Till now we had discussed Create a Record, Time-dependent action and Update records using the Process Builder. In this article, I am going to discuss another action available in the Process Builder i.e. Flows. Process builder allows us to auto launch a Flow. Let’s start with a business use case
Business Use case
Steve Cartwright is working as a System administrator at Universal Containers (UC). He has received a requirement from his manager to auto update the case owner with Assets owner if a case is raised for an Asset.
Solution for the above business requirement
You can solve the above business requirement through multiple ways (i.e. Apex trigger, Process Builder, etc.). We will use Flow and Process Builder to resolving the above business requirement. I want to say thanks to Kausar Shaikh for asking such a great question. This article will help you to understand, how to launch a Flow from Process builder. Follow the below instructions to create a Flow and Process for the above business requirement
1. Click on Name | Setup | App Setup | Create | Workflows & Approvals | Flows
2. Click on New Flow, it will open flow canvas for you, now create one Text variable VarT_AssetOwnerId to pass an Asset’s Owner ID, we will use into the flow, as shown in the following screenshot
Text Variable (To store Asset’s Owner ID)
3. Create one more Text variable VarT_CaseId to pass the Case Id, as shown in the following screenshot
Text Variable (To store Case Owner ID)
4. The next step is to update the case owner ID with Asset’s Owner Id, for this we will use Record Update element. Drag-and-drop Record Update Element on the window and fill the details as shown in the following screenshot
Record Update (Update Case Owner)
5. Finally, your Flow will look like the following screenshot
6. Click on the Save button, save the Flow with the name Update Case Owner as shown in the following screenshot
7. Don’t forget to activate the Flow.
Launch a Flow from the Process Builder
Our next task is to create a Process on Case object to call a Flow. To create a Process on the Case object follow the below instructions
1. Click on Name | Setup | App Setup | Create | Workflows & Approvals | Process Builder and click on the New button, Enter Name, API Name and click on the Save button
Define Process Properties
2. Next step is to select the Object and Evaluation Criteria, for more detail, please take a look at the following screenshot
Evaluation Criteria
3. Now we have to add Process Criteria into this Process, so that Process will only execute whenever Case.AssetId is null, please take a look at the following screenshot
Process Criteria
4. Now we have to add an Immediate action into the Process to Launch a Flow. For this use Flows action. Use Field Picker to select the field Description and Text Entry field to enter a comment or sentence. Click on the User object as shown in the following screenshot to select the object
Add action – Flows
5. Once you are done, activate the Process.
6. Add Asset field on the Case page layout and Grant field access to the users.
It’s time to test this Process
Now onwards if business users create a new case, Process builder will automatically update the case owner based on Asset’s owner if Asset is selected for that particular case.
1. Asset “Demo Record” record is owned by Demo User as shown in the following screenshot
Asset’s Record
2. Now I am going to create a new case for above-mentioned Asset from Rakesh Gupta user account, as shown in the following screenshot
Create a Case
3. Once you are doing with data entering, click on the Save button and check the Case owner, as shown in the following screenshot
Case Owner
Likewise, you can update the owner for any records dynamically.
15 thoughts on “Getting Started with Process Builder – Part 5 (Launch a Flow Automatically)”
Kajal
It Worked! Thank You.
Kajal
I meant to say Asset Owner field is not populating on Asset Detail Page NOT on Case Detail page.
Kajal
Hi Rakesh,
First of all thank you so much to your priceless contribution.
I have followed the steps shown above but for some reason Asset Owner field is not populating on Case Detail Page or Asset Detail Page. Any idea what went wrong?
Munira Majmundar
Was able to complete the exercise! it was my mistake. Did not correct configure Asset Owner ID. Thank you!!!
Munira Majmundar
Rakesh:
I was not able to dynamically update the Asset Owner. Will redo the steps. However, now, the Process Builder Set up has changed. Now, when one starts a Process Builder, one has to choose (The Process Starts When – Two options: 1. A Record Changes; 2. It is invoked by another process).
I chose Option 1 – A Record Changes. Could this be a reason why I was not able to dynamically change Case Owner?
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Jarvis
my requirement here is when user view the Lead record then the Lead owner should updated with a current logged in user
Rakesh Gupta
AFAIK, it is not possible to achieve such scenarios using Process Builder.
Martin B
Also it doesn’t look like you can activate the flow unless you have set a start point in the flow (click the green arrow in the box when you hover over it
jaya koti M
Hi Rakesh,
A very big salute to your priceless contribution to the Salesforce upcoming developers.
I have been following your Process Builder tasks & implementing these in my developer org.
As part of Part 5 (Launch a Flow), I didn’t find an option to activate my Flow.
Please help me on this.
My dev org credentials:
Username : jayakoti@sforce.com Password : Welcome2dev
Rakesh Gupta
Thank you for the kind words! I am glad you have found my article helpful 🙂
Here you go
https://rakeshistom.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/activate-flow.png
Jorand
I am a little bit confused. AFAIK Asset Owner is not a standard field for Asset. Should I create an asset owner (lookup to User) as an asset custom field ?
Rakesh Gupta
I didn’t get you. Asset Owner is a standard field.
Jorand
Maybe, I have found an explanation :
As stated in the Spring 15 release notes (http://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/api/release-notes/rn_assets_owner_field.htm) : “Previously, assets did not have an owner field because access to asset records was based on the settings for the asset’s parent account. ”
My org was created before Spring 15, and assets ownership is controlled by parent account.
Chris
I’ve not had a great experience using Process Builder so far. Whilst it looks like it brings a lot of functionality to the table, I’ve found it to be very slow to load and complete actions whilst completing the initial setup. Do you find it to be slow too?
For the moment, I’ve just been sticking with workflow rules and flow triggers as they are faster to setup. If I have another project that I could use Process Builder for in future, then I might give it a go. It just seems like it needs a little work before it becomes properly usable..