Clear data from a field in the bpm

[Guest Paul Alexander]

Hi have a BPM where I need to clear the information in a field (in this case the external reference field).

However if I try to do this from the BPM I get an error saying that I can't do it. 

Is there a way of doing this please?

 

[Martyn Houghton]

@Paul Alexander

I suspect when they designed the Update Request > External Reference node, they did not consider that someone would want to remove the value, i.e. set it to Null. As the External Reference is mandatory , i.e. not null, the node is failing as it will not let you set it to null or empty string.

Suspect that this will be an enhancement request, as I presume if you supply a dummy string value the node will work.

Cheers

Martyn

 

[Guest Paul Alexander]

Hi @Martyn Houghton

Thanks - and yes it DOES work if I supply a value. 

But this seems to be the same for any field that I want to update (I've just tried it with an 'update custom fields' node). Although I don't get the error message, if I ask the node to update a custom field from 'some data' to 'no data' (i.e. I leave the field blank in the BPM node) then that doesn't remove the information either.

What I'm looking for is something I can use to remove some information from a field. 

 

thanks

 

[James Ainsworth]

Hi Paul,

Here is something that you could try as a workaround.  The field itself in the backend is nullable, so this is simply a matter of the option on the Hornbill Automation being mandatory, as you mentioned, and needs something in the field.  In my example below, I used a variable from a previous Get Request Information, using a custom field that I know I'm not using for this request type or service which will be empty.  

To test this, I started with an AutoTask that only has a Get Request Information node and the Update Request node for the external reference.  I then run this from a Custom Button.  This saves having to raise multiple requests to test the before and after result.  You may need to do a browser refresh after running the AutoTask in order to see the change.

Let me know how you get on.

James

[Guest Paul Alexander]

That's great @James Ainsworth  - that worked a treat. 

Cheers...