Workflow on "Activity"? - dynamics-crm-2011

I'm trying to have CRM 2011 share activities to a Team if the user that created the record is part of another team.
Firstly, is it possible to create either a custom or basic workflow on "Activities" instead of having to create a workflow on each type of activity (Appointement, Phone Call, E-mail, etc.) that does the same thing on each of them ?
Secondly, I see the basic workflows wizard allows you to Assign activities to another team, but I don't see the Share action anywhere. Is this a job for a custom, .NET assembly, workflow ?
Thank you!

You need to select the exact entity when you create a workflow, this means you need to create a worklow for each activity entity-type (1 for Appointment, 1 for Phone Call, ...)
There isn't a built-in share functionality inside the standard Workflow designer, you need to use a custom activity (create one using .NET or install one already compiled)
Check these two:
http://crm2011workflowutils.codeplex.com/
http://crm2011sharestep.codeplex.com/

Related

Can I use default workflows for this?

I have to create a workflow in Sharepoint online shown in the image. Below is the explanation of the workflow
A Sharepoint list form will be defined with required fields.
Step 1:
Whenever a new project requestor wants to request for resources, they use the link to create a new line item and submit
Step 2:
This item should be assigned to Manager. He will verify the details and assign it to some Lead.
Step 3 :
Lead will work with the requestor offline to gather details about the request and comes up with level of efforts, no. of resources required, etc. and creates a form(some excel template). This form needs to be uploaded to this request and on submit,
Step 4:
Now this item should go back to the manager. Manager will finally review the form created by the lead (and allocate resources - not part of this workflow) and closes the request, and the requests lifecycle is ended.
Is there a way I can achieve this using the inbuild workflow types given in SP online, or Should I create the workflow from scratch - I'm very new to SP, so sorry for the basic question
I don't think the default workflow would meet your requirements. Here are two options for you:
Use microsoft flow to build your workflow.
If you do not have flow license, I would suggest you use SharePoint Designer to build your wokflow.
If you have questions to build your workflow, feel free to ask.

Automating Approval Processes in Dynamics CRM

A bit of background before I begin.
Background:
I am working on migrating an existing .NET based system to Dynamics CRM and one of its key feature is its 'Request Approval Process'. I have implemented some simpler versions of such approval processes in past but this one is a bit complex since it involves multi-level approvals, multiple approvers at one level, amendment logic, delegation functionality, etc.
Analysis Till Now:
Before pushing this question at SO, I did a fair analysis of the requirements from my end and have come up with few possible approaches:
Workflow based approach (something on lines of this)
Complete custom logic using Plugins/Web Resources (something on lines of this)
I am not explaining the details of these approaches as of now but the core issue is that none of these two approaches are fitting correctly to my requirements.
Queries:
While analyzing these approaches I came across some newer functionalities added to CRM (listed below) but did not get any additional resources to explore them further. I just want to confirm that I am not trying to achieve something which is already present out-of-the-box or going in the incorrect direction.
1. Internal Process Automation:
Reference: Here
Any leads/thoughts on this approach? I am not able to find any good documentation/articles around this.
2. Graphical Approval Workflow:
Reference: Here
This feature seems to be useful but it is mentioned to be a part of Dynamics Marketing. With the new structuring of Dynamics 365, will this feature be a part of Dynamics CRM by default?
Also, the Prerequisites section of this link mentions certain Item Types for which you can configure this functionality. So can't we use this functionality for any entity records?
Any kind of help/inputs would be appreciated.
I'd suggest the best of both worlds: using out-of-box Workflows along with custom Workflow activities that you can write with C#. Use as much out-of-box functionality as you can, but when you need to query records or run custom logic, create a custom workflow activity that can be used in your out-of-box Workflow. Custom workflow activities are similar to plugins in that they are written using C#. You can have custom inputs and custom outputs for your activity.
For example, maybe your approval process needs to look up the appropriate approving user for this record. You could write a custom workflow activity that takes an input (the record being approved) and an output (the user that has the ability to approve). Then in your Workflow, you'd add your custom activity as a step. After that step, you could send an email to the approver by using the output of that custom step.
More information about custom workflow activities: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg309745.aspx

How to edit Workflow steps via API?

In my solution I have a workflow where one step contains a reference to Queue. After importing this solution on another CRM instance this workflow could not be activated because it contains an invalid reference - Queue can not be resolved. Queue with same name is created on new CRM but resolving is probably based on record Guid.
Now, I'm wondering, is there a way to edit workflow steps using CRM SDK? Whole process of CRM solution deployment is automated. And I want to remove all manual work. Some example would be great :)
Thanx in advance!
There are 2 things you can do if you are having issues with the Guids not matching in a workflow lookup when deploying from one environment to another.
Use the API to create those records referenced in the WF. When you create a record you can actually specify the Guid that it uses as the id. So write a tool or see if one exists already that will create some default data for your environment.
Use a configuration entity with references to all the EntityRefrences needed in your WFs. Then you can create a custom workflow activity to retrieve the configuration entity record (there should only ever really be one) that contains all the references in that environment.

How do I build custom workflows in SharePoint?

I need to learn how to build custom workflows in SharePoint. In addition to basic stuff like having legal sign-off on documents, I need to be able to execute arbitrary custom code at certain points. For example, after legal signs off it should export the document and update a database table indicating that a new version is ready.
Is this possible using SharePoint? If so, where can I find the documentation or tutorials I would need to get started?
Getting Started Link 1,Getting Started Link 2 links will help you to get started with the SharePoint Custom Workflows. And also it is possible to do any arbitrary code inside the workflow. Also there is another type of work flow called State machine for which there is a class one article
Workflow as the whole is built using sub parts called Activities which dictates what the workflow should do at a particular point of time, I remember you have an activity called Code Activity which will help you to achieve what you want.
Robert Shelton's Workflow Video Tutorial series is very helpful:
http://rshelton.com/Tags/Workflow/default.aspx

sharepoint workflow

I am new this sharepoint development and i have task in hand to do the following.
1.When a new document added to the library, the system will prompt for approvers & audience from a database table. this will be stored for future revisions for the document.
2. Upon successful completion of assigning approvers, audience the system will initiate the workflow to complete the approval process.
It would be great if anyone can point the direction to do the following:
1.is it possible to call a aspx page/form from document library insert/update event?
2.How to assign approvers to a workflow programmatically?
Thanks in Advance!
Alex
I'm not sure it is possible to explicitly call another page but you can use the "Source" url parameter to specify the page they are directed to after they press OK. Obviously, you will have to change "www.google.com" to be your new URL.
/Lists/Announcements/NewForm.aspx?Source=www.google.com
You can probably do all of this using custom workflow. With custom workflow you have two options: creating the entire workflow in visual studio or create custom workflow actions and using SharePoint Designer to build the workflow.
Building custom Workflow Actions.

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