Retrieve Business Process Flow Stagename in Dynamics 365

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Posted on by MNarmeen

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Hello All,

I have been implementing a workflow and I need to capture the stage name (qualify,develop,propose,close) on opportunity for calculating the amount of time spent on each stage.

I am unable to capture the stage name. I can't find process stage field in the list of 'When Field Changes' in workflow.

I have followed the following links but still no luck

https://www.powerobjects.com/2015/01/19/accessing-business-process-name-dynamics-crm/

https://worldofitguy.com/2017/06/23/use-workflow-to-fill-a-field-with-the-stage-name-besides-the-opportunity-entity/

I am using Dynamics 365 version 9.0

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Radu Chiribelea 6,667 on at

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Hi MN,

Please keep in mind that with the latest changes of the BPF in CRM (whereby you get a new entity created for each Business Process Flow) it is no longer recommended to use the process stage fields on the entity.

Please see: [View:https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn481586.aspx:750:50]

"Manipulating process related attributes (such as ProcessId, StageId, and TraversedPath) on entities enabled for business process flows does not guarantee consistency of the business process flow state, and is not a supported scenario. The only exception to this is programmatically modifying the ProcessId attribute while creating an entity record to override the default application of the business process flow to the new record. More information: Apply business process flow while creating an entity record"

The processes stages are stored in the ProcessStageBase and the process stages part of the BFP Active path can be retrieved via RetrieveActivePathRequest.

These will be returned in the RetrieveActivePathResponse as part of the ProcessStages properties - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.crm.sdk.messages.retrieveactivepathresponse.aspx

You can use following code snippet to retrieve the data you are after:

// 1. Retrieve the Active Process Instance together with the ActiveStageId and also the unique name of the workflow // The Workflow unique name will be needed at a later stage to, when updating the stage RetrieveProcessInstancesRequest retrieveProcessInstancesRequest = new RetrieveProcessInstancesRequest { EntityId = entityId, EntityLogicalName = "yourEntityLogicalName" }; RetrieveProcessInstancesResponse retrieveProcessInstancesResponse = (RetrieveProcessInstancesResponse)serviceProxy.Execute(retrieveProcessInstancesRequest); Guid activeProcessInstaceId = new Guid(retrieveProcessInstancesResponse.Processes.Entities[0].Id.ToString()); //if you also want to get the workflow id - you can get it as well EntityReference workflowReference = (EntityReference)retrieveProcessInstancesResponse.Processes.Entities[0].Attributes["processid"]; Workflow instanceWorkflow = (Workflow)serviceProxy.Retrieve("workflow", workflowReference.Id, new ColumnSet(true)); // 2. Get the Active Path and the available stages that can be switched to in the BPF RetrieveActivePathRequest retrieveActivePathRequest = new RetrieveActivePathRequest { ProcessInstanceId = activeProcessInstaceId }; RetrieveActivePathResponse retrieveActivePathResponse = (RetrieveActivePathResponse)serviceProxy.Execute(retrieveActivePathRequest); Dictionary<String, Guid> processStages = new Dictionary<String, Guid>(); foreach(var processStage in retrieveActivePathResponse.ProcessStages.Entities) { processStages.Add(processStage["stagename"].ToString(), new Guid(processStage["processstageid"].ToString())); }

Hope this helps,

Radu

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Alex Fun Wei Jie 33,628 on at

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Hi,

dont use the above link you shared anymore, because both of fields are going to deprecated. Especially where parellel business process flow kicks in.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/crm/2017/07/30/how-to-determine-which-business-process-flow-bpf-instance-is-shown-when-a-record-is-opened-2/

Read a little bit on Dynamics 365 BPF, it kind of different compare to previous version.

http://alexmscrm.blogspot.my/2017/10/dynamics-365-business-process-flow-and.html

With Dynamics 365, every BPFs become an entity.

So you can try to create a workflow with the business process flow, trigger on stage change.

Steps to capture stage name for Dynamics 365

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Alex Fun Wei Jie 33,628 on at

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Hi,

By the way, if your client is practicing multi Business process flows, then you have use some tricks when user is trying to switch Business process flow. Once business process flow is applied, it will never trigger the workflow although you set it process is applied.

There is one part of below article shows the behavior of process is applied.

alexmscrm.blogspot.my/.../dynamics-365-workflow-within-business.html

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MNarmeen 1,848 on at

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Thankyou very much Fun Wei Jie. Your solution solved my problem. However, there is still an issue, I need to create a chart of how much time spent on each stage. How can I capture the time spent on each stage? I tried to get it using ActiveStageStartedOn but it changes the time when I go back to a stage. Any solution you could think of regarding this, will be a great help !

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Alex Fun Wei Jie 33,628 on at

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Hi M N,

only my opinions, you can think more from the below suggestion.

I think you need to create a custom entities to store all the related stages from the time the stage is entered and stage is exit and you have to consider what if user move to previous stage, do you still want to record the time?

you can refer on the below post on how to make use of Stage Entry and Stage Exit to trigger the workflow.

alexmscrm.blogspot.my/.../dynamics-365-workflow-within-business.html

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Alex Fun Wei Jie 33,628 on at

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Hi,

I've made a same requirements for other members, you can use it as reference.

Steps

Result

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Community Member on at

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HI, in the fifth screenshot, is "Active Stage" a field you created on purpose? Because it doesn't exist in my opportunity...

Edit : Nevermind, i found my mistake...

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