Some Workflow Events May Fail
Some workflow events may fail. For example:
- An event that validates an incoming notification may result in failure if the notification contains invalid information.
- An event that asks for the confirmation from a distribution company may fail if the distribution company rejects the request.
Refer to Errors versus Failure for information to help you differentiate between events that have failed versus those that are in error.
The background process that is responsible for activating events (referred to as WFET ) is the process that can cause an event to fail (failure can happen during the activation algorithm on the workflow event). When an event fails, the system:
- Updates the workflow process with message number and message parameters describing the validation problem.
- Sets the status of the event to Failed.
- Cancels the workflow process and its outstanding events.
- Calls the failure algorithm defined on the event's event type.
It's important to note that some types of events can't fail and therefore don't have a failure algorithm. For example, an event that creates a field activity can't fail, neither can an event that creates a welcome letter.
Refer to Workflow Processes Can Have Multiple Branches for more information about event failure in a process with multiple branches.