Workflows are an integral part of your CRM experience. They can be used for a variety of tasks, such as automatically sending e-mails to members, updating records, or creating new ones, but the overall theme remains the same; saving users time and and effort by running processes in your system's background.
Here, we'll discuss how to create workflows and the different components that can be used.
Workflows can be found in Settings -> Processes
From this view, you can either open an existing workflow or create a new one. If you create a new one, you will need to:
- Create a name
- Select the category (workflow, generally)
- Select the entity on which you wish the workflow to trigger (this doesn't mean you will necessarily change that entity but that changes to that entity may trigger the workflow and that the workflow can only be rung on that entity).
- If building from a template, you will also need to set the Type to New Process form an existing template. For more information on how to build form a Process Template, refer to this article.
Once you've created the workflow, it will look like the below image. You'll need to set:
- The Trigger - the checkboxes next to the "Start when" label determine at which point a workflow can run automatically. If you don't want it to run automatically, uncheck all boxes. Otherwise, check the boxes for any of the circumstances in which you want it to run. Often, you'll only want one box checked.
- The on demand checkbox - The checkbox labeled "As an on-demand process" will, when checked, allow an active workflow to be run manually on an individual record. This is useful if you won't want a workflow to run automatically or if the workflow didn't run on a particular record and you want it to do so.
- Other values, like scope and "As a child Process" are more advanced features. When you first begin building workflows, set Scope to Organization and leave "As a child process" unchecked.
In the Workflow steps pane, you can define the actual actions that a workflow can take. The conditional steps, which determine when a workflow will run include:
- Check Condition - A logical "if-<condition> then" statement. You can check values for the record that the workflow is running on, any of the records linked to that record in an N:1 relationships, or any records created by earlier steps. Based on these values you can define additional steps when the condition is true. In the "if-<condition> then" statement, you can use the following operators: Equals, Does Not Equal, Contains Data, Does Not Contain Data, Under and Not Under.
- Conditional Branch - A logical "else-if-then" statement, the editor uses the text “Otherwise, if <condition> then:” Select a check condition you have previously defined and you can add a conditional branch to define additional steps when the check condition returns false.
- Default Action - A logical "else" statement. the editor uses the text “Otherwise:” Select a check condition, conditional branch, wait condition, or parallel wait branch that you have previously defined and you can use a default action to define steps for all cases that do not match the criteria defined in condition or branch elements.
- Wait Condition - Enables a background workflow to pause itself until the criteria defined by the condition have been met. The workflow starts again automatically when the criteria in the wait condition have been met.
- Parallel Wait Branch - Defines an alternative wait condition for a background workflow with a corresponding set of additional steps that are performed only when the initial criterion is met. You can use parallel wait branches to create time limits in your workflow logic. They help prevent the workflow from waiting indefinitely until the criteria defined in a wait condition have been met.
- Custom Step - Developers can create custom workflow steps that define conditions. There are no custom steps available in Microsoft Dynamics 365 by default.
In addition, you can:
- Create Record - Create a record from scratch, defining certain values with which it will be created
- Update Record - Selecting a certain record and updating one or more values in it
- Send Email - Sending a form email to a particular recipient from a particular sender
- Change Status - Changing the status of a particular record
In each of the above four steps, you can define dynamic values that are used. In each of those steps, you'll see a button titled "Set Properties." When clicked, that button will open a dialog box that will include the Form Assistant. The Form Assistant gives you the ability to set or append dynamic values from the context of the current record. This includes values from related records that can be accessed from the N:1 (many-to-one) relationships for the entity.
The options available in the Form Assistant depend on the field you have selected in the form. When you set a dynamic value, you will see a yellow placeholder known as a ‘slug’ that shows where the dynamic data will be included. If you want to remove the value, just select the slug and delete it. For text fields, you can use a combination of static and dynamic data.
Once you have defined all of the steps you want the workflow to take, give it a final look-over to confirm the values are correct, then save and Activate the workflow so that it can begin being used.
Workflows can be complicated but valuable pieces of functionality. RAMCO comes pre-built with several workflows but you can always contact the RAMCO Education team for advice on creating new ones or the RAMCO support team for assistance in correcting workflow behavior.