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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Dynamics 365 general forum / Real Time Workflow not...
Dynamics 365 general forum

Real Time Workflow not checking field value before change.

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Posted on by semosby 230

I want to check if there is a bug in the current release Dynamics 365 CE V9 or if it is working as expected.  I've created a real-time workflow to fire before change of a field. The field is a lookup.  In the steps, I check the field being changed to confirm it wasn't blank previously.  Following the check condition, I run a child workflow against the record in the lookup field expecting the workflow to run against the previous value.  The child workflow fails because the previous value was blank.  This throws a Null reference error. 

Again, the question should the workflow run against the value of the field prior to the change (both the condition step and the child worklfow) or not?

Thanks for your comments.  

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  • Suggested answer
    Ben Thompson Profile Picture
    Ben Thompson 6,350 on at

    How are you checking that the previous value was blank? Workflows only work with the data within the save request and look at the data as if it has already been saved so if the value of the field to be x, the workflow on checking the value will see that it is now x (even though you haven't saved it yet).

    To check that the previous value was blank you need to use a plugin or custom workflow activity where you can access and check the pre-image (previous image) of the entity and see what it looked like before the save request was made.

  • Suggested answer
    Ben Thompson Profile Picture
    Ben Thompson 6,350 on at

    oops duplicate post

  • Suggested answer
    RaviKashyap Profile Picture
    RaviKashyap 55,410 Moderator on at

    Hi,

    If you trigger the workflow before field change then it will contains the old value. This has been there since the release of Real Time workflow. Take a look at this blog from CRM 2013-

    mahenderpal.wordpress.com/.../capture-old-value-before-change-in-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2013-using-real-time-workflow

    Hope this helps.

  • semosby Profile Picture
    semosby 230 on at

    Thanks Ben.  I understand I can use plugins to do exactly what I want, but my question is regarding the workflow.  

    If the workflow is set to run before the change, what is being used in the condition?  I believe it is using the updated record for the condition and the pre-changed data in other steps.

  • semosby Profile Picture
    semosby 230 on at

    Thanks Ravi. I understand the ability to process old values.  However, if you create a condition step will the condition step check to old or new value.  I believe the condition is checking the new value when it should check the previous value if the real-time workflow is set to start before the change of the filed.   Also, make certain you're firing the real-time workflow on change of one-field.

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