I have some functionality I need to implement in Dynamics Crm 2016. I need to scan all records for a custom entity and update any record where a certain condition is true. This is a bit too complex to do via a workflow (I can't change owner via a workflow step) so I'm thinking perhaps I could perform this logic in a custom plugin. I don't know if it makes sense to call this plugin from a workflow in crm though, as I need to perform the logic on all records for this particular entity, and I need the logic to run regularly, i.e. daily/weekly. What's the best way to do this?
I figured this out. It was actually possible to do entirely within Crm. What I was trying to do was the following.
I have a custom entity called announcement, and it has a custom field called embargo date.
I needed to somehow check periodically if the embargo date has been reached, meaning, is the embargo date today? If so, then I needed to change the owner of this entity.
If the embargo date has not yet been reached, then I need to wait until it is, checking the date again everyday till it is reached.
I managed this with a workflow. I added my check conditions, if they were true I assigned the entity to another user.
If my conditions weren't true, I added wait step to wait for 1 day,then another step to Start workflow where I called the current workflow recursively. Meaning, if the conditions aren't true have the workflow call itself again.
Related
I have vtiger6.4 installed and smtp configuration is also done.When I create a new lead it sends the mail.I have created a Workflow for lead and selected Every time the record is modified email should be send to the assigned to.But it is not working.Suggest me some solution.
There are to option to trigger workflow on save event.
Every Time Record is saved
Every Time Record is modified
First is
Every Time Record is saved
This means even no field is updated and you just click save it will trigger workflow event.
You have selected
Every time the record is modified
So that means atleast one Field must be updated using Record Model Class. If you are updating it using query then Workflow will not be Triggered.
Now you have to choose which trigger event you want to choose. If still you have problem then possible that you have set condition in 2nd step. You can provide more details so can help you in better way.
Vtiger Email on workflows send email via cronjobs.
Read more at:
vTigerCRM 7 - Scheduler isn't running any cron jobs unless manually triggered
I want to run a plug-in every 30 minutes, to poll an external system for changes. I am in CRM Online, so I don't have ready access to a scheduling engine.
To run the plug-in, I have a 'trigger' entity with a timezone independent date-
Updating the field also triggers a workflow, which in pseudocode has this logic:
If (Trigger_WaitUntil >= [Process-Execution Time])
{
Timeout until Trigger:WaitUntil
{
Set Trigger_WaitUntil to [Process-Execution Time] + 30 minutes
Stop Workflow with status of: Succeeded
}
}
If Trigger_WaitUntil < [Process-Execution Time])
{
Send email //Tell an admin that the recurring task has self-terminated
Stop Workflow with status of: Canceled
}
So, the behaviour I expect is that every 30 minutes, the 'WaitUntil' field gets updated (and the Plug-in and workflow get triggered again); unless the WaitUntil date is before the Execution time, in which case stop the workflow.
However, 4 hours or so later (probably 8 executions, although I haven't verified that yet) I get an infinite loop warning "This workflow job was canceled because the workflow that started it included an infinite loop. Correct the workflow logic and try again. For information about workflow".
My question is why? Do workflows have a correlation id like plug-ins, which is being carried through to the child workflow? If so, is there anyway I can prevent this, whilst maintaining the current basic mechanism of using a single trigger record to manage the schedule (I've seen other solutions in which workflows create new records, but then you've got to go round tidying up the old trigger records as well)
Yes, this behavior is well-known. The only way to implement recurring workflows without issues with infinite loops in Dynamics CRM and using only OOB features is usage of Bulk Deletion functionality. This article describes how to implement it - http://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/2012/08/using-the-bulk-deletion-process-to-schedule-recurring-workflows/
UPD: If you want to run your code every 30 mins then you will have to create 48 bulkdelete jobs with correspond startdatetime like 12:00, 12: 30, 1:00 ...
The current supported method for CRM is to use the Azure Scheduler.
Excerpt:
create a Web API application to communicate with CRM and our external
provider running on a shared (free) Azure web site and also utilize
the Azure Scheduler to manage the recurrence pattern.
The free version of the Azure Scheduler limits us to execution no more
than once an hour and a maximum of 5 jobs. If you have a lot going on
$20 a month will get you executions every minute and up to 50 jobs -
which sounds like a pretty good deal.
so if you wanted every 30 minutes, you could create two jobs, one on the half hour, and one on the hour.
