Creating a workflow rule to e-mail if service activity is not closed

Gavin Steiner

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Jan 28, 2006, 12:55:05 AM1/28/06

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We are new to CRM workflow.

We want to create a workflow process that will e-mail the person assigned to
a service appointment if they have NOT closed the appointment within 24
hours after the scheduled end.

How do we trigger the rule to run at creation, but wait for the 24 hour
period after the scheduled end to send the e-mail?

Thanks,

Gavin

Jeffry van de Vuurst

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Jan 28, 2006, 4:37:36 AM1/28/06

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Hi Gavin,

It just so happens that I made a blog post about this 2 days ago :). Take a
look at www.cwrmobility.com/weblog, it includes a screenshot of the
workflow. You have to use a timer condition that waits until 24 hours after
the scheduled end time.

HTH,

--
Jeffry van de Vuurst
CWR Mobility
www.cwrmobility.com
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Dave Carr

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Jan 28, 2006, 10:56:04 AM1/28/06

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Jeffry,
I can't make out the details behind your screenshot, and I don't think
a SERVICE ACTIVITY allows you to set a timer based on scheduled end.
(I hope I'm wrong, but I can't find it.) If you have figured it out,
could you log a step by step? Thanks,
Dave

Jeffry van de Vuurst

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Jan 28, 2006, 11:19:06 AM1/28/06

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Hi Dave,

Indeed, my blog post was about an Appointment and not a ServiceActivity.
However, I just tried it with a ServiceActivity and you can set the same
timer condition on ServiceActivity.Scheduled End.

If I select a timer condition on a ServiceActivity I can choose from Actual
End, Actual Start, Modified On, Scheduled End and Scheduled Start.

I do have to say, all those different names confuse me. Why is it called End
Time on an Appointment and Scheduled End on a ServiceActivity? They both
point to the field scheduledend in the database if I'm not mistaken.

So, from what it looks like, you should be able to set a timer condition on
the Scheduled End of a ServiceActivity.

If you still don't find it, let me know and I post a screenshot of what I
see.

--
Jeffry van de Vuurst
CWR Mobility
www.cwrmobility.com
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Gavin Steiner

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Jan 28, 2006, 2:15:13 PM1/28/06

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You're the best!

I sent you an e-mail last week Did you get it?

--
Gavin
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Small Business Server Specialist
Microsoft Certified Partner
www.interprom.com
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Gavin Steiner

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Jan 28, 2006, 2:21:06 PM1/28/06

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I just tried the same thing - setting a timer on Service Activity Scheduled
End, and it DOESN'T offer that attribute in the timer settings. The only
attribute you can set the timer on is ON CREATE

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Gavin
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Microsoft Certified Partner
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Dave Carr

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Jan 28, 2006, 4:26:01 PM1/28/06

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That's what I'm seeing too, Gavin.. The only field in the drop down is
CreatedOn date, which doesn't do us any good. Jeffry, if you post a
screenshot, can you either make the resolution big enough to see, or
add a step by step ? Many thanks,
Dave

Jeffry van de Vuurst

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Jan 28, 2006, 6:16:23 PM1/28/06

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I've tried to post a message with 3 screenshots attached in a zip file, but
that was not allowed because it was too big. So I'll just post a new message
on our blog and attach the screenshots there. The resolution is around
800*600, so you should be able to read it. At least, I can on a 1280*1024
screen.

Really really strange that you guys only see the CreatedOn field and I see 4
other date fields, but not the CreatedOn field!

Okay, it's around bed time for me, so I hope these screenshots clear things
up a bit, otherwise it'll have to wait :)

--
Jeffry van de Vuurst
CWR Mobility
www.cwrmobility.com
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Gavin Steiner

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Jan 28, 2006, 8:24:53 PM1/28/06

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I found the problem!

I dind't have "reevaluate expression when field is updated" checked when
creating the timer.

When I checked it, the proper attributees showed up!!!

Gavin
--
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Microsoft Certified Partner

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Jeffry van de Vuurst

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Jan 29, 2006, 3:51:24 AM1/29/06

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Great, I'm glad it works now. I thought I was going mad :)

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Jeffry van de Vuurst
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Gavin Steiner

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Jan 29, 2006, 11:11:28 AM1/29/06

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You are brother!

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Gavin
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Microsoft CRM Specialist
Microsoft Certified Partner

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Pete

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Feb 17, 2006, 4:33:27 AM2/17/06

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Can I just clarifty the 'reevaluate' check box - I created a workflow on
'CREATE@ which triggersday before a date I include in the entity, I thought
that checking hte reevaluate expression box would trigger it each time the
date field was updated, but it doesn't seem to be doing this - am I missing
something ?

Jeffry van de Vuurst

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Feb 17, 2006, 5:08:36 AM2/17/06

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I don't think it triggers a new workflow rule every time you update the
specific date field (after all, it's a CREATE rule which only fires once).
It reevaluates the existing running workflow rule and adjusts the timer
based on the new date value.

HTH,

--
Jeffry van de Vuurst
CWR Mobility
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Pete

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Feb 17, 2006, 5:24:04 AM2/17/06

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Thanks - so would I need to create a recursive rule to trap updates to dates?

Jeffry van de Vuurst

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Feb 17, 2006, 6:14:11 AM2/17/06

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No, not as far as I understand it.

Say you created the entity and the field "targetdate" is set to 2006-02-20.
It starts your workflow and the workflow waits until 2006-02-10 (1 day
before targetdate) before continuing.

Then you update that entity and set the field targetdate to 2006-02-25. The
running workflow then reevaluates the field targetdate and sees that it
changed to 2006-02-25. It then waits until 2006-02-24 (1 day before new
targetdate) before continuing.

At least, that's the way that I understand it works. I haven't tested this,
but it should be easy to test this scenario.

HTH,

--
Jeffry van de Vuurst
CWR Mobility
www.cwrmobility.com
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Pete

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Feb 17, 2006, 11:31:16 AM2/17/06

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I created a rule which fires one day after the 'bill date' on my 'project'
entity - I seeded this date to yesterday to test it on create - once I
created the record the rule fired and created an activity - which is exactly
right

now - I went back into the record and changed the date to the previous day -
nothing happened .......which leads me to believe that I am getting
completely the wrong end of the stick here :)

Jeffry van de Vuurst

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Feb 17, 2006, 11:55:47 AM2/17/06

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When you set a timer and your workflow rule reaches the "trigger" date, it
continues (creates the activity) and ends. Reevaluating the specific date
only works if the date is not yet reached, because then the workflow is
still in a "wait" state.

HTH,

--
Jeffry van de Vuurst
CWR Mobility
www.cwrmobility.com
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Pete

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Feb 17, 2006, 12:51:30 PM2/17/06

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Success ... you're a clever man !