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Creating Workflow Actions: Create Task

A Create Task action on a workflow rule creates a task automatically when the conditions on the workflow rule are met.

NOTE: You can create multiple actions for a workflow rule, up to a maximum of 25 actions for each rule.

About Configuring Workflow Rules to Create Follow-Up Tasks for Activities

The Create Task action is available for the Activity record type so that you can configure workflow rules to create follow-up tasks when new activity records are saved or existing activity records are updated, deleted, or restored. Follow-up tasks that are created for activity records do not trigger any subsequent workflow rules that are based on the Activity record type. For more information, see Example of Configuring Workflow Rules to Create Follow-Up Tasks for Activities.

Tasks Linked to Parent Records

If a workflow rule is based on a record type that supports child tasks, then when a Create Task action on the rule creates a task, the record that triggered the workflow rule becomes the parent record for the new child task record. In addition, activities created by workflow rule actions are automatically linked to other parent records as follows:

  • When a Create Task action creates an activity for an opportunity record, the workflow action automatically links the activity to the parent account for the opportunity as well as to the opportunity record itself.
  • When a Create Task action creates an activity for a service request record, the workflow action automatically links the activity to the parent account and the contact for the service request, as well as to the service request record itself.

If a workflow rule is based on a record type that does not support child tasks, then when a Create Task action on the rule creates a task, the task is not linked to any parent record.

The following procedure describes how to create a Create Task action.

NOTE: For a Create Task action to succeed, the user whose actions trigger the workflow rule must have the appropriate access rights to create a task. In addition, if a Create Task workflow action is configured to create a task for an inactive user, then the workflow action fails. For information about what happens when a workflow action fails, see About Workflow Rule and Workflow Action Failures.

Before you begin. To perform the following procedure, you must have the Manage Workflow Rules privilege in your user role. For information on adding privileges to roles, see Adding Roles.

To create a Create Task action

  1. Navigate to the rule where you want to create the action:
    1. In the upper-right corner of any page, click the Admin global link.
    2. In the Business Process Management section, click Workflow Configuration.
    3. On the Workflow Rules List page, find the rule where you want to create the action.

      For information about searching for workflow rules in the list page, see Filtering Lists.

  2. Click the Workflow Name link on the rule.
  3. In the Actions title bar on the Workflow Rule Detail page, click Menu, and select Create Task.

    NOTE: The trigger event on the workflow rule determines what types of actions can be created on the rule.

    TIP: You can create a copy of an existing workflow rule action by clicking the Copy link for the action.

  4. In the Workflow Action Edit page, enter a name for the action.
  5. If you want to enable the action, select the Active check box.
  6. Fill in the fields described in the following table, and then save the action.

    NOTE: If you select the Relative User on Record option in the Owner field for the task, and the owner of the record is an inactive user, the task will not be created.

    Field

    Description

    Owner

    Select the type of owner for the task (Relative User on Record or Specific User), and then select the owner:

    • If you select Relative User on Record, select the user from the list.

      If you select a team role as the owner, the workflow rule creates a task for each user who has the assigned team role.

      NOTE: For accounts, contacts, and opportunities, any custom team roles that are added to the record type are available for selection in the list of Relative User on Record owners. For more information on customizing records, see Record Type Application Customization Page. For information about which users you can select in the Owner field when the workflow action is for the User record type, see Considerations When Creating Workflow Rules for the User Record Type.

    • If you select Specific User, click the Lookup icon, and select the task owner.

      NOTE: For information about how record ownership modes affect the ownership of automatically generated tasks, see Record Ownership Modes and Automatically Generated Tasks.

    Type

    Select the activity type from the drop-down list.

    Activity Subtype

    Select the activity subtype from the drop-down list.

    Due Date

    Enter an expression that evaluates to the due date for the task. You can use Expression Builder to create the expression. Click the fx icon beside the field to open the Expression Builder window. The expression can contain a maximum of 1024 characters.

    NOTE: For the workflow action to work correctly, the Due Date field must contain an expression that evaluates to a valid date. Do not enter anything else, such as a date or an integer, in the Due Date field.

    If the expression that you enter evaluates to a date that is before or the same as the current date, then the due date is the current date by default.

    The due date can be set to a maximum of 2400 days in the future. If the expression evaluates to more than 2400 days in the future, then the due date is set to 2400 days in the future. For example, if the expression contains Today()+3000, then the result is calculated as Today()+2400.

    If the expression evaluates to an invalid date or to any other data type,such as string, integer, or Boolean, then an error occurs, and the activity is not created.

    You can use the Check Syntax button in Expression Builder to test the syntax of the expression. However, Expression Builder does not verify that the expression evaluates to a valid date.

    For information about using Oracle On Demand Expression Builder, see Expression Builder.

    Priority

    Select the activity priority from the drop-down list.

    Status

    Select the activity status from the drop-down list.

    Task Currency

    Select a currency.

    Private

    Select this check box if you want the task to be visible only to the task owner.

    Subject

    Enter the subject line for the task.

    You can embed functions and field names in the text. Three percent signs (%%%) before and after an embedded function or field name indicate that it is to be converted to a string.

    For example, the text might include the following:

    Call %%%[<ContactLastName>]%%%

    If you type a function or field name directly in the field, you must type three percent signs before and after it. If you use Expression Builder to embed a function or field name, the percent signs are automatically added. If you use Expression Builder to embed a complex expression, the percent signs might not be added at the appropriate places. In that case, ensure that the percent signs are placed before and after the entire expression so that the expression is evaluated correctly.

    For example, %%%Today() + 30%%% adds 30 days to the current date, but %%%Today() %%%+ 30 concatenates 30 to the string representation of the current date.

    To use Expression Builder to embed functions and field names in the field, click the fx icon beside the field.

    If you are entering only static text, you do not need to use Expression Builder.

    This field can contain a maximum of 1024 characters, including the percent signs before and after the expressions.

    Description

    Enter the description of the task.

    You can embed functions and field names in the text, as described for the Subject field.

    This field can contain a maximum of 1024 characters, including the percent signs before and after the expressions.

NOTE: The language-independent field names and the field-name syntax used in any example expressions in this topic are the field names and the field-name syntax that were used in Expression Builder in releases earlier than Release 29 Service Pack 1. These examples are still valid. However, if you select the corresponding fields for an expression from the Fields list in Expression Builder in Release 29 Service Pack 1 or later, then the field names and the field-name syntax will be different from those shown in the examples. It is recommended that you always select the fields for your expressions from the Fields list in Expression Builder, so that the field names and the field-name syntax are always correct. For more information about the field names and the field-name syntax in expressions, see About Expressions.

For step-by-step procedures for creating other types of workflow actions, see the following topics:

Related Topics

See the following topics for related workflow information:


Published 1/9/2017 Copyright © 2005, 2017, Oracle. All rights reserved. Legal Notices.