Lifecycle Action: Clear property e.g. for Change Comment

[jan.wagnerRB67Z]

We currently use the Vault Revision table and have run into an issue with enforcing comments during state transitions. Specifically, we need to ensure that a comment is provided when changing the state of an item, but Vault doesn't allow us to enforce input in the comment field during state transitions.

As a workaround, we considered using a file property to store the "Change Comment." However, Vault does not offer an out-of-the-box solution to clear specific properties when changing states. For example, it would be ideal to have the "Change Comment" property automatically cleared when transitioning a file from "Released" back to "Work in Progress" to avoid confusion with outdated comments.

It would be incredibly helpful if Vault could support a lifecycle transition action that allows us to clear selected properties, such as the "Change Comment," upon moving between specific states. This feature would provide a cleaner workflow and help prevent mix-ups from previous comments carrying over when they no longer apply.

[ProductivCADUser]

I would like to push this issue. This is actually one of the core functions of lifeciclye transitions (clearing, removing or adding properties with defined content). I was surprised and puzzled that vault does not support this. Autodesk could argue that such a feature belongs more to a PLM and not a PDM, yet autodesk is lagging behind the competition. I hope this gets more support. The implementation in Vault should hardly be complicated.

[kerrild]

I would love to see the Change Comment be made mandatory for certain lifecycle transitions. Quick-change is another example in our environment - it would be particularly helpful to force a comment record on why a file is moved into the Quick-Change State. 

[jan.wagnerRB67Z]

Since nothing happened. I did this myself as a custom job which is configurable per vault, lifecycle and state transition.

[ProductivCADUser]

@jan.wagnerRB67Z 
Would it be possible for you to share this one with us?

[jan.wagnerRB67Z]

@ProductivCADUser since I did this on company time I need to ask for permission.
What I can share is the general thought. Hoping Autodesk will implement this natively.

From the LifeCycleTransitionId that is a jobParam when a custom job is triggered by a state transition, you can get all relevant displaynames for FromState ToState and LifeCycle using the "LifeCycleService" 

Connections, Vaultname etc. you get from the IJobProcessorServices and Job object

Then you can update the properties using parts of @Markus.Koechl  example:
Gelöst: How to programatically Update Properties from Vault (VaultPropertyWriteBack) - Autodesk Comm...

Doing it via IExplorerUtil saves you from doing the checkin/ checkout manually.

If you dont know where to start you can refactor this job from @Markus.Koechl:
GitHub - koechlm/Vault-Sample---InventorExportAnySampleJob: This custom job creates any Inventor exp...

[jan.wagnerRB67Z]

This is the UI I build for it. It saves the config to a KnowledgeVaultOption for the job to parse.

[Nick_Hall]

@jan.wagnerRB67Z 

I did exactly the same as you did, and for flexibility, I made it possible to set the property to a fixed value, another property's value, or the result of an expression.

I didn't make a nice UI, though. I store the config in a JSON file.

And I echo your thought - Autodesk needs to make this a standard feature.

Nick

[jan.wagnerRB67Z]

@Nick_Hall 
Claude Ai can do basic UI very well. You may need to provide some snippets of how to get the Lifecycles and states and review the Xaml.cs of course but doing the UI manually would have taken me much longer.