2009/05/05

The Business Productivity Workflow Tools Accelerator

The Business Productivity Workflow Tools Accelerator may be a mouthful, but it might have the extra options you’ve been needing for workflow customization. Note: this release is only intended for On-Premise deployments of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
This accelerator was just released today, so I’ll be sure to post some feedback once I get a chance to install it and play around. If you beat me to the punch and have already reviewed it, let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Download Link
Business Productivity Workflow Tools Accelerator (92 MB) [codeplex.com]
Release Notes
The Business Productivity Workflow Tools Accelerator provides additional workflow step actions for customers to configure their workflow processes. Each custom action provides additional capabilities around string handling, mathematical functions and HTML hyperlink creation. Once this accelerator is installed workflow designers within Microsoft Dynamics CRM have more flexibility in terms of the processes they can manage through workflows.
Documentation Excerpt
Once installed, the Workflow Tools Accelerator provides the following new step actions in your workflow designer:

1. Retrieve the record ID (Guid) of the record that is driving the workflow.

2. Generate an HTML Hyperlink for a link to the CRM record which can then be used in outbound emails. The hyperlink can display a user-friendly label rather than a long complex url, e.g. Click Here to Open CRM Contact rather than http://server:port/organization/sfa/conts/edit.aspx?id=20f89e5c-4833-de11-bd89-0003ffc4b483

3. Generate an HTML Hyperlink for a link to any URL which can then be used in outbound emails. The hyperlink can display a user-friendly label rather than a long complex url, e.g. Click Here to Register for this Event rather than http://server/register.aspx?campainid=20f89e5c-4833-de11-bd89-0003ffc4b483&firstname=Reuben&lastname=Krippner

4. Generate an HTML Hyperlink for an Email link which can then be used in outbound emails. The hyperlink can display a user-friendly label rather than a long complex url, e.g. Email Us! rather than mailto:your@email.address?subject=Sales Enquiry

5. Join (concatenate) two strings together for use elsewhere in your workflow.

6. Use mathematical functions on two numeric values in crm in your workflows, e.g. calculate a weighted revenue amount on a sales opportunity. You have the following math functions at your disposal:

a. Add (Use the “+” symbol for the Math Operator parameter )

b. Subtract (Use the “-“ symbol for the Math Operator parameter )

c. Multiply (Use the “*” symbol for the Math Operator parameter )

d. Divide (Use the “/” symbol for the Math Operator parameter )

e. Mod (remainder) (Use “MOD” for the Math Operator parameter )