condition is added to a case, it becomes it’s own condition, meaning changes to that condition on the case have no effect on the main condition. The only way to change a main condition is to update it in the admin panel. Updating conditions in the admin panel does not affect conditions already applied to a case.
When a condition is inherited, it will inherit all the data on the condition from the case, in it’s current form, including any changes to the condition data on the case. However some data from the condition is not inherited, as noted below
Data not inherited
The following data from a condition is not inherited when a case links to it
The condition status
An inherited condition will always have an initial status of “Applied”, regardless of the status of the condition that is being inherited.
The inheritable flag
When a condition is inherited, the inheritable flag will always be set to “No”. This is to prevent conditions from being inherited again if another case was to link to the current case. The flag can be edited and set back to “Yes”, but by default, inherited conditions are not intended to be inherited again to another case.
Selected Inspections
If the condition is a “Prevent Inspection” severity, the selected inspections will not be inherited to any other case. Rather, by default, the system will attempt to select any inspections labeled as “Final”. This can be changed as needed on the edit dialog.
While inherited conditions start out with the data from the case it inherited it from, updates to the original case condition or the inherited condition do not affect each other. The conditions will behave independently once inherited.
Managing Conditions on a Case
To add conditions to a case, select the “Conditions” tab to go to the case conditions page. From this page you can add, edit, delete conditions that apply to this case.
Adding, editing and deleting conditions are controlled by permissions. If you are not able to complete an action detailed below, you may need to request that permission to do so be added to your account.
To generate the conditions document, from the main View page on a case, click the “Issue Document” button. After clicking this button a list of available documents should be displayed. Click on the “Conditions Notice” option to generate a Word document containing all available conditions on the case.
Only conditions set to “Show in Notice” will be exported to the Word document.
Any changes needed for conditions should be made in the system on the Conditions tab. While changes made to the Word document can be uploaded to the case for future reference, it will not affect any conditions on the case.
Adding Conditions
From the Conditions tab, click the link labeled “To select conditions to add, click here”
Using the filters on the add conditions page, identify and select the conditions that should apply to the current case.
You can change the filters after selecting conditions without losing you previously selected conditions.
Based on the type of condition selected, you may have additional options available.
Prevent Inspection
When a Prevent Inspection condition is selected, a select box will be shown on the condition with a list of available inspections that can have their scheduling restricted until this condition is resolved.
If no inspections are selected, this condition will not prevent the scheduling of any inspection.
After the needed conditions are selected, click “Add” to add the conditions to the case.
Editing Conditions
To edit conditions, simply click on the edit icon on a condition that you would like to make changes.
When editing a condition on a case, most data is available and able to be changed, with the exception of the Group and Type.
After making the needed changes, click the Update button to save the changes
Keep in mind, changes made to a condition on a case, will only affect the current condition. The main condition as well as any inherited conditions will be unaffected.
Condition Variables
The conditions description supports the use of variables. Variables allow for the condition to pull information directly from the case it is applied on, to prevent the need to manually update case data on each condition.
The variables will only show on the edit screen or in the admin panel. When viewing conditions on a case, the variables will be replaced with the case data or will be blank if the data is not available.
Below is the list of commonly used variables that are available in Permitting, Planning or Public Works.
Variable | Case Data |
|---|---|
%%case_number%% | The “Case Number” from the case. |
%%permit_number%% | The issued permit number from the case While this may be called Permit Number, Planning Number, etc. The variable used is %%permit_number%% across all sections |
%%case_type%% | The “Case Type”, “Permit Type” or “Application Type” from the case |
%%subcase%% | The “Subcase” from the case |
%%project_description%% | The “Project Description” from the case |
%%issued_date%% | The date the case was issued |
%%expiration_date%% | The expiration date of the case |
%%status%% | The current status of the case |
%%submittal_date%% | The submittal date from the case |
%%case_name%% | The Case Name from the case |
%%project_name%% | The Project Name from the case |
%%parcels%% | The address currently assigned to the case |
Deleting a Condition
To delete a condition on a case, click on the delete icon(The trash can located on the top right of the condition). After confirming that you would like to delete the condition, it will be removed from the case.
Setting a Condition Status
To update the conditions status, select the applicable status from the available option on the top left of the condition.
Only conditions that have a Severity of “Required” will have status options available.
Conditions Ordering
The conditions will be exported in the same order that they are shown on the Conditions tab. If you would like to update the order of the conditions on the document, you can simply click and drag the conditions into the needed order on the case.