Xurrent Help Center

There are many operators that can be used to define expressions for an automation rule. Below these operators are grouped by type and for each operator an example is provided.

Boolean Operators

• a or b
• a and b

Expression Example

Result

a or b (e.g. a is true, b is either true or false)

true

a or b (e.g. b is true, a is either true or false)

true

a or b (e.g. a is false, and b is false)

false

a and b (e.g. a is true, and b is true)

true

a and b (e.g. a is false and/or b is false)

false

Comparison – Equality

• value-a = value-b
• value-a != value-b

Expression Example Result 'text' = 'text'

true

'text' != 'text'

false

'' = 'text'

false

'text' = ""

false

'' = ""

true

"a\"b" = 'a"b'

true

'a\'b' = "a'b"

true

status = in_progress

true

status = assigned

false

team = 'Database Administration'

true

team = 9

false

team.id = 9

true

team.id = 12

false

Comparison – Less than, Greater than

• value-a < value-b
• value-a <= value-b
• value-a > value-b
• value-a >= value-b

Expression Example

Result

‘a’ < ‘a’

false

‘a’ <= ‘a’

true

‘a’ > ‘a’

false

‘a’ >= ‘a’

true

‘a’ < ‘b’

true

‘b’ > ‘a’

true

‘a’ > ‘b’

false

‘’ < ’text’

true

‘text’ > ’’

true

status < completed

true

status < registered

false

completed < status

false

registered < status

true

team < ‘Application Development’

false

team < ‘Service Desk’

true

‘Application Development’ < team

true

‘Service Desk’ < team

false

team.id < 100

true

team.id < 1

false

100 < team.id

false

1 < team.id

true

Comparison – Contains

• value in array
• value not_in array

Expression Example

Result

a in [a,b]

true

a not_in [a,b]

false

b in [a,b]

true

c in [a,b]

false

ab in [a,b]

false

ab in []

false

’’ in []

true

’’ in [a,b]

false

’’ in [a,,b]

true

a in [ a , b ]

true

status in [in_progress]

true

status in [assigned, accepted, in_progress, waiting_for_customer]

true

status in [assigned,completed]

false

team in [Application Development,Database Administration,Service Desk]

true

team in [Application Development,Service Desk]

false

team.id in [8,9,10]

true

team.id in [11,12,13]

false

11.0 in [11,12,13]

true

11 in [11.0,12.0,13.0]

true

team.id in [8.0,9.0,10.0]

true

team.id in [8.1,9.1,10.1]

false

Comparison – Similar to

• * is the ‘contains’ operator
• ^ is the ‘starts_with’ operator
• $ is the ‘ends_with’ operator

Expression Example

Result

‘john.smith@widget.com’ *= ‘smith’

true

‘john.smith@widget.com’ ^= ‘smith’

false

‘john.smith@widget.com’ *= ‘john’

true

‘john.smith@widget.com’ ^= ‘john’

true

‘john.smith@widget.com’ $= ‘john’

false

‘john.smith@widget.com’ $= ‘widget’

false

‘john.smith@widget.com’ $= ‘widget.com’

true

Comparison – Presence

• value is_blank
• value is_present

Expression Example

Result

team.name is_blank

false (as the team name is required as must contain a value)

request.custom_fields.my_date is_present

true, when the UI extension field “my_date” is defined and contains a non-empty value, false otherwise

Formulas

• + is the ‘add’ or ‘concatenate’ operator
• - is the ‘subtract’ operator
• * is the ‘multiply’ operator
• / is the ‘divide’ operator
• % is the ‘modulo’ operator

Note that + acts as the ‘concatenate’ operator when the value to its left is a text string. Otherwise, it acts as the ‘add’ operator.

Expression Example

Result

1 + 1

2.0

2 – 1

1.0

2 * 5

10.0

6 / 3

2.0

15 % 6

3.0

1 1 1 + 1

4.0

1 + 2 * 6 % 4

5.0

‘start’ + ‘_at’ + ’ field’

start_at field

1 + team.name

1.0

1 + team.id

8.0

2.0 + team

9.0

team + 3.0

10.0

created_at + 3.days

3 days after the creation date

team.id + ’ – ’ + team.name

7.0

’’ + team.id + ’ – ’ + team.name

7 – Service Desk

‘{{team_id}} – {{team_name}}’

7 – Service Desk

created_at – 4.hours

4 hours before the creation date

5 / 5

1.0

5 / 0

nil

Path for Retrieving a Variable

An expression that retrieves a variable always starts from the record for which the automation rule is defined.

