CRM 2013 – Real Time Workflows

In the CRM 4.0 and 2011 days, I remember multiple times when I had to write plugins do to operations that a simple workflow could do just because it needed to happen synchronously. Microsoft brought a solution to that concern with the latest CRM 2013 release by introducing real-time workflows.

In order to create an asynchronous workflow, you simply need to create a workflow and uncheck the “Run this workflow in the background (recommended)” checkbox.

If you have missed it or are trying to covert an Asynchronous workflow into a synchronous one, you can do it by deactivating the workflow and using the “Convert to real-time workflow” button.

The workflows’ contents are the same. There is no additional operation that you can do in real-time. The one thing that changes is the way you set up when the workflow gets triggered. Just like when plugins are registered, you have the possibility to choose if you want them to execute before or after a specific event:

Background Process	Real Time Process

A few key notes on Real-Time Processes:

• They can run
  • After record creation
  • Before or after a record update, assignment or status change
  • Before record deletion
• They can be set to run as the owner of the workflow or as the person making changes to the record in CRM

It certainly gives us more flexibility when it comes to designing feature for real day to day usage. One thing still makes me wonder… Microsoft seems to recommend using background processes. Assuming the reason for that recommendation is performance, I guess it is a way to let application designers know that even though workflows can be run in real-time, this should only be used when really needed as opposed to making it a standard and clogging the CRM Server. To be confirmed…

Cheers