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Administering Oracle CRM On Demand > Business Process Management > Workflow Configuration > About Workflow Rules

About Workflow Rules

A workflow rule is an instruction to Oracle CRM On Demand to perform one or more actions automatically when a specified event occurs.

Trigger Events and Actions on Workflow Rules

A workflow rule is evaluated when the event specified on the rule (the trigger event) occurs. If the conditions on the rule are met (or if there are no conditions on the rule), then the actions specified on the rule are performed. For example, you can create a workflow rule to specify that when an opportunity is created (the workflow rule trigger event), an email is sent to the opportunity owner's manager (the workflow rule action). You can also specify that the email is sent only if the revenue on the opportunity is in excess of a certain amount (the workflow rule condition), and you can specify the content of the email.

You can also configure workflow rules so that actions are performed when a specified period of time has passed, or when a specified date and time is reached. For more information about time-based workflow actions, see About Time-Based Workflow Rules and About Scheduled Events.

Workflow rules can be triggered by one of the following:

• A record is created, updated, restored, merged, or deleted.

  NOTE: An update to a record by a workflow action does not trigger new sequences of workflow rules. For example, if an Update Values action on a workflow rule for the account record type updates a field on an account record, then this change to the record does not trigger any workflow rules for the account record type, even if some of those rules have the Before Modified Record Saved trigger or the When Modified Record saved trigger events. If you want Oracle CRM On Demand to perform any additional actions as a result of the change to the record, then those actions must be configured on the same workflow rule as the action that updated the record.

• A record is associated with another record or dissociated from another record.

  Association and dissociation workflow rule triggers are supported for associations between certain record types only. For more information, see About Association and Dissociation Trigger Events.

• A specified date and time has been reached.

NOTE: Workflow rules support cascade-delete operations and deep-delete operations. For example, when an account is deleted, any related address that is an unshared address is also deleted. The deletion of an address in turn triggers any workflow rules for the Address record type that have the Before Record Is Deleted trigger event. For more information about cascade-delete operations and deep-delete operations, see About Deleting and Restoring Records.

There are several types of trigger events for workflow rules, but each workflow rule has only one trigger event. Depending on the trigger event you select for the rule, you can specify that Oracle CRM On Demand is to perform one or more actions automatically when the workflow rule conditions are met.

The trigger event for each rule is shown on the Workflow Rules List Page and on the Workflow Rule Detail page. Depending on the type of trigger event that is selected for a workflow rule, the rule is one of the following types:

• Pre-event workflow rule. The workflow actions occur before the event that triggers the rule is completed.
• Post-event workflow rule. The workflow actions occur after the event that triggered the workflow rule has been successfully completed.
• Scheduled event. The scheduled event type is a subtype of the post-event rule type.

  A scheduled event is a workflow rule that is not triggered by a user action. Instead, the scheduled event is automatically executed when a specified date and time is reached. You can optionally configure a scheduled event to be executed multiple times, at an interval that you specify on the scheduled event.

  For more information about scheduled events, see About Scheduled Events, Creating Scheduled Events, and Creating Scheduled Events for Analytics.

Workflow rules are configured for a record as a whole, and not for individual fields. Scheduled events are configured for lists of records, and scheduled events for Analytics are configured to be executed for specified users.

NOTE: After a rule is created, you cannot change the record type or trigger event on the rule. However, if there is a condition on the rule, then you can update the condition. On scheduled events, you can update the schedule or select a different list.

The following table shows the actions that are available for each trigger event.

Some additional workflow actions are available for Oracle CRM On Demand Life Sciences Edition and Oracle CRM On Demand for Partner Relationship Management. For more information, see About Workflow Actions.

NOTE: Processing of blocked products is not supported for sample request items when you use workflows in Oracle CRM On Demand. For more information, see About Sample Request Item Workflows and Blocked Product Rules.

NOTE: For certain record types, workflow rules that are configured with the When Record is Restored trigger event are never triggered because it is currently not possible to restore a record of that type. For example, it is currently not possible to restore an account team record. If support for restoring such record types is added in the future, then any workflow rules that are configured with the When Record is Restored trigger event will be triggered where appropriate.

Restrictions That Apply to Workflow Rules and Rule Actions

The following restrictions apply to workflow rules with any trigger event other than Scheduled Event, and to the actions on those rules:

• Workflow rule conditions. If you define conditions on a workflow rule, then the workflow rule actions are performed only if the rule conditions are met when the rule is triggered. If the conditions are not met, then the actions are not performed. If you do not define any conditions on a workflow rule, then the workflow rule actions are performed each time the rule is triggered.
• Single-record context. A workflow rule that is triggered when a record is created, updated, or deleted, is restricted to work in the context of a single record—that is, such a workflow rule can access and update fields on only one record.

  NOTE: When a workflow rule is triggered by a record association or dissociation action, the integration event created by the workflow can contain fields from both the child record and the parent record.

The following restrictions apply to all workflow rules and scheduled events, and to the actions on those rules and scheduled events:

• Multiple actions on workflow rules and scheduled events. You can create multiple actions for a workflow rule or scheduled event.

  You can create up to a maximum of 25 actions for a workflow rule. For a scheduled event, you can create up to a maximum of 5 workflow actions. If you try to create more actions than are allowed on a workflow rule or scheduled event, then you receive an error message.

  NOTE: If a workflow action on a workflow rule or scheduled event terminates unexpectedly without being completed, then the remaining actions on the workflow rule or scheduled event might not be performed. For information about what happens when a workflow action fails, see About Workflow Rule and Workflow Action Failures.

