CRM – Page 2 – Nishant Rana's Weblog

Customizing Business Process Flows: Stage Validation Using JavaScript (Dynamics 365 / Dataverse)

Business Process Flows (BPF) in Dynamics 365 offer a structured way to guide users through a defined process. However, there are scenarios where progression to the next stage must be validated against specific business rules. In this blog, we see how to implement custom validations on stage progression using JavaScript.

Let us take a simple scenario where a Lead can only progress to the next stage of a BPF if

Lead Quality = Hot and Lead Source = Web

If these conditions are not met, users will receive a notification, and the stage change will be prevented.

Below is the sample code


function OnLoad(executionContext)
{
 var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();
 formContext.data.process.addOnPreStageChange(validateStageProgression);
}


function validateStageProgression(executionContext)
{
	    var bpfSampleStage = "6e2b5d9e-da30-4a47-8ca9-d75c24fd51f4";
        var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();
		var rating = formContext.getControl('header_process_leadqualitycode').getAttribute().getValue();
		var leadSource = formContext.getControl('header_process_leadsourcecode').getAttribute().getValue();
		var stageObj = formContext.data.process.getActiveStage();
        var stageId = stageObj.getId();
		var requiredFieldErrorId = "contractValidationNotificationId";
        formContext.ui.clearFormNotification(requiredFieldErrorId);
		
		if(stageId)
		{
			 if (stageId.toLowerCase() === bpfSampleStage)
			 {
				  if (executionContext.getEventArgs().getDirection() === "Next") 				  
				{
                    executionContext.getEventArgs().preventDefault();
					if(rating == 1 && leadSource == 8) // rating = Hot and Source = Web
					{
						formContext.data.process.removeOnPreStageChange(validateStageProgression);
                        formContext.data.process.moveNext();
					}	
					else
					{
						notificationMessage = "Cannot move to the next stage until conditions are met !";
						formContext.ui.setFormNotification(notificationMessage, "ERROR", requiredFieldErrorId)
					}
				}
			 }
		}
}

The addOnPreStageChange method registers the validation function on the form’s load event to monitor stage changes.

The preventDefault() method stops the stage transition if the conditions are not met, ensuring data integrity.

If the validation fails, an error notification is displayed using the setFormNotification() method, guiding users to correct the data.

Upon satisfying the conditions, moveNext() is invoked programmatically to move the process to the next stage.

As shown below, clicking on Next as rating and lead source values do not satisfy the condition, we can see the notification on the form and the user is not able to move to the next stage.

Also check – https://nishantrana.me/2024/10/09/use-javascript-to-enable-a-field-only-if-the-stage-is-active-in-business-process-flow-dynamics-365-dataverse/

https://nishantrana.me/2024/10/10/use-javascript-to-add-onchange-event-to-a-field-in-the-business-process-flow/

https://nishantrana.me/2024/10/23/javascript-for-fields-in-business-process-flow-few-key-points-dataverse-dynamics-365/

Hope it helps..

Advertisements

Disable recent records (Disable most recently used items) for the Lookup field used in the Business Process Flow (Dataverse / Dynamics 365)

Suppose we have the below Customer Lookup in the Sample Stage of a Business Process Flow.

As we can see the lookup shows the Recent records there.

A screenshot of a computer

Description automatically generated

Now say we have applied filtering to the lookup using addPreSearch so we need to disable the recent records options in it.

To do so for the fields in BPF –

Open the corresponding table of the BPF (will have the same name as BPF)

A hand pointing to a computer screen

Description automatically generated

Open the form, select the Customer (lookup) field from the Tree View, and check the Disable most recently used items (save and publish the change)

As expected we can now see the recent records options not appearing for the Customer lookup in the BPF.

Hope it helps..

Advertisements

How to – Delete the elastic table records (Dataverse)

Recently we wrote an SSIS package to delete the Elastic Table records using KingswaySoft’s Integration Toolkit for Dynamics 365.

We had mapped the primary field for deletion and the package was also showing success.

However back in our CRM / Sales Hub app, we saw that none of the records were deleted (total – 48999)

The reason it was showing success is that we had specified the Ignore Error option in our CDS Destination component.

Then we created 2 more records but didn’t specify the partition ID for them.

This time on the successful run of the package we can see those 2 new records getting deleted for which we didn’t specify any partition ID i.e. Test 1 and Test 2 records were deleted successfully.

