How can If, Else If, and Else/Otherwise Conditional Statements be used in MOVEit Automation within Advanced tasks?

Conditional statements allow administrators to determine how each file will be handled within one task run. They can improve the efficiency of the tasks in your system, and help determine what should happen if a task runs successfully or not. New administrators should review the Conditional Branch (IF block) section of the documentation to understand how these statements work (MOVEit Automation Web Admin Help > TASKS > Task Elements > Conditional Branch (IF block) - https://docs.progress.com/bundle/moveit-automation-web-admin-help-2025/page/Conditional-Branch-IF-block.html), but this article aims to help with the strategy when working with If statements in Advanced tasks. 

When configuring an If/Conditional  branch, notice that there are a few built in filters to choose from. When creating an If branch, it is possible to use up to six filters. Understanding how each one of these filters are different is important to troubleshooting a task that is not behaving properly.   

• File Size - Select files based on their size. Supported size filters are expressed in the choice of bytes, KB, MB or GB. A "match all/any" selection controls whether files must match all or just one of the filter criteria.
• File Modified Timestamp - Select files based on their date/time of last modification. Supported date/time filters are expressed the difference between now and some other date in hours, days, months or years.

            Note an If statement can not be used to compare a file date/time stamp with a fixed date. Given how
            date/time stamps are stored, as described above, such comparisons do not work.

• File Name - When "matches" is selected, specifies the file name (i.e. "readme.txt") or file mask (i.e. "*.txt") MOVEit Automation(Central) should use to select files on the remote host. Macros may be used in this field. When "does not match" is selected, MOVEit Automation(Central) selects the files that do not match the file name or file mask.  It is important to note, if using 'matches' and 'does not match' '=','!=' will not work.  There is also an option to use two special wildcard characters ' * ' matches zero or more characters at that position in the filename, and ' ? ' matches exactly one character at that position in the filename. 
• Task Error Code - Test the value of an error code returned from the task.  An If block with Task Error Code = 0 will execute on a successful run, while Task Error Code != 0 will run on a Failure. 
• File Error Code - This is very similar to Task error code, there are very few situations where this will act differently than Task error code.  If needing to use this and the task is not behaving as intended please contact Support.  
• [Enter custom macro] - This option allows the use of a Macro or a global parameter to determine what should be done with the file.
  • Make sure there are bracket characters around the macro attribute, or the macro will not be recognized/evaluated.
  • See knowledgebase article if looking to add logic comparing to a task's status or error code:  When to use [TaskStatus] over "File Error Code" or "Task Error Code".
  • Many organizations use global parameters with this option as well to allow customize options in a conditional statement.
  • Additional information on macro attributes is available here: MOVEit Automation Web Admin Help > Macros > Macro Attributes - https://docs.progress.com/bundle/moveit-automation-web-admin-help-2025/page/Macro-Attributes.html

The Operator in this IF conditional statement function is very important:

• For numerical values like error codes, the operator must be a traditional mathematically operator (e.g. =, >, <, !=, >=, <=). 
• For comparing strings or evaluating characters (e.g. Success, Failure, No Xfer), the operator must be "Matches" or "Does not match." In this case, the wildcard * can be used as a way to expand on the exact string and function like a "contains" operator.  

Next, consider the three variations of conditional statements, which can help organize how the task will compare files or ignore files. These will work to compare files that are within the same block or set of steps when the task works down the steps in the process. There is ability to create different filters to compare that apply to each IF block grouping. For example, compare File Names in one block with the File Name filters, and then reevaluate the files in a second block to handle [TaskStatus] after starting a new IF block: 

• IF: The first conditional statement to indicate the filter(s) to use when evaluating the files in these steps of the task run. Consider using this statement again if wanting to conditionally evaluate a different set of filters. 
• ELSE IF: The subsequent conditional statements after the first to use to evaluate how to handle files that satisfy the filter. This allows the task to compare the files against the same filters after they do not meet the criteria of the first IF statement or the previous ELSE IF statements.
• ELSE: The conditional default that will apply to any files or circumstances that were left over after working through the IF and ELSE IF statements. It will display in the task as "Otherwise...". 

Some organizations just use another IF statement to determine what the next filter values should be, rather than using the ELSE IF option. The risk for this is that the comparative function does not apply, so the evaluation may misbehave. In some task configurations, the comparison may not be important, and the task may complete without errors or without files being sent to the wrong place. In other cases, if including an ELSE statement, that ELSE will only apply to the last IF statement, and would not compare to the other IF statements before it. If a file were to meet the filters for two IF statements, it would be processed by both of them if the ELSE IF option was not used to compare the filter values. This is why the strategy of using the conditional statements makes them powerful, while they require thorough planning.