If then else in procedure: which role plays the current active selection?

Dear community,

I am wondering which role the current active selection plays in an If then else procedure step.

According to the help https://help.board.com/v14/docs/execution-flow-action-group#if-then-else , the selection context existing (user profile, screen selection, Pager's selections…) when the step is run should apply, see the quote in bold below.

To configure this step, proceed as follows:
1. […] You can also apply a specific selection to the condition by clicking the “SELECT” button. In the case that a selection is already applied, the "SELECT" button will read as "EDIT SELECTIONS". In this case, the active selection will be ignored and the comparison will be performed only on the data related to the members included in your custom selection.

However, my experience is different:

I have one cube having four dimensions: {year, username, process step, process role}.
The if-then-else step checks:
1. if cube = 0 → Then GroupA → Else Group B.
2. no select is set here
The select context when the procedure starts is one cube cell. Each dimension is selected on one member only, e.g. Year = 2026.
The cube has already values existing on the slice previous Year = 2025 for the user running the procedure.
When the procedure runs, the debugger shows the correct context selection and using debugger layout view, i see that the cube's value used by the If-then-else is 0´. So i expect the step to drive into GroupA.
However, the if-then-else step doesn't run into GroupA but into GroupB.
If i delete manually the value stored on the slice previous Year = 2025 and run the procedure again, then the if-then-else step does run into GroupA 😯. The same applies if values exist for other tuples outside of the procedure step selection context…

So i am a bit lost here. I was thinking i can use the if-then-else on a very dynamic way playing on the context selections.

Right now, i have the impression i must define as many if-then-else steps as the combinations (tuples) i drive the business process on 🤔. I hope I am missing something.

Many thanks for you help in advance,

—

Version 14.4

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Anastasia Pesyakova

Hi Arnaud,

I did not have a chance to test it on 14.4, but in previous versions If then else execution flow worked for me as described on Help page you quoted.

The issue can be related to security and Username dimension.

Is Username dimension synced with Board user accounts? Are you running a procedure as an admin? Does the db profile assigned to your user account has a custom script SELECT User=@User?

Thanks,

Anastasia

Arnaud Villemain

Hello @Anastasia Pesyakova ,

Many thanks for your answer and questions.

Is Username dimension synced with Board user accounts? No. I created username entity members manually. I also created the user in the system administration manually. Could it make a difference?
the DB profile assigned to the user has this custom selection script:
Select username = @user
Select process role = 1
the user security profile allows the execution of security critical procedures. Is it what you mean by running a procedure as an admin? By the way, i don't think the usage of if-then-else step should require this privilege, should it?

I add a precision regarding my issue.

The cube has four dimensions {year, username, process step, process role} as said in the original post.
Only the dimensions year and process step make trouble, i.e. the if-then-else step doesn't take their context selection into account. The other dimensions username, process role are managed by user security and don't make trouble.

Leone Scaburri

Hi @Arnaud Villemain,

in your case the condition =0 could be challanging, I would reverse the logic and use condition >0 or =1 if you are using flags.

Arnaud Villemain

Hello @Leone Scaburri ,

Many thanks for your answer?

in your case the condition =0 could be challanging

Which specific parameter from my case are challenging?

To what extent the condition = 0 is more challenging than the >0 or =1?

I am asking because i want to understand exactly how the if-then-else step behaves.