If you have a workflow dealing with the entities that include money fields, avoid setting explicit currency. Instead, try to infer the currency from the related records. For mere mortals, it’s just a bad practice, for ISVs, it’s definitely a case of spießrutenlaufen. Why? Because if you activate your workflow and add it to a […]
Tip #420: If your child workflow needs more than one entity
CRM workflows always require an entity to run. But what if you’d like to create a child workflow but need more than one entity or additional parameters? For example, while identifying the business opportunities for a professional photographer, you may want to invoke a workflow called Book the ceremony that involves two people. Let’s assume […]
Tip #417: Cancel waiting instances in style
We have posted multiple times about waiting workflows, and one of the big challenges surrounding them is that when you update a workflow definition, there is no way to cancel the waiting instances of the workflow in bulk. Also, jobs may go into waiting state if there is a condition that prevents the step from […]
Tip #361: Use an Exchange Distribution List for CRM email notifications
When it comes to workflow design, one of my least favorite things to see in a workflow is a notification set to go to a specific person. Sure you need it sometimes, but there are some definite downsides. If someone gets promoted or leaves the company, you have to update you customization to change the […]
Tip #360: Workflows on change of process flow stage
In CRM 2013 or 2015, if you have a workflow that runs on change of the process flow stage, such as a notification email, you may occasionally see the workflow fire multiple times. The reason for this is because the way that the stage is moved by hitting the next/previous buttons makes it very easy […]
Tip #354: No code contextual sequential auto-number
When you add a child entity, it is best practice to populate the name field, but sometimes it can be difficult to come up with a name that makes sense. Say you have an entity that is the child of an account/company record. If you leave the name field blank, if any record looks up to […]
Tip #340: Sky is the limit for the workflows
From time to time I come across posts referring to CRM Online limits and citing 200 (active) workflows as a limit to be aware of. Let me use 1000-word equivalent: What you see here is the user interface lagging behind the product capabilities. As far as I know, limit for the number of custom entities […]
Tip #290: The paths we choose
While fiddling with the workflows in a freshly minted CRM Online organization trying to find out what else we can do now that we couldn’t do before (like OR condition, this sort of stuff), I came across of this new, interesting and very much undocumented field called Traversed Path: After playing with it for X […]
Tip #265: Administrator updates of read-only fields
If you have fields on your CRM form that are read only, it can make administration difficult. For example, if you have read only fields, you cannot bulk update the fields, and you can’t edit the field from the workflow designer. Sure you can customize the form, make the fields editable, and then bulk update the fields, […]
Tip #253: Keep your emails unique
Say, you want to do some checks for inbound emails on Senders Account. It will work well until one of other email-enabled entities (typically systemuser) has a record with the same email address. Having multiple system entities (systemuser, contact, account) with the same email is a bad idea because, when system starts matching sender’s email […]