A circumstance is an optional qualification available for all rules. Using a circumstance allows your application to support multiple variants of a rule. For example, variations of an ordinary rule instance can be created for different customer status levels or for different geographic locations.

A circumstance-qualified rule instance (often referred to as a "circumstanced rule") is always based upon an unqualified rule instance (base rule). You can circumstance a base rule with a single property and its value, or with multiple properties and their values (called multivariate circumstancing). The circumstanced rule is executed during rule resolution if the value of the circumstance property on the rule matches that property's value on the clipboard at runtime.

On many displays, a icon identifies a circumstance-qualified rule instance. A icon identifies a base rule instance that has one or more circumstanced instances. The rule form for a circumstance-qualified rule displays the property and its value next to the Circumstance label located in the top right area of the form.

	base rule, declarative rule, family name, final rule, property reference, qualified rule, redirected rule, rule resolution, stream rule, time-qualified rules, withdrawn rule
	Circumstances — Concepts and terms How to complete rule form keys with Save As How the system finds rules through rule resolution How to change rule availability About Circumstance Definition rules About Circumstance Template rules

Definitions — C