• Record types. You can create workflow rules and scheduled events for a number of record types. However, each workflow rule or scheduled event applies to only one record type. This means that if you create a workflow rule or scheduled event for a specific record type and you want the same action to occur for another record type, then you must create a second, similar workflow rule or scheduled event for the second record type.

Workflow Rule Order

When you create a workflow rule, Oracle CRM On Demand automatically assigns the rule to the next unused order number for the rules that are based on the same record type and the same trigger event. If the trigger event for the workflow rule is After Association With Parent or After Dissociation From Parent, then Oracle CRM On Demand automatically assigns the rule to the next unused order number for rules that are based on the same record type, the same trigger event, and the same parent record type. For workflow rules that have a trigger event other than Scheduled Event, the order number determines the order in which Oracle CRM On Demand invokes a sequence of workflow rules that are based on the same record type and the same trigger event, and if applicable, on the same parent record type. You can change the order of your rules.

NOTE: Workflow rules that have the Scheduled Event trigger event are also assigned an order number but they are not performed in sequence. The order number is read-only for scheduled events.

For more information about changing the order of workflow rules, see Changing the Order of Workflow Rules.

Exiting a Sequence of Workflow Rules

For workflow rules with any trigger event other than Scheduled Event, you can specify that Oracle CRM On Demand is to stop processing a sequence of workflow rules if the condition on a workflow rule is met. When a workflow rule is triggered, the condition on the rule is evaluated. If the condition on the rule is met and the Exit check box on the workflow rule is selected, then the active actions on the current workflow rule are performed, but the subsequent workflow rules that are based on the same record type and the same trigger event, and where applicable, the same parent record type, are not processed.

Workflow Action Order

Where there are multiple actions on a workflow rule or scheduled event, the actions are performed in the order specified on the workflow rule, starting with the action numbered 1. Each action is completed before the next action starts. You can change the order of the actions on a rule. For more information about workflow actions, see About Workflow Actions.

For a scheduled event, the actions are performed for the records that are returned by the filtered list on that date. The records are processed in sequence, that is, all of the workflow actions on the scheduled event are performed in the order specified on the scheduled event for the first record in the list, then all of the actions are performed for the second record in the list, and so on.

Workflow Rule and Workflow Action Failures

If a workflow rule, scheduled event, or workflow action fails to complete, then depending on the type of trigger event on the workflow rule or scheduled event, and on the type of error, the failure is either reported in the Workflow Error Monitor, or reported to the user whose actions triggered the workflow rule. For more information, see About Workflow Rule and Workflow Action Failures.

Record Visibility and Workflow Actions

When a user performs an action that triggers a workflow rule, some of the actions on the workflow rule can fail if the user’s action resulted in the user losing visibility to the record.

For example, you might have a workflow rule that is triggered when a modified account record is saved. If a user who owns an account record reassigns the account to another user, then the workflow rule is triggered when the account record is saved. If the original owner of the record no longer has visibility to the account record through any other means, such as team or book membership, then any workflow action that requires access to the account record fails.

Similarly, an instance of a scheduled event fails if the user who made the scheduled event active no longer has access to the list that was selected on the scheduled event.

Record Ownership Modes and Workflow Actions

You can configure record types that support custom books in different ownership modes: user mode, mixed mode, or book mode. For more information about records ownership modes, see About Record Ownership Modes. The record ownership mode interacts with workflow rules and actions.

If an Assign a Book workflow action attempts to remove the primary custom book from a record, then the following happens:

• If the record type is configured in book mode, then the workflow action fails.
• If the record type is configured in mixed mode, then Oracle CRM On Demand removes the value in the Book field on the record when the primary custom book is removed from the record.
• If the record type is configured in user mode, then none of the books on the record is a primary custom book, and the record ownership mode does not impact the workflow action.

If a workflow action has a dependency on the value in the Owner field on a record, such as when a Send Email action is configured to send email using the Relative User on Record option, then the following happens:

• If the record type is configured in book mode, then the workflow action fails.
• If the record type is configured in user mode or mixed mode, and the field that identifies the relative user on the record is blank, then the workflow action fails.

  For example, if you configure a Send Email action to send email to an account owner and the Account record type is configured in mixed mode, then the workflow action fails if the Owner field on the account record is blank. However, if the Owner field is populated, then the workflow action succeeds.

Latency

Workflow rules with any trigger event other than the Scheduled Event trigger event are evaluated in sequence and synchronously. The overall update operation is not completed until all the rules are evaluated. Therefore, the workflow rules add a certain amount of latency to operations (that is, the time between the start of an operation and its completion). For example, each task created by a workflow rule can add as much as 20% latency to a record update operation. Each email created by a workflow rule adds about 5% latency.

Expressions take less time to evaluate. To minimize latency, add mutually exclusive expressions to your workflow conditions. Build your workflow rules incrementally, keeping performance in mind.

Click a topic to see step-by-step procedures to do the following:

• Creating Workflow Rules
• Creating Scheduled Events
• Creating Workflow Actions: Assign a Book
• Creating Workflow Actions: Create Integration Event
• Creating Workflow Actions: Create Task
• Creating Workflow Actions: Send Email
• Creating Workflow Actions: Update Values
• Creating Workflow Actions: Wait
• Changing the Order of Workflow Rule Actions
• Changing the Order of Workflow Rules
• Deactivating Workflow Rules and Actions
• Deleting Workflow Rules and Actions