We just imported our flow from test box to our production box and started our ru

That will depend on what API you are using to find the constant by name but usually that method will throw an exception if the constant is not found. Take a look at the code of that function, not in Appian but in your Java code to see how you are handling when the constant is not found. Currently your function is simply returning null

nitas811, if the function itself is not there means, the smart service plugin jar is missing in the plugins folder. so that is a deployment documentation issue. as eduardo said, the java code with in that function should handle the fact that the constant is missing.

this is not my java code I got it from appian

It seems you are using this plug-in forum.appian.com/.../summary Plug-ins are shared by users who contribute with the Forum Community and come with the source code for anybody to enhance them.

nitas811, so in your rule you are calling the custom function. the custom function is returning null when the constant is not missing. so the rule should be able to catch the fact that a null value is returned and and replace the null with some default value.

the check dependencies should check this if the variable is missing and catch it

nitas811, looks like you have already passed your judgment without considering the facts (response from eduardo), that is fine, let us leave this topic at this.

Now that I know the plugin can be enhanced i can work on it when I get a chance. But appian should be doing this readily and if there is not an enhancement request on this we need to request it, since we are relying on the tool to do these things. If we need to code all these, we can code our own tool.

1. The suggestion to update the plug-in was so you can see an exception in the server.log if the plug-in is not printing it out or if you want it to print more information when the constant is not found.

2. You can still make your design compliant with the Dependency Checker without making any code changes. Let me explain how. The Dependency Checker (base product) is based on UUIDs which are unique identifiers for objects within Appian. What makes this plug-in non-compliant with this approach is that it references constants by name and the name is a simple string which could be anything there's no way the Dependency Checker knows that string is a constant name since the plug-in says it expects a simple string.

But that's not a problem:

--->2.1 You can simply create a constant of type TEXT , let's say:

NAME_OF_MINOR_RA_JIRA_CDT_REFRESH_DELAY

---> 2.2 This constant will contain the following TEXT as its value:

MINOR_RA_JIRA_CDT_REFRESH_DELAY

---> 2.3 Change your expression in your timer to be

=rule!getIntConstBasedOnEnv(cons!NAME_MINOR_RA_JIRA_CDT_REFRESH_DELAY)

---> 2.4 This way the Dependency Checker will tell you that you need to include the constant called NAME_MINOR_RA_JIRA_CDT_REFRESH_DELAY. This is still not the relevant constant right? But you can put in the description of this one a warning saying: "ALSO INCLUDE MINOR_RA_JIRA_CDT_REFRESH_DELAY". This way the dependency checker, when alerting about this auxiliary constant can "remind you" through this constant description that you need to include another constant.

You will see this message in the description of this constant once you add it to your application.

So we need to create two constants to workaround this? But both the constants are some name so how does appian catch NAME_OF_MINOR_RA_JIRA_CDT_REFRESH_DELAY and not MINOR_RA_JIRA_CDT_REFRESH_DELAY ?