Views:

Scenario Overview

This is a bit of a strange business requirement but a customer was storing IP addresses in there CRM system & they needed to create a view which sorted the IP Addresses.We decided the easiest way was to pad the IP Address with zeros & place the result into a new field so we could sort on that field.

So in the example below we can see the following transformation,

 9.45.4.255 -> 009.045.004.255

 

North52 Decision Suite Solution

The North52 Decision Suite solution works like this,

  • We create a formula of type 'Save - To Current Record' for the Account entity
  • This formula will be executed whenever the IP Address field changes or gets created initially
  • The formula checks to make sure that the IP Address is in the correct format by ensuring it has 3 periods
  • It then splits the IP Address up into 4 parts by using a period 
  • For each part it pads it out with zeros
  • Finally the result is placed in a new field called IP Address (Sort). 

North52 Decision Suite Steps

  • Create a new formula of type 'Save - To Current Record'
  • Set the Source entity to 'Account'
  • Set the Source Property to 'IP Address'
  • Set the Target Property to 'IP Address (Sort)'
  • Copy & paste the formula below into the formula description field & click save 
  • You are ready to test

Formula

if(CountCharacters([account.new_ipaddress], '.') = 3, 

    PadLeft( Split([account.new_ipaddress], '.', 0), 3, '0') + '.' +
    PadLeft( Split([account.new_ipaddress], '.', 1), 3, '0') + '.' +
    PadLeft( Split([account.new_ipaddress], '.', 2), 3, '0') + '.' +
    PadLeft( Split([account.new_ipaddress], '.', 3), 3, '0')

, 'NoOp')

Wizard - CountCharacters

Please see below the wizard you can use to create the CountCharacters() function call used in this formula. 

Note to find the value for Equals Value, you will need to go to the Source tab > Account > IP Address

 
 

 

Did you know?

North52 has over 500 functions to help you implement advanced business rules and complex decision logic

One of the biggest costs on most Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM project is custom coding. This is where consultants or developers are invloved in writing 100’s if not thousand’s of lines of code in Javascript and/or C#.

The Formula Manager, part of the North52 Decision Suite is a business rules engine that aims to eliminate this custom coding by using simple formulas instead. It is significantly faster (up to 10 times) than writing custom code and you get the added bonus of lower cost updates if a business rule changes in the future (it is much faster and thus cheaper to change it using a Formula rather than custom code).

There are over 500 functions available in the North52 Decision Suite business rules engine!

Learn more about North52 Business Process Activities

Keywords: CountCharacters, Left, PadLeft, Split, Formula Manager