CRM 2015 - Changing Required Level of Field Located in Business Process Flow Not Working as Expected

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Eric Tobin

Here is the Scenario:

1) Create two fields for any entity ... for example: "New Person" (Yes/No field) and "Person Name" (text field) and make sure fields ARE NOT REQUIRED. DO NOT add this field to any form.

2) Create a Business Process Flow for the entity and add both those fields to a stage and make sure the fields ARE REQUIRED. Make sure you have additional stages after this stage.

3) Create a business rule that if "New Person" equals No then make "Person Name" field NOT REQUIRED (else keep it required)

4) Save and Publish all changes

5) Go to entity that has the business process flow and go to the stage that has the two fields you created. You will notice, as expected, that the two fields are required to move to the next stage.

6) Set "New Person" value to "No". You will notice, as expected, that the red "*" next to "Person Name" disappears making the field NOT REQUIRED.

7) Click the Next Stage Button to try and move to next stage. You'll notice you are unable to move to next stage. You get a warning saying "You have to complete the required steps before you can advance".

Is this a glitch in MS Dynamics? What's the use of business rules if they don't work in business process flow fields?

Note: I've tried with JavaScript as well, and the result is the same.

The scenario above only works if you initially set the "Person Name" field to NOT REQUIRED instead of required in the Business Process Flow.

Any feedback you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

*This post is locked for comments

I have the same question (0)

All responses (21)

Answers (1)

Sort by

Suggested answer

tpeschat 4,930 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi

To set Business process flow fields to required via javascript, you need to prefix them with "header_process_" like explained in the following article:

www.google.at/.../amp

Hth Thomas

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Gary Letter 1,267 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!
It looks like the only condition that should prevent moving to the next stage is if it is a New Person and the Person Name is not entered. Try the following:

Clear the "Required" checkboxes from both fields in the Business Rule.

Modify the Business Rule to test for the condition described above.

Add an "Else" clause that changes the Person Name field back to "Not Required" if the condition is not met.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

ScottDurow 23 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

The problem that you are seeing is that business rules are only loaded for the fields that are in the current business process flow step - so when you change steps the business rules are not in effect.

I have got around this in the past by adding the fields to the main form as well - so that the business rules are always active.

Hope this helps

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Eric Tobin 67 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Thomas, I know that. As I said it doesn't work either. The red "*" which represents a required field does disappear, but for some reason CRM still thinks the field is required and throws the warning message I wrote above.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Eric Tobin 67 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Sorry , my previous post was directed at Thomas.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Eric Tobin 67 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Gary, that doesn't work (it's exactly what I've done). Try to reproduce my scenario with the steps I've stated above and you'll see.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Eric Tobin 67 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Scott, the business rule is in effect. In my scenario the fields are in the first stage, therefore they are in effect when you first load the form. You can see this by the fact that the red "*" which represents a required field disappears/reappears when I select the applicable value. For some reason when I click the "Next Stage" button, CRM still thinks that field needs to be filled out even when the required "*" is gone and it throws the warning message I wrote above.

Try it yourself and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Karuna Karan 1,214 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Eric,

Business rules will have no effect if the fields are not in the form, it is as simple as that. Since you have made the two fields in the BPF as required, and the fields are not in the form, the biz rule fails to do its action.

My simple solution to this is..

Put both the fields in the form under a section, and set the section visibility to NO in form properties. This way your biz rule will run.

Regards

KK

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Eric Tobin 67 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

That is one of the first things I tried and it doesn't work. If you'd try it yourself you'd see what I am talking about. I even tried putting the field visible on the form as well and even though the required red "*" disappears meaning the field is not required, the business process flow still thinks it is.

Stating that the business rules have no effect in BPF and that it fails to do it's action is completely false. The red "*" representing the field being required DOES DISAPPEAR. For testing Purposes, and to prove that you are wrong, I changed to rule to Show/Hide the field instead of setting required/not required, and the field was shown/hidden accordingly in the BPF.

There really seems to be a glitch/bug with BPF not recognizing a field as no longer being required.

As I've mentioned several times in my post, please try it yourselves and you will see what I am talking about.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Eric Tobin 67 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

I have attached images to illustrate the problem (This is an extremely simple scenario as in real life, I'd be changing the Required level of numerous fields and/or visibility along with it.):

Business Process Flow:

Business Rule to Change Required Level:

Initial Screen Load of Entry:

New Person value set to "No"... required level changes as expected:

Attempt to go to Next Stage fails even though field is no longer required:

Was this reply helpful? Yes No