Creating Workflow Action for assigning a task in Force.com

One of the workflow actions that we can set up to execute in Force.com platform is 'Task Assignment'. Let us explore the steps involved in setting up this type of workflow action using Force.com platform.

From the App Setup -> Create -> Workflow & Approvals -> Tasks, you can create a new Task and use it while setting up workflow actions.

Otherwise, while setting up workflow actions you can click on 'New Task'. Both actions take you to the same page.

If you had come into this page via the 1st route mentioned above, you will need to select the object to which this task belongs to.  In the 2nd route, the object you have selected for the workflow rule is automatically selected for the action as well.

Enter task assignment information. This can be set to a 'User', 'Role', 'Owner' or 'Creator'. Select Status and Priority for the task. Enter the Subject or Title for the task.

Set the due date for the task. This can be set based on a date field of the record or simply set it to the rule trigger date.

You can also check the 'Notify Assignee' box to send out an email notification to the assigned user  when the task assignment is made.



Save your work. If you created a new task, go ahead and associate it with a workflow rule and you will have a workflow action for assigning a task.


Happy cloud computing using Salesforce!

Setting up Workflow Actions in Force.com

As we learnt in Creating Workflow Rules in Force.com, the 3rd step is to specify the workflow actions that will be executed when the rule criteria are met. Let us now learn how to set up workflow actions in Force.com platform.

When you are in 3rd step of the workflow rule creation process which is specifying workflow actions, you will see 2 different sections. Immediate Workflow Actions and Time-Dependent Workflow Actions.

Immediate Workflow Actions - As the name indicates, the actions set up here executes instantly when the rule criteria are met.

Clicking on the 'Add Workflow Action' button gives you option for either selecting an existing action or creating a new action. As we learnt before in Workflow and Approval Process article, the action could be a Task, Email Alert, Field Update or Outbound Message. You can set up one or more actions of the same type or combination.

Time-Dependent Workflow Actions - Actions that you can set up in this section are same as above but they are time dependent. You add a 'Time Trigger' first and then add workflow actions  to that time trigger. The time trigger adds a delay before the action executes. This delay could be in terms of Days or Hours and could be before or after. You can add multiple time triggers. And just like the immediate workflow actions, you can set up one or more more actions of the same type or combination to each time trigger.

For example, you can set up field update and task assignment actions to execute 5 hours after an opportunity is closed. You can set up task assignment and email alert actions to execute 30 days after an opportunity is closed.

We will see each of the action types in detail in our future articles.

Happy cloud computing using Salesforce!