Since time I started to work with Dynamics CRM (back to 2008 and v4.0) I was wondering why many operations that are available from UI not available in OOB Workflows. In latest release (v8.2 or Dynamics 365) Microsoft added couple of operations:
I did a quick look on the list and tried to use it. First impression was – cool, that’s what I needed many times but it was not available and every time I had to open VS and write Custom Workflow Activity to make this or that operation available. Unfortunately the list is not complete yet (Delete, Associate/Disassociate, Add to/Remove from Marketing List and many-many more are still not available OOB). The other gap I discovered – unavailability of Outputs for actions in scenarios when action generates some output (for example Qualification of Lead or Revise of Quote). I and my friend Oleksandr Klymenko decided to invest some time in development of Workflow Toolkit that should close those gaps in workflows. Let us introduce you “Ultimate Workflow Toolkit“.
In first release we implemented following list of operations:
Why it’s different from Standard Operations? Here is why:
- Any action that generates some data (like Qualification of Lead, Revise of Quote e.t.c.) contains corresponding output/outputs so you can use it in workflow after action was executed.
- Every action contains additional boolean Input “Throw an Exception on Error”. The main goal for it is to provide user power of choice – allow workflow finish execution with error if you choose “True” or handle that error somehow (through email notification or so) using 2 additional Outputs added – boolean “Error Occurred” and string “Error Message”.
- The list of actions can be extended because it is opensource solution available on GitHub.
If we missed any actions that are generic enough (doesn’t depend on your particular customization e.t.c.) feel free to leave your comment and we consider adding it to the list of new actions to implement.
Hey Andrii,
This seems like a very valuable solution, I look forward to testing this out! I’m curious if it would be possible to use this toolkit to build a workflow within the Campaign Activity entity that would create a custom entity record for each member of the associated marketing lists? Trying to workaround how they’ve restricted the ability to “distribute campaign activities” to only the default activity entities included and use a custom one. Thanks!
-Mark
Mark,
You are very welcome to test and leave your feedback here or on the github.
Regarding your question – potentially your query is possible with Relationship Operations -> Distribute Workflow. This worth a look.
Thanks,
Andrii
Thanks for the reply Andrii. Forgive my oversight here but I just noticed that the solution is a v8.2 /Dynamics 365 one. Do you by any chance have a version that would be compatible with CRM 2016 SP1?
Mark,
At the moment I work on the next version that will be available soon. I will provide version compatible with your environment.
Andrii
Thanks Andrii, I appreciate it and look forward to the next release!