Approvals and Workflow in Salesforce:
Salesforce provides extensive support for implementation of workflow and approvals.
1. A queue can hold a predefined set of objects and consists of a set of users.
Any of the queue members can pick up tasks assigned to the queue. Users
or Queues can be owners of records.
Approval processes
Salesforce supports wizard based easy to configure approval process. After
an object is selected, the wizard guides the user through a step-by-step
setup. Approval process is triggered when a user clicks on the “Submit for
approval” button.
2. The approval process consists of the following steps –
A. Process definition
B. Initial submission actions
C. Step definitions
D. Final Rejection actions
E. Final Approval actions
F. Final Recall actions
3. The Process Definition step consists of the following sub-steps:
A. Provide the name of process
B. Specify entry criteria for records
C. Specify who is going to approve
D. Specify email template
E. Fields to be displayed in the approver page
F. Specify who is going to send approval mail
4. Workflow rules are like triggers. Action is triggered when a record meets an
evaluation criteria. Workflow rules definition does not impact existing
records. Workflow rule gets applied to new record creation or edits.
5. Workflow rule consists of three steps
A. Select the object
B. Specify evaluation criteria (when should the workflow rule be
executed, example for new records are created)
C. Define rule criteria (example when status of job applicant is
approved)
6. Workflow actions can include sending an email, setting values to fields,
sending an external message or creating a task.
7. There are two differences between Workflows and Approval process
Workflow
They are activated when a record is saved. Workflow consists of single step and single action
Approval process
approval process are triggered by explicitly clicking the “Submit
for Approval” button.
Approval process consists of multiple steps. Also different
action is taken based upon whether the record is approved or
rejected.
8. Time-based workflow allows action to be triggered after a delay. As an
example we could implement following business logic using time-based
workflow: In a recruitment application if for no high priority position no
candidates are assigned in a week, then send a mail to Recruitment
Manager.
9. Time-based workflow cannot be executed when evaluation is set to “Every
time a record is created or updated”.
10. Parallel approval process allows specifying (upto 25) multiple approvers.
The approver setting could be set to unanimous, or first action. In
unanimous parallel approval process, all approvers must approve a
request, before it is considered as approved.
11. Possible actions of workflow and approval process are –
A. Creating a task
B. Sending a message to external system
C. Updating a field value
D. Sending an email
12. In dynamic approval process, approver names are defined dynamically
from an object.