UI Policy Order

The Order field on UI Policies is very important to how UI Policy Actions are processed. When two UI Policies contain a UI Policy Action that acts upon the same field - even if they act upon different properties of that field (visible vs. read-only, for example) - they can potentially conflict. Conflicting UI Policy Actions will be shown in the related list on the UI Policy, with a red dot indicating the issue:

If you open the Action, you'll be presented with an error message indicating that the run order of the UI Policy Actions is unpredictable.

This warning will only occur when the Order field on the parent UI Policy is set the same on both. UI Policies execute in the other indicated by the Order field, starting with one. The higher the value, the later it executes. This also means that a higher value in the Order field means that the policy will take priority over others with a lower Order value. It won't undo any actions performed by lower-Order Policies, but it will overwrite them.

The default value of the Order field is 100. As with most numerical fields, it is generally a good idea to put some space in when you use a different Order value for another record. For example, if we wanted to add in another UI Policy that would take priority over this one, we might choose an Order value of 200 or so. That way, if we later decided that we wanted one or more other Policies to slot in between them, operationally speaking, we could use values like 125, 150, and 175, with plenty of room in-between.

Another example of when this is a good idea, is the State field on Task records. Since State is technically an Integer field (each value such as New, Work in Progress, Closed Complete, and so on. Corresponds to an integer), it's a good idea to put some space between the previous and next numbers whenever you create a new State option. It's always best to think ahead in situations like this, and "future you" will appreciate your precautions.