Deprecation of Basic Rule scenario in business rules

[CouncilCrusader]

Kia ora,

We noticed that there will now be a warning when creating a business rule using Basic Rule scenario, alluding to a future deprecation date.

If there is any more information that someone can share on when the final deprecation date is planned that would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

[stockp]

Just to be very clear here: with 1H 2024 release we plan to deprecate the CREATION of new basic rules. This does not mean that existing basic rules can no longer be used or changed. They will work as before and can also be changed.

With 1H 2024 we plan to cover all application areas, where business rules can be used, with application-specific rule scenarios. Therefore, there is no longer a need for basic rules, which lack guardrails and full functionality provided in the rule scenarios.

With 2H 2023 we will already have a very good coverage of application rule scenarios with few exceptions, where basic rules are still needed. Therefore, we put up the warning message already in 2H 2023 as we strongly recommend to utilize rule scenarios wherever supported.

We will also provide a detailed blog on this shortly.

Peter Stock
Product Strategy Manager, Platform Core Services

[CouncilCrusader]

Thanks Peter. I didn't frame my question very well, but, this is exactly the information I was looking for. I am reassured lol 😃

[Ethan_Dai]

Hi @stockp, we are planning to migrate our business rules as much as we can to scenario based but I can't seem to find any scenario that supports onsave and raise message requirement.... those rules kind of need to be basic scenario... What is SAP's recommendation for that type of requirement?

Or is that scenario still be to released in the next release?

Thanks

[stockp]

Hi @Ethan_Dai,

There are two common use cases / scenarios for raising messages in an OnSave rule:

1. EC HRIS elements: use scenario "Trigger Rules to Validate HRIS Elements"
2. MDF objects: use scenario "Rules for MDF-based object" with either purpose "Validate" or purpose "Evaluate"

If you were looking in another area, I would have to understand the concrete use case.

[Ethan_Dai]

Hi @stockp, ahhh, sorry, I don't know how I missed that one. I was trying out Trigger onSave Rules for HRIS Elements scenario but not this one. Thanks!

[karolinanchin]

Hi Peter,

as per this future depreciation I decided to not use the basic rule anymore and unfortunately I stumbled upon a lot of gaps when trying to configure the business requriments.

As for example rules onInit: https://me.sap.com/notes/3398558 : "As of 2H 2023, there is no dedicated rule scenario for OnView Rules. Therefore, you can use the 'Basic' scenario."

When I use the Trigger onChange Rules for HRIS Elements scenario I have noticed that this Onchange rule only triggers if the field (where it is added as onchange) is changed and not the change on the any field within the portlet which applies to the basic rules. I cannot add this rule onChange in the section only in the field.

I don't understand it, why the possibility to create new rules using the 'Basic' rule scenario will reach the end of maintenance on November 17, 2023, while a number of gaps is not covered.

Kind regards,

Karolina 

[LindaS]

The blog is available https://groups.community.sap.com/t5/product-and-customer-updates/2h-2023-stepping-into-the-future-wi.... You can also ask any questions there. I understood that if there is a scenario missing we should reach out to SAP so they can look into that and close that gap.

[stockp]

Hi Karolina,

You are correct about no dedicated rule scenario for onView rules for EC HRIS elements. We plan to close this gap with 1H 2024 release.

With regards to onChange rules in HRIS elements: onChange rules can only be added at the field level and not at the HRIS element level. And such rule will only be triggered if the value of field changes to which this rule is attached. This is the expected behavior.

Please see also the screen shot from Manage Business Configuration:

At the HRIS element level there is no event type onChange available - this is only available at the field level.
I might have misunderstood your question - if that is the case, please let me know.

The deprecation of the creation of new basic rules is planned with 1H 2024 release. If case we would not be able to close all gaps (like the one for onView rules) then the deprecation will be delayed. Right now we are working hard on closing existing gaps.

Kind regards
Peter

[Emad]

Thanks Stock, with regards to the limit of 5 business rules for Cross Entity rule scenario, I have currently 12 cross entity business rules on basic scenario, will this limit be open in H1 2024 release, if not, will the basic rule continue working as normal and only creating new ones will be prohibted, ... otherwise, what can be a solution for thisThanks

[karolinanchin]

Hi Peter,

thank you.

Thank you for your explanation about the onChange rule - that is why this rule is not applicable for us to replace some basic rules.

I am so glad to hear that in case SAP SF would not be able to close all gap,  then the deprecation will be delayed. 

Because the basic rule scenario is currently the most often used by us.

Thank you and kind regards,

Karolina 

[stockp]

Hi @Emad

You asked: "will the basic rule continue working as normal and only creating new ones will be prohibited". Yes, existing basic rules will continue to work normally. Only the creation of new basic rules will no longer be possible.

For the second question around the "limit of 5 business rules for Cross Entity rule scenario": from a rules framework perspective I can only say that I am aware of the limit, which is not something that comes from the framework, but is a limitation that the owners of this rule scenario in Employee Central have set. As far as I understand, they currently have no plans to change this limit. This limit has no impact on existing basic rules that are cross entity.

To get an answer why EC has set this limit, I suggest creating another question to the EC colleagues. Maybe you could share your use case and why you would need more of such rules. I think they would like to understand such requirement.

Kind regards
Peter

[AngelaWheeler]

@stockp It would be really helpful if SAP released the proposed supported scenarios prior to the release, i.e. even now what is planned for. I note that still after the 2H/23 release the only supported rules for Recruiting are Candidate Profile and Application. We currently configure rules for the Job Req and Offer Details using the basic scenario, which would no longer be supported. I don't want to find out AT the time of the release that these will no longer be supported to create rules for these scenarios. Please give time for partner/customer feedback on the critical scenarios, not just what SAP *thinks* are the critical ones.

[ahonsheng]

Kia ora! 

Yep there's a separate release note regarding this depreciation of basic rule scenarios. It will be deleted on June 2, 2024. I have attached a photo and link to it. https://help.sap.com/docs/PRODUCTS/8e0d540f96474717bbf18df51e54e522/d8405d9fdee442b29d60fff3120705db...

 SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central 

Let me know if you have any question for other release, happy to help!

[jacqueliney]

Hi Peter,
Understand that SAP will not delete existing Basic rule scenario from existing customers and that CREATION of basic scenario will ceased from 2 June 2024.
As such just to confirm, if existing customers would like to clone/refresh Production to Dev/preview instance after 2 June 2024, and all rules are using Basic, will there be any complications? Eg. Basic scenario is not longer available hence Target instance will not be able to clone/refresh successfully.

Appreciate your advise.

Cheers,
Jacqueline

[stockp]

Hi Jacqueline,

There is no impact when refreshing instances. All basic rules will be refreshed as well, also after 1H 2024 release. Instance refresh is using a different mechanism to clone the data. What we are deprecating is the possibility to create new rules for the basic scenario on the UI. On the Configure Business Rules UI you will no longer be able to select the basic scenario when creating new rules.

Let me point you also to the blog that my colleague Sylvia Strangfeld has provided on this overall topic: https://community.sap.com/t5/product-and-customer-updates/2h-2023-stepping-into-the-future-with-busi... 

Regards, Peter

[S_Strangfeld]

Hi all,

please note, that I have updated the blog 2H 2023 Stepping into the Future with Business Rules – Deprecation of the CREATION of Basic Rules with a list of all rule scenarios (that I currently know), that are PLANNED to be delivered with 1H 2024 release.

Hope this helps!

BR, Sylvia