Expression Example

Result

status

approved

workflow.status

progress_halted

created_at

2017-09-12T14:00:00Z

planned_duration

8

workflow.tasks[first]

1st task of the workflow

workflow.tasks[1]

1st task of the workflow

workflow.tasks[last]

last task of the workflow

workflow.tasks[-1]

last task of the workflow

workflow.tasks[#20122]

task with ID 20122 of the workflow

workflow.tasks[1].custom_fields.name

the value of the UI extension field with ID ‘name’ from the workflow’s task

workflow.tasks[1].custom_fields.你好,世界

the value of the UI extension field with ID ‘你好,世界’ from the workflow’s task

workflow.tasks[#20122].subject

Change controller approval

workflow.tasks[“Change controller approval”].id

20122.0

workflow.tasks[‘Change controller approval’]

20122.0

workflow.tasks[first].notes[first].text

the text from the first note of the first task of the workflow

workflow.tasks[first].notes[first].person.name

the name of the person who added the first note of the first task of the workflow

Path for Retrieving a Collection

An expression that retrieves a collection always starts from the record for which the automation rule is defined, or makes use of the `find_all` operation.

Expression Example

Result

cis

All cis related to the current task

workflow.requests[first].cis

All cis related to the first request of the workflow

cis.size

The number of CIs related to the current task

cis.count

The number of CIs related to the current task

workflow.tasks.select(status = registered)

The workflow’s tasks that have the registered status

workflow.tasks.reject(status = registered)

The workflow’s tasks that do not have the registered status

workflow.tasks.select(status = failed) + workflow.tasks.select(status = rejected)

The workflow’s tasks that have the failed status combined with the workflow’s tasks that have the rejected status

cis.empty?

true if there are no CIs linked to the current task, false otherwise

cis.any?

true if there is at least one CIs linked to the current task, false otherwise

cis.any?(status = in_production)

true if there are any CIs linked to the current task with an in_production status, false otherwise. Returns false when there are no CIs linked to the task.

cis.all?(status = in_production)

true if all CIs linked to the current task have an in_production status, false otherwise. Returns true when there are no CIs linked to the task.

cis.none?(status = in_production)

true if there are no CIs linked to the current task with an in_production status, false otherwise. Returns true when there are no CIs linked to the task.

workflow.tasks.select(category = approval).reject(finished_at != nil)

All approval tasks linked to the workflow that are not yet completed.

workflow.tasks.select(category = implementation).map(member)

All members of implementation tasks linked to the workflow.

person.permissions.detect(account = ‘wdc’).workflow_manager

Is the person a workflow manager in the widget data center account?

Retrieving unrelated records

The following lookup functions are available to retrieve records that are unrelated to the record for which the automation rule is defined.

Expression Example

Result

find(person, ‘beatrice.baldwin@widget.com’)

Beatrice Baldwin

find(person, ‘beatrice.baldwin@widget.com’).job_title

The job title of Beatrice Baldwin

find(person, workflow.requests[first].custom_fields.email)

A person record based on the email address provided in the email field of the UI Extension of the first request related to the workflow

find(service_instance, 2334)

The service instance with id 2334

find(service_instance, ‘Chicago Network’)

The Chicago Network service instance

find(ci, predecessors[first].custom_fields.ci_id)

Find the CI based on the ci_id that was chosen in a UI Extension of the predecessor task

find(ci, ‘unknown’)

nil

find_all(person, ‘Beatrice Baldwin’)

An array of all people with the name Beatrice Baldwin

find_all(ci, custom_fields.impacted_assets)

An array of all CIs chosen in a multi-suggest UI Extension field

search(ci, ‘ SPARCS ’).detect(status = in_production)

The first record of an array of all CIs that are in production, from a list of at most 50 cis that are retrieved using global search with keyword ’SPARCS".

String Manipulation

Expression Example

Result

’ hello’.lstrip

‘hello’
Removes leading whitespace.

’hello ’.rstrip

‘hello’
Removes trailing whitespace.

‘hello’.start_with?(‘hell’)

true
True if string starts with one of the suffixes given.

‘hello’.end_with?(‘lo’)

true
True if string ends with one of the suffixes given.