If we check the Microsoft docs it mentions that we need to include the partition ID using the alternate key to delete those records using the DeleteMultiple request.

Could not find a way to specify an Alternate Key in the CDS Destination component for the Delete message and if we try deleting the records one by one instead of using the DeleteMultiple request we get the below error.

[CDS Destination [2]] Error: An error occurred with the following error message: “System.Exception: Error(s) occurred when processing the batch: [1] KingswaySoft.IntegrationToolkit.DynamicsCrm.WebAPI.WebApiServiceException: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found. (Error Type / Reason: NotFound, Detailed Message: {“error”:{“code”:”0x80040217″,”message”:”The HTTP status code of the response was not expected (404).\n\nStatus: 404\nResponse: \n{\”error\”:{\”message\”:\”Could not find item ‘b3a70971-9674-ef11-a671-6045bdfe58ee’.\”,\”details\”:[{\”message\”:\”\\r\\nErrors : [\\r\\n \\\”Resource Not Found. Learn more: https://aka.ms/cosmosdb-tsg-not-found\\\”\\r\\n]\\r\\n\”}]}}”}}) (SSIS Integration Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics 365, v23.2.2.32701 – DtsDebugHost, v16.0.5270.0)System.Net.WebException

As expected, using CrmServiceClient also if we do not include partitionid we will get the below error for the records that have partition id specified.

The HTTP status code of the response was not expected (404).

Response:

{“error”:{“message”:”Could not find item ‘b3a70971-9674-ef11-a671-6045bdfe58ee’.”,”details”:[{“message”:”\r\nErrors : [\r\n \”Resource Not Found. Learn more: https://aka.ms/cosmosdb-tsg-not-found\”\r\n]\r\n”}]}}

Here we can specify the partitionId parameter to delete those records having the partitionId specified in the DeleteRequest

For DeleteMultiple Request we need to provide the alternate key as shown below.

A screen shot of a computer code

Description automatically generated

We will have the alternate key auto-created by the system when we create an elastic table.

Sample Code –

 var myServiceClient = new CrmServiceClient(connectionString);
        var query = new QueryExpression("custom_myelastictable");
        query.ColumnSet.AddColumns("custom_name", "partitionid");
        var myElasticTableCollection = myServiceClient.RetrieveMultiple(query);
        var lstEntityRefCollection = new EntityReferenceCollection();

        // Delete Request
        foreach (var elasticTable in myElasticTableCollection.Entities)
        {
            var deleteRequest = new DeleteRequest();
            deleteRequest.Target = new EntityReference("custom_myelastictable", elasticTable.Id);
            deleteRequest.Parameters["partitionId"] = elasticTable.Attributes["partitionid"];
            var response = myServiceClient.Execute(deleteRequest);
        }

        // DeleteMultiple Request 
       
        foreach (var elasticTable in myElasticTableCollection.Entities)
        {
            var entityRef = new EntityReference("custom_myelastictable", elasticTable.Id);
            entityRef.KeyAttributes.Add("custom_myelastictableid", elasticTable.Id);
            entityRef.KeyAttributes.Add("partitionid", elasticTable.Attributes["partitionid"]);
            lstEntityRefCollection.Add(entityRef);
        }

        var deleteMultipleRequest = new OrganizationRequest();
        deleteMultipleRequest.RequestName = "DeleteMultiple";
        deleteMultipleRequest.Parameters.Add("Targets", lstEntityRefCollection);
        myServiceClient.Execute(deleteMultipleRequest);

Hope it helps..

Advertisements

Fixed – EntityState must be set to null, Created (for Create message) or Changed (for Update message) exception in Dataverse / Dynamics 365

We might get this error while trying to update one of the records.

Exception Message: EntityState must be set to null, Created (for Create message) or Changed (for Update message).

EntityState of primaryEntity: Unchanged, RequestName: Update

ErrorCode: -2147220989

A computer screen shot of a computer

Description automatically generated

The error occurs when OrganizationServiceContext tries to update an entity that has not been marked as modified. The EntityState remains Unchanged, and Dataverse expects it to be Changed or null for update operations.

OrganizationServiceContext automatically tracks entities’ states. When we retrieve an entity, it is set to Unchanged by default.

If we modify the entity without informing the context (e.g., using UpdateObject()), the context still thinks the entity is Unchanged, leading to this error during the update process.

