Rules action option: Update field if blank / not set

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1

A helpful addition to the list of actions available for updating fields within rules would be a version of (or a checkbox option within) the current “Set <field> to…” to only do that if the field is already blank.

Sample use case:

  • Data that needs to be instantiated on creation, but does not need to be overwritten if multihomed from another similar project.

Existing recommendations that do not work:

  • Using the “Check if”… section in the rules setup view to set multiple conditions - This is not a practical solution if the number of fields being updated is more than 2-3 (the number of conditional checks required would be the square of the number of fields being updated, multiplied by any other conditional branches required)
  • Setting up one rule for each field - again, not easily maintainable when there are any real number of fields requiring updating, especially when the start condition (e.g. “when task is added to this project” is the same for each).
2

So you want the condition tu be embedded into the action basically?

3

Essentially yes - I think this would be a common enough case that this would be justified. This could either be a checkbox “don’t overwrite any existing values” within the action settings, or a separate “Update only if blank” action entirely.

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4

You got my vote!

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