‘table’.match?(‘bl’)

true
True if pattern is matched in string.

s=‘foo’, s.include?(‘f’)

true
True if self contains other string.

s=‘foo’, s.exclude?(‘t’)

true
True if self does not contain other string.

‘hello’.ljust(10)

’hello ’
If integer is greater than length of string, returns padded string, left justified.

‘hello’.rjust(10, ‘oh’)

‘ohohohello’
If integer is greater than length of string, returns padded string, right justified.

subject.size

28
Number of characters.

subject.length

28
Number of characters.

’ spacey string ’.strip

‘spacey string’
Remove leading and trailing white spaces.

’ spacey string ’.squish

‘spacey string’
Replace multiple spaces with a single space and removes leading and trailing white spaces.

’ spaceeeey ssstring ’.squeeze

’ spacey string ’
Replace runs of the same character by a single character.

‘desserts’.reverse

‘stressed’
Flip the characters around.

‘ SERVICE management’.capitalize

‘Service management’
Downcases the whole string and then capitalizes the first character only.

‘ SERVICE management’.titleize

‘Service Management’
All characters are downcased and the first a-z characters after each word boundary are capitalized.

‘Xurrent’.upcase

‘ XURRENT ’
All capitals.

‘ XURRENT ’.downcase

‘xurrent’
All lower case.

‘hI tHERE’.swapcase

‘Hi There’
Lower case to capitals and vice versa.

’ ’.empty?

true
True when string is empty or only contains white spaces.

’ ’.blank?

true
True when string is empty or only contains white spaces.

’ ’.present?

false
True if string contains characters other than white spaces.

‘break-me-up’.split(‘-’)

[‘break’, ‘me’, ‘up’]
Split the string into an array of strings on the separator.

‘break-me-up’.split(/[eau]+/)

[‘br’, ‘k-m’, ‘-’, ‘p’]
Split the string into an array of strings on a regular expression separator.

‘break-me-up’.slice(3)

‘eak-me-up’
Take the string from the given index and onwards.

‘break-me-up’.slice(-5)

‘me-up’
Take the string from the given index and onwards.

‘break-me-up’.slice(3,2)

‘ea’
Take a fixed amount of characters from the given index.

‘break-me-up’.replace(‘-’, ’ ’)

‘break me up’
Replace all occurrences with another string.

‘break-me-up’.replace(/[eau]+/, ‘*’)

‘br*k-m*-*p’
Replace all occurrences of the regular expression with another string.

‘break-me-up’.replace(/([eau]+)/, ‘*\1*’)

‘br*ea*k-m*e*-*u*p’
Replace all occurrences of the regular expression with another string using capture groups.

[‘break’,‘me’,‘up’].join(’ and ’)

‘break and me and up’
Concatenate the elements in an array with the provided separator.

‘10.428571428571429’.to_number

10.428571428571429
Convert the string to a number.

Number Manipulation

Expression Example

Result

10.428571428571429.to_string

‘10.428571428571429’
Convert the number to a string.

10.428571428571429.round

10
Round to a whole number.

10.428571428571429.round(2)

