Help on how to deal with Prerequisites of an item that are inactive

[heidirobinson]

We are making inactive and archiving lots of our learning - but for some reason SF LMS wont allow inactive items to be Pre Reqs. In our case, the course has been superseded by a new course but is still valid learning to be a pre req for the course.

We want to keep our instance tidy but having to keep inactive items active just for pre reqs to work is a little frustrating.

Is there any other methods we could use to get around this?

[heidirobinson]

Hi Karen,

I thought of substitutes and it would work if the courses were like for like, but they aren't.

For example we may have a course: Advanced Scaffolding. In order to be able to register onto the advanced course the pre req is that you have taken either: Beginner Scaffolding or Working at heights. Say Beginner Scaffolding is now being retired and we want to make it inactive so its not showing in our Item list and want to put in our archive domain.

A New course called Beginner Scaffolding with Harness Use created as a pre req of Advanced Scaffolding. I can't make a substitute relationship from Beginner Scaffolding to Beginner Scaffolding with Harness use, if I do I am incorrectly saying that someone has Harness training. However Beginner Scaffolding it still a legitimate pre prerequisite to taking the Advanced course.

I found this KBA and it suggests that I could add the item as a pre req when it's active. Then make it inacitve. The item is no longer showing as a pre req but it will remain as a pre req for the main item. However I tested this and it doesn't work. This is the section of the KBA which sounds like my assumption:

Important Note:
If an item which is already a prerequisite is made inactive, this will no longer be visible in the prerequisites tab of the item record in LMS admin.
However, the item will still be required as a prerequisite for the end user.
Before inactivating an item, first ensure that it has been removed as a prerequisite for any other items.
If an item has already been inactivated, you will need to activate it again temporarily in order to remove it from the prerequisites of another item.

Any other ideas?! I have submitted an influence for this functionality too.

[karenperez]

Dear heidirobinson,

I would recommend for you to first add this new course as the substitute of the old and then change the pre requesit to look into the new course.

I hope this helps!

Thank you.

Best Regards,

Karen Perez