Prevent a user from going to new stage on a Business Process Flow

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Hi, I'm trying to prevent a user to be able to go to the next stage. Let's say I have 4 stages in my BPF. The BPF main entity is an opportunity. The first 3 stages of my BPF are related to the opportunity. The 4th stage is related to a custom entity linked to my opportunity. When I'm on my 3rd stage and want to go to the fourth, I want to validate that all the required fields in my opportunity form are filled to let the user go to my fouth stage which is related to my other custom entity.

The required fields (which are numerous) that can prevent from being able to go to next stage are in the opportunity form, but not in the BPF stage.

I tried many ways:

I made a process workflow (on opportunity, not a background one...) that is executed when the stageid changes. For a reason I ignore, the stageid raises each time I change from stage 1 to 3, but when on 3 and aks for the 4th stage, since I swap entity type and the BPF ribbon ask me to create a new entity, the stageid trigger is not hit.

I tried with javascript with methods "Xrm.Page.data.process.setActiveProcess" and "Xrm.Page.data.process.addOnStageChange", but I am not able to catch the moment when I hit the "Next button" stage and before I land on the next stage to prevent the change of stage.

Do someone have an idea on how I can prevent to move to new stage bases on form fields that are not in the current BPF stage?

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Nuno 2,005 on at

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Hi,

With OnStageChange you should be able to catch the moment when the button next or previous are clicked. The methog getdirection return 'Next' or 'Previous' depending on the clicked button.

msdn.microsoft.com/.../d88d5f21-6385-443b-91f2-0ec0c16b1324

Xrm.Page.data.process.addOnStageChange(onStageChange);

function onStageChange()

{

alert(ExecutionContextObj.getEventArgs().getDirection()) // alerts "next" or "previous"

}

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awalters 3,079 on at

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This is a bit of a workaround, but I think it might work for you. (We're considering something similar.)

Have a read-only flag that is basically "are all required fields completed". Show and require this flag on the BPF, but hide it on the form. Have a business rule that sets the value of the flag to yes when all of the required fields are filled in. Then you don't need each field up on your BPF, but without them filled in, then you can't go onto the next stage because the BPF requires the flag to be yes.

This has the added advantages of not being in code, so easier maintenance, plus it gives an extra visual reminder to the user.

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awalters 3,079 on at

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Here's a page that talks about a similar solution (though it's for a slightly different use case) - www.magnetismsolutions.com/.../making-a-field-read-only-on-a-business-process-flow

It makes an interesting note about a business rule being needed to make a field read-only on the BPF - haven't tested this yet though.

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Community Member on at

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Hi Frantz,

I have done this for a number of clients - I created a plugin that fires on the Update pre-operation of the Opportunity entity. The plugin checks for the stageid of the next stage (you can also use the stageid to get the stagename, if that's better for you), and if it matches the value of the next stage, an exception (of type InvalidPluginException) is thrown. Works great!

Hope that helps,

John

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Community Member on at

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Hi Allison, thanks for the help. Last week I ended up with a solution that is really close to what you suggested, but instead I used a calculated field that I flagged as required in the BPF. I'm kind of new to Crm and struggled a little bit on this workaround. First I tried to use a two option (y/n) calculated field, but the field always add a value. Then I used a calculated field that is a single text line that I fill or clear following the conditions I need to meet to let user go on next stage. But a calculated field can only contains ands or ors, and my condition was more complex than what I can do with only ands or ors. I had to split the condition in many if/else/else... conditions. But it finally worked. The other think is that I wanted to hide this calculated field from the BPW. I made it with a business rule, but the thing is that when my required field has a value, the field is hidden but there is a check that appears on the space that the hidden field occupies in the stage form... So my solution works, but I would like a cleaner solution and I will maybe change it to use the solution you suggested... Thanks again

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awalters 3,079 on at

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No worries. :-) Good luck!

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Community Member on at

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hi Allison is there any method apart from this why because we want to keep a field(extra) for every stage to restrict which make more fields in bpf

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MateuszBender 216 on at

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This doesn't work in CRM 9.X, as the stageid is no longer used!

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