CRM 2011 Workflow Condition Issue

Question

I have created a simple workflow in CRM 2011 which checks a field value in one entity and creates a new record in a different entity. Sometimes however, the creation doesn't occur, it just seems that the condition is not met when it should be.

Consider an entity called "Car" which has a text field called "Task". This Task field will always be saved with 1 of 4 possible values: "", "Add", "Change", "Delete".

This value is used to determine how the workflow should process.

The workflow is set to fire when a different field is changed - "Driver".

The workflow is setup like this...

- Condition
   - If "Task" == "Add"
      - create new record
   - Else if "Task" == "Change"
      - create new record
   - Else if "Task" == "Delete"
      - create new record
- Reset "Task" to ""

NOTE: the created record is using different values depending on "Task"

I can see that the workflow is always fired when expected, and both the "Condition" and the "Reset" are processed. The problem is that sometimes (although, not so far today) no record is created - this suggests that none of the IF conditions are met. However, I have no reason to explain why. I can see that the field "Task" is always set as expected prior to the save (exact spelling/casing and all)

So, are there any known issues with CRM workflows that could explain this? Is there a more indepth way to debug these issues? (i.e. check the value of "Task" at time on "Condition" checks)

I am wondering is it possible that the "Reset" part of the workflow is somehow being processed before the condition? and there for the condition is checking a blank field.

Any help will be greatly appreciated, Thanks

You could add a step right before the first If. Something like "Create an email" with the value of Task in the body. It won't solve the problem but might help you find out what's going on. You could also activate field auditing on the Car entity. — dub
@dub, good debugging tips - If the issue comes back I will definitely give them a go, Thanks — musefan
Also, when you go back and look at the problem workflow instance (the one that didn't work as expected) do you see green checkmarks next to the steps that you expected to execute? I would also second dub's suggestion of turning auditing on - sometimes it will reveal a rogue plugin or another workflow that is getting triggered without your knowledge. — Josh Painter
@JoshPainter, There are green checkmarks next to the condition and the reset, but none next to any of the "create" functions.. this is why I was suspecting that "Tast" was not one of the 3 valid values checked — musefan
Ok, then to expound on dub's comment, maybe put a fourth "default" condition in your If that will send you an email when the value isn't one of the values for which you are already testing. — Josh Painter

musefan musefan · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-06T15:24:50

Unfortunately, I have not experienced this issue again since the first time when I created the workflow.

However, some good techniques where offered in comments as to how this sort of issue could be debugged - thanks to those people!

Firstly, you can turn on Entity Auditing which will help you track down what is going wrong.

Another option would be to send an email from the workflow with the current data values for debugging, or add a final "else" clause to send emails when none of the conditions have been met (perhaps a good fail safe addition to have even when it does seem to all be working) - I like this second option as it is more "out of the box" thinking ;)

Anyway here you can find information on sending emails from within a CRM workflow

CRM 2011 Workflow Condition Issue

1 Answers