CRM 4.0 Workflow Challenges – Part 2 (Update Picklist and Bit Fields)

As a continuation of my previous post on CRM 4.0 Workflow Challenges, CRM 4.0 Workflow Challenges – Part 1 (Fields on the Form and Read-only Fields) (http://blog.customereffective.com/blog/2010/06/crm-40-workflow-challenges-part-1-fields-on-the-form-and-read-only-fields.html), here is another post on workflow challenges.  This post focuses on some suggested workarounds for updating picklists and bit fields with CRM workflow…

Update picklist via workflow from related record.  Unlike other fields on the CRM form which can be updated dynamically (based on a related record) via workflow, picklist values must be set specifically in the workflow.  To further explain I’ll use a recent experience.  We had an entity with a picklist and child entity with a corresponding picklist and planned to create the child record via workflow and set the picklist value on the child to be the same as the parent record.  However, in the Set Properties view of the form in the workflow editor the picklist on the record we were creating did not have the dynamic values in the right hand screen as expected.  The workaround for us was to create IF conditions for each possible picklist value.  With three possible picklist values this was easy enough.  Larger picklists could be handled the same way but would take a fair bit of workflow building.  The IF conditions check the parent entity’s picklist value and each IF has its own Create Record step to create the child record with the appropriate picklist value.

Update Bit fields via workflow.  I haven’t found a good workaround for this yet.  The form you can edit on an Update or Create record workflow step shows the bit field as ‘No’ (the No radio button filled in or an empty checkbox) as it does in the form designer.  Therefore there is no way to set the bit field to ‘No’ specifically – and thus you cannot run an update workflow step to change a record from Yes to No.  A possible workaround that may not be a viable option (based on the data requirements) is to change the attribute (create a new attribute) that is a picklist with No and Yes picklist values.

Comments

[Pierre Hulsebus]

This lack of Pick list mapping is goofy. I have made a product suggestion for it.

Login and vote for it.

https://connect.microsoft.com/dynamicssuggestions/feedback/details/534195/pick-list-values-not-mappable-in-workflow

[Geron]

I've seen the same thing with updating bit values in a workflow. Rather than setting it to No, I just set the property to Clear. Worked for me.