How can I ensure that the lifecycle does not progress if the operations or automatisms configured in a state are not executed satisfactorily?

Sometimes, you will need automations to be executed in a lifecycle state that are determinant for the state change to occur. In other words, if the automatisms do not produce the expected result, the lifecycle should not progress.

Imagine for example that you have a ‘Sent’ state in the lifecycle where a document is expected to be sent via email.

In the case of the example, the ‘Send approval email’ operation or automatism is executed.

Naturally, if the document is not sent, there is no point in advancing to the Sent state.

By default, Athento does not execute this check. If the user changes the state, the lifecycle state will be updated without any check on the execution of the operation. This behaviour is fine when the automations to be executed are not critical for the state change.

In the case of the example, the successful execution of the automation is key: if the sending is not done, the document cannot be moved to the ‘Sent’ state.

In these cases, you must activate the Transactional parameter of the operation, so that in case of failure in the automation, the change of status does not occur. This can be done from the advanced administration of the operation or automation.