The process of generating evidence goes through different states and it always ends in a “Closed” status.
Moreover, an evidence has an outcome which initially was “None”. The outcome changes only once when it goes to the "Closed" status with the final result of that communication.
The states change according to the different events that take place related to the communication process.
A clear distinction must be made between events and status, since there may be more status than events and not all events generate a change of status. For example, even if an acceptance event is received (after clicking the web), the event may not cause an “Accepted” result if there has previously been another “Rejected” event or the evidence was already in "Closed“ status.
In the case that more than one event that transitions status is received (2 events have been received almost at the same time), there are rules that prioritize and temporarily order these events and maybe only one is causing a transition (and the others are recorded and discarded).
Some events that generate status transitions generate Affidavits, such as the event that is generated after receiving and processing a new communication request (before sending it).
Other events are for information only and they can be repeated several times, appearing in the history.
Therefore, we define:
- Status: These are the different steps that the communication process goes through. Upon completion, it ends in the Closed status and a result is defined.
- Outcome: This is the final outcome of the communication process. From that outcome, an affidavit is generated.
- Events: They are different signals (for example an acknowledgment of receipt) that allow, according to the logic of the process, to transition from one status to another.