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+1 347 391 2804Rules Engine
Overview
Automation within Linnworks has moved to a new level through the introduction of brand new visual interface allowing users to quickly apply their own logic and business rules.
Automation has been an extremely powerful feature of Linnworks for many years allowing users to save time, reduce the risk of human error and bring important information to their attention. This has been handled through bespoke c# scripts written to meet individual company requirements. Obviously the restriction on this is that you either have to be a developer, know a developer or pay a developer to understand your requirements and create the script for you.
The rules engine, whilst it will not replace the need for c# scripting where complex bespoke rules are required it does mean that users without any programming knowledge can inject their own logic easily through a visual interface to assign shipping, folder allocation and other similar tasks
The Concept
The concept is very simple, deliver a tool that allows for the creation of bespoke automation rules in a way that users can see the rules and test the outcome.
With this goal in mind the approach taken allows users to build a flowchart that has a series of user defined rules based on input parameters; each rule has an action that is applied if the parameters meet the criteria defined by the rule. A Ruleset can only have a single action as the outcome, therefore if multiple outcomes are required such as assigning a shipping service and a folder, the rule set can be copied and the Actions changed on the copy.
When Do Rules Run?
Rules run when an order with the status of Paid is saved. Below are some examples of when rules will run and when they won't run.
| Condition/Timing | Will the rule run? | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Downloading a Paid Order from a channel or Import | Yes | The order is new, has the status of Paid and has been saved as part of the sync |
| Saving a new Direct order which has a status of Paid | Yes | The order is new, has the status of Paid |
| Changing an Order status from Unpaid to Paid as part of an update from a channel sync | Yes | The order is now Paid, so will run |
| Manually changing the status of an order from Unpaid to Paid | Yes | The order is now Paid, so will run |
| Either automatically or manually merging multiple paid orders | Yes | This is a new paid order, so will run and could therefore change Postal Service due to new order weight or cost |
| Downloading an UnPaid Order from a channel | No | The Order status is not Paid and will therefore not run |
| Will creating a new Rule update existing paid orders | No | As rules run only when an order is saved, existing orders will not be affected |
Do Scripts Affect Rules?
In short the answer is YES
Rules engine runs at the point where the order is saved whereas scripts/macros run afterwards as part of a sync. It is possible for scripts/macros to overwrite the changes made to an order by the rules engine.