This error typically happens within OrganizationServiceContext since it relies on internal state-tracking mechanisms, with IOrganizationService (e.g., Retrieve or RetrieveMultiple), we typically don’t run into this error because entities retrieved via IOrganizationService aren’t tracked in the same way.

There are 2 ways to resolve this error.

Use UpdateObject, it explicitly tells the context that the entity has been changed followed by SaveChanges() to commit the changes.

A computer screen shot of a program

Description automatically generated

2. Create a new Entity object for update.

Sample Code –

 if (myServiceClient.IsReady)
        {
            using (var context = new OrganizationServiceContext(myServiceClient))
            {
                // Retrieve leads where the 'lastname' contains 'Test'
                var leadColl = from lead in context.CreateQuery("lead")
                               where lead.GetAttributeValue<string>("lastname").Contains("Test")
                               select lead;

                // use Update Object
                foreach (var lead in leadColl)
                {
                    lead.Attributes["subject"] = "Updated Subject" + DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString();
                    context.UpdateObject(lead);
                    context.SaveChanges();
                }

                // or create a new Entity object
                foreach (var lead in leadColl)
                {
                    Entity leadToUpdate = new Entity("lead", lead.Id)
                    {
                        ["subject"] = "Updated Subject" + DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString()
                    };
                    myServiceClient.Update(leadToUpdate);
                }     
            }
        }

Hope it helps..

Advertisements

Add line break / new line for description field of Email – Dataverse / Power Automate

In one of our requirements, we wanted to create/send an email on the creation/update of the case with the description of the email same as the description of the case.

In our Case record, for the description, we have the line break (\n) specified.

However, for the email created, we see the line break ignored.

To fix this we might think of applying the below formula by replacing “\n” with “”.

replace(triggerOutputs()?[‘body/description’],’\n’,’
‘)

On triggering our flow after these changes.

We still do not see the line break added in the description of the email.

This is because the ‘/n’ character is ignored by the replace formula.

To fix this we need to first initialize a variable for the new line of type string by hitting/pressing the Enter button for the Value.

Next comes our formula where we will use this variable.

replace(triggerOutputs()?[‘body/description’],variables(‘varNewLine’),’
‘)

Triggering the flow now –

A screenshot of a phone

Description automatically generated

generates the proper email description with line break.

A screenshot of a email form

Description automatically generated

The helpful post – https://tomriha.com/how-to-replace-new-line-n-in-a-power-automate-expression/

Hope it helps..

Advertisements

Use JavaScript to enable / disable a field only if the Stage is Active in Business Process Flow – Dynamics 365 / Dataverse

Recently we had a requirement to set some of the fields in our business process flow to be enabled only if that stage is active.

E.g. We want to Identify Sales Team field to be Enabled only if the Propose stage is active, else we want to set it as read-only.

We can use the below JScript to achieve the same.

A screen shot of a computer program

Description automatically generated

Because the Propose stage is Inactive we have Identify Sales Team as read only.

On moving to the Propose stage, we can see the field being enabled back.

The key steps are –

In the onload of the form associate your function/logic to the OnStage change method of the Process object.

formContext.data.process.addOnStageChange(CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF);

Next, check for the active stage ID.

Here to get the active stage ID, open the business process flow and get its Guid.

A computer screen with a green arrow pointing to a black box

Description automatically generated

Then using the awesome SQL4CDS XrmToolBox plugin get the Guid of the particular stage.

function OnLoad(executionContext)
{
	 var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();
	 formContext.data.process.addOnStageChange(CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF);
	 CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF(executionContext);
}

 function CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF(executionContext) {

        var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();     
        var activeStage = formContext.data.process.getActiveStage();
        var activeStageId = activeStage.getId();		
        var stagePropose = "3a275c22-fc45-4e89-97fc-41e5ec578743";
     
        if (activeStageId.toLowerCase() === stagePropose) {          
                formContext.getControl("header_process_identifypursuitteam").setDisabled(false);                 
        }
        else {
            formContext.getControl("header_process_identifypursuitteam").setDisabled(true);
        }       
  }

select processidname,stagename, processstageid  from processstage 
where processid = '919E14D1-6489-4852-ABD0-A63A6ECAAC5D'

Also if we have the same fields used in multiple places / stages in the Business Process Flow, we will have the suffix added to the fields, so we need to refer the field appropriately in our script.