Workflow Tools .. force rollup calculation ... when?

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Posted on by Cyclefitness

Can someone tell me what I should expect in user experience when using the Force Rollup Calculation from the Workflow Tools add-in? I plucked away at configuring without much documentation and did it like this:

1) I have a Payment entity that has many related Payment Line Items. The Payment entity has a rollup field which references to Total from each Payment Line Item.

2) I have a counter on Payment that increments by 1 when each Payment Line Item -- so I know whether the user has created at least one before something else can happen.

3) I created a workflow that watches this counter field and when it changes, the Force Rollup calculation happens. Problem is, I don't see anything happen. I wait about 10 seconds and nothing, so force a screen Refresh and then it updates. I don't know whether that is the standard background update or that's the update from Workflow Tools.

I was hoping the forced update would immediately update the value and refresh the screen to display it.

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razdynamics 17,308 User Group Leader on at

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Hi Debra

asynchronous job executes once per hour, attempting to recalculate the rollup attribute. Currently the default is every 12 hours by default.

You can trigger this via the API in code manually and as an administrator you can postpone rollup calculations from settings.

if you require real time them you can use a custom Workflow activity instead of the rollup fields,

You can download the following free WF utlities here;

crm2011distributewf.codeplex.com/releases

mscrmworkflowutilities.codeplex.com

Kindly tick 'Yes' to Verify :)

Best Wishes, Raz

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Cyclefitness on at

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I don't see anything about rollup calculations on either of those two tools. Are you saying there is a way to do this RT with a workflow activity? That's what I'm already using, but I think you're saying it's only updated hourly.

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I expect the value in the rollup field is being updated because you are forcing it to recalculate via the API using the Force Rollup Calculation from the Workflow Tools add-in.

But you are looking at a record, which is a web page. There is nothing that happens in a workflow that will force the page to update in front of your eyes.

You can test if this is what is happening by popping the record out to a new window, do some update, ass a payment line record for example, then check what value is in the database for the rollup field when the workflow has had chance to run (maybe in the original view, or an Advanced Find window).

Options:

Use JavaScript to do the calculation and update the value in a normal (not rollup) field.

Use JavaScript to detect when you add a line to the sub-grid and force the screen to refresh (horrible).

Use JavaScript to detect when you add a line to the sub-grid and refresh a web-resource on the form that displays the rollup value (slightly less horrible).

Teach users to use F5 when they want to see the new value, maybe when they have added one line , or maybe after doing several before they need to see the total.

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Cyclefitness on at

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Thanks for the details, Adam. I would love to go the JS route, but two issues:

1) I don't know how to write that calculation, and

2) The minute I introduce JS, my business rules will fail; and there are lots.

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Then you need to refresh the form to see the new stored value (=press F5).

Do users really need to see this change in front of their eyes? Or will they learn to trust that it is being calculated in the background? When they close the record and return to the view, they will also see the updated value, if you are forcing the rollup calculation

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