10.43
Round to the given number of decimals.

Date & Time Manipulation

Expression Example

Result

now

>1.seconds.ago
<1.seconds.from_now

today

>1.day.ago
<1.day.from_now

1.second.ago

>2.seconds.ago
<0.seconds.from_now

2.seconds.ago

>3.seconds.ago
<1.second.ago

1.minute.ago

>61.seconds.ago
<59.seconds.ago

2.minutes.ago

>121.seconds.ago
<119.seconds.ago

1.hour.ago

>61.minutes.ago
<59.minutes.ago

2.hours.ago

>121.minutes.ago
<119.minutes.ago

1.day.ago

>25.hours.ago
<23.hours.ago

2.days.ago

>49.hours.ago
<47.hours.ago

1.week.ago

>8.days.ago
<6.days.ago

2.weeks.ago

>15.days.ago
<13.days.ago

1.month.ago

>32.days.ago
<27.days.ago

2.months.ago

>63.days.ago
<56.days.ago

1.year.ago

>366.days.ago
<364.days.ago

2.years.ago

>732.days.ago
<729.days.ago

1.second.from_now

>0.seconds.from_now
<2.seconds.from_now

2.seconds.from_now

>1.seconds.from_now
<3.second.from_now

1.minute.from_now

>59.seconds.from_now
<61.seconds.from_now

2.minutes.from_now

>119.seconds.from_now
<121.seconds.from_now

1.hour.from_now

>59.minutes.from_now
<61.minutes.from_now

2.hours.from_now

>119.minutes.from_now
<121.minutes.from_now

1.day.from_now

>23.hours.from_now
<25.hours.from_now

2.days.from_now

>47.hours.from_now
<49.hours.from_now

1.week.from_now

>6.days.from_now
<8.days.from_now

2.weeks.from_now

>13.days.from_now
<15.days.from_now

1.month.from_now

>27.days.from_now
<32.days.from_now

2.months.from_now

>56.days.from_now
<63.days.from_now

1.year.from_now

>364.days.from_now
<366.days.from_now

2.years.from_now

>729.days.from_now
<732.days.from_now

planned_duration.hours.from_now

>79.hours.from_now
<81.hours.from_now

now.year

Year, e.g. 2019

now.month

Month of year, e.g. 3 (March)

now.day

Day of month, e.g. 21

now.hour

Hour of day, e.g. 19

now.minute

Minute of hour, e.g. 45

now.second

Second of minute, e.g. 12

now.day_of_year

Day of year, e.g. 80

now.day_of_week

Day of week, e.g. 4 (Thursday)

now.is_monday

Day is a Monday, e.g. false

now.is_tuesday

Day is a Tuesday, e.g. false

now.is_wednesday

Day is a Wednesday, e.g. false

now.is_thursday

Day is a Thursday, e.g. true

now.is_friday

Day is a Friday, e.g. false

now.is_saturday

Day is a Saturday, e.g. false

now.is_sunday

Day is a Sunday, e.g. false

now.utc

Same date time in UTC timezone

custom_fields.my_date_time.to_date_time

Convert string value of date time captured in a custom fields to a date time

now.in_time_zone(person.time_zone)

Same date time in timezone of person

now.in_time_zone(rule_account.time_zone)

Same date time in timezone of account in which the rule is created

now.in_time_zone(‘Amsterdam’)

Same date time in given timezone

now.iso8601

Same date time in iso8601 format

template.support_hours.duration(created_at, now)

The number of minutes between the creation time and the current time that fall within the support hours of a request template

template.support_hours.target_at(now, 8.hours, ‘Amsterdam’)

A target time using the support hours of a request template, a start time and a duration, for the Amsterdam time zone

Predefined Values

Expression Example

Result

updated_by

The person who triggered the execution of the automation rule by updating the record to which the automation rule belongs.

rule_account

The account in which the automation rule is defined.

related_note

The note created at the moment the automation rule was triggered. If no note was created the value is empty. When the “On note added” trigger is used, this value is always present given the automation user has permissions to read the note.

related_internal_note

The internal note created at the moment the automation rule was triggered. If no note was created the value is empty.

true

true

false

false

empty

nil

nil

nil

null

nil

Ternary Statements

Expression

Result

true then ‘yes’ else ‘no’

‘yes’

!true then ‘yes’ else ‘no’

‘no’

is_assigned then teamA.id else teamB.id

teamA.id if is_assigned is true

true ? ‘yes’ : ‘no’

‘yes’

!true ? ‘yes’ : ‘no’

‘no’

is_assigned ? teamA.id : teamB.id

teamA.id if is_assigned is true

New records (only for tasks)

Expression

Result

new(task)

New empty task in rule account

new(task, ‘Finalize the change plan’)

New task based on the given template

Previous Field Values

A field identifier can be used to look up the value of this field. For example, to retrieve the current value of a workflow’s Subject field, the following expression can be used:

• workflow.subject

It is also possible, however, to look up a record’s previous field value, i.e. the value that the field had before the record was saved and the automation rule was triggered. This is done by adding _was after the field identifier. To do this for the Subject field of a workflow, for example, the expression becomes:

• workflow.subject_was

String Interpolation

It is possible to use expressions within expressions. However, an expression can only be used if it is already defined, so the order of the expressions is important. The example below works, because the expression ‘note’ is defined before it is used in the expression ‘hello_note’.

• note: notes[last]
• hello_note: “hello {{note}}”

It is possible to reorder expressions by dragging them up or down to ensure that each expression is defined before it is used in another expression.