What's the alternative to using the Conditional Rules module?

Question

The Conditional Rules module allows for including Rules Conditions within Rules Actions (using its If/Else constructs), something you cannot do by only using the Rules module. Here are just a few (out of many) typical questions that can be solved by using Conditional Rules:

• How to create a rule to assign roles to users based on some checkbox items in their profile?
• How to use Rules to email users when any field(s) is changed in a node (and include the unchanged/changed values for that field)?

However, there are some issues with the Conditional Rules module, such as:

• It does not have an official release for D7 yet.
• There is not a lot of documentation about it (and no Community documentation).
• There are some scenarios for which this module produces incorrect results.

Is there any alternative solution for building equivalent Rules logic, and which doesn't require using the Conditional Rules module?

Answer 1

For any custom rule where you are tempted to use the Conditional Rules module, you can always create corresponding Rules Components, with similar Rules Actions to be performed, but also with additional Rules Conditions equivalent to any Rules Conditions you'd want to include by using the Conditional Rules module. And then perform that Rules Component inside your Rules Actions of your original rule.

Consider this prototype-example (just assume it's a simplified version of a more complicated rule with preceding Rules Actions like "Fetch entity by ID", "Set a variable", etc):

{ "rules_show_a_message_using_conditional_rules" : {
    "LABEL" : "Show a message using Conditional Rules",
    "PLUGIN" : "reaction rule",
    "OWNER" : "rules",
    "REQUIRES" : [ "rules_conditional", "rules" ],
    "ON" : { "node_delete--page" : { "bundle" : "page" } },
    "DO" : [
      { "CONDITIONAL" : [
          {
            "IF" : { "NOT data_is" : { "data" : [ "node:promote" ], "value" : "1" } },
            "DO" : [
              { "drupal_message" : { "message" : "Bingo ... using \u0022Conditional Rules\u0022 ..." } }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Here is its equivalent using Rules Components:

{ "rules_show_a_message_using_a_rules_component" : {
    "LABEL" : "Show a message using a Rules Component",
    "PLUGIN" : "reaction rule",
    "OWNER" : "rules",
    "REQUIRES" : [ "rules" ],
    "ON" : { "node_delete--page" : { "bundle" : "page" } },
    "DO" : [ { "component_rules_say_bingo" : { "current_node" : [ "node" ] } } ]
  }
}

And the related Rules Component looks like so:

{ "rules_say_bingo" : {
    "LABEL" : "Say bingo",
    "PLUGIN" : "rule",
    "OWNER" : "rules",
    "REQUIRES" : [ "rules" ],
    "USES VARIABLES" : { "current_node" : { "label" : "Current node", "type" : "node" } },
    "IF" : [
      { "NOT data_is" : { "data" : [ "current-node:promote" ], "value" : "1" } }
    ],
    "DO" : [
      { "drupal_message" : { "message" : "Bingo ... using a Rules Component instead of \u0022Conditional Rules\u0022 ..." } }
    ]
  }
}

Some details about the alternative using a Rules Component:

• The Rules Condition within the Conditional Rules construct, has become a Rules Condition of the Rules Component.
• The actual Rules Action to be performed, was moved to a Rules Action of the Rules Component.
• The original rule simply calls the Rules Component, thereby passing the node to be processed as a parameter of the Rules Component.
• The Rules Event in the original rule is unchanged, and if there would have been any additional Rules Conditions in the original rule, those would have remained unchanged also.

Note: the above is just a "concept", to illustrate the key-part of the solution. Because this prototype did not require any previous "Fetch entity by ID" (or "Set a variable", or "load current user points") as a previous action.