The Bulk Deletion is an interesting work around and something we've used before. It creates extra work and maintenance though so I try to avoid it if possible.
I would generally recommend building a windows application and using the windows scheduling feature (I know you said you don't have a scheduler available but this is often forgotten). This approach works really well and is very easy to troubleshoot. Writing to logs and sending error email alerts is pretty easy to make it robust. The server doesn't need to be accessible externally, it only needs to reach CRM. If you had CRM on-prem, you could just use the same server.
Azure Scheduler is a great suggestion. This keeps you in the cloud which is nice.
SSIS is another option if you already have KingswaySoft or Cozy Roc in place.
You could build a workflow that creates another record and cleans up after itself; however, this is really using the wrong tool for the job. Also, it's very easy for it to fail and then not initiate the next record.
There is a solution called "Scheduled Workflow Runner". You create a FetchXML query to create a record set to run against, and point it at an on-demand workflow that you want it to run on each record.
http://alexanderdevelopment.net/post/2013/05/18/scheduling-recurring-dynamics-crm-workflows-with-fetchxml/
In CQ5, there is an option to schedule page activation on a particular date. I want to be able to do the same with a workflow — that I can initiate/queue it today, but it will only start executing its steps on a specified date.
Is this possible to implement this feature via a custom workflow step, using the Workflow API? Or is there another way this could be done, e.g. using Sling Events/Scheduling?
There's a process step called the AbsoluteTimeAutoAdvancer which reads a property named absoluteTime from the WorkflowData's MetaData. This is expected to be numeric long value which represents the activation time since Epoch in milliseconds.
The trick is to set this value in the metadata. I would suggest reading
extending workflows the section entitled Saving Property Values in Workflow Metadata
I have a requirement to allow a user to specify the value of an InArgument / property from a list of valid values (e.g. a combobox). The list of valid values is determined by the value of another InArgument (the value of which will be set by an expression).
For instance, at design time:
User enters a file path into workflow variable FilePath
The DependedUpon InArgument is set to the value of FilePath
The file is queried and a list of valid values is displayed to the user to select the appropriate value (presumably via a custom PropertyValueEditor).
Is this possible?
Considering this is being done at design time, I'd strongly suggest you provide for all this logic within the designer, rather than in the Activity itself.
Design-time logic shouldn't be contained within your Activity. Your Activity should be able to run independent of any designer. Think about it this way...
You sit down and design your workflow using Activities and their designers. Once done, you install/xcopy the workflows to a server somewhere else. When the server loads that Activity prior to executing it, what happens when your design logic executes in CacheMetadata? Either it is skipped using some heuristic to determine that you are not running in design time, or you include extra logic to skip this code when it is unable to locate that file. Either way, why is a server executing this design time code? The answer is that it shouldn't be executing it; that code belongs with the designers.
This is why, if you look at the framework, you'll see that Activities and their designers exist in different assemblies. Your code should be the same way--design-centric code should be delivered in separate assemblies from your Activities, so that you may deliver both to designers, and only the Activity assemblies to your application servers.
When do you want to validate this, at design time or run time?
Design time is limited because the user can use an expression that depends on another variable and you can't read the value from there at design time. You can however look at the expression and possibly deduce an invalid combination that way. In this case you need to add code to the CacheMetadata function.
At run time you can get the actual values and validate them in the Execute function.
I'm building a workflow to route a case based on time of day:
e.g., if the case is created (workflow fires on create) between 7am-5pm local, then I want to route the case to a "Customer Service" Queue. If the case is created any time outside of 7a-5p, I want to route it to a 'holding' queue for pickup the next business day.
Any way to do that using the onboard WF toolkit? I'm kind of leaning toward a custom workflow at the moment, but I really want to avoid that as I'd like to make this in a way that my client can understand and maintain.
Thanks!
-RC
I don't see a way to specify just a time range like you want using just the native UI.
You could create a custom "Within Working Hours" workflow assembly and still have it be easy to use, though. Your custom wf assembly would take 3 inputs:
Working Hours Start
Working House End
Current Case Created Time
As I'm sure you can guess, the values you would give it would be 7, 5, and the case's Created On value. The custom wf assembly could then return true if the Case was created within the hours specified by the first two parameters supplied.
Any variation of this custom wf assembly should probably do the trick for you.