Building Validation on the Workflow levels for Custom MDF

[HarpreetChawla]

There has been a continuous ask from the client across the region, to have some validations when someone approves the workflow, one simple example of this which I will quote from my experience is raising of Grievance by employee, where we have multiple level of approvals on the workflow, but each approver has to mandatorily put their comments and recommendations else workflow shouldn’t go to next step.

Now what does SF functionality say: Any validation can be put either during initiation of transaction or request or at the final workflow level, when the transaction is finally submitted in the system, this is how it works when any workflow is made for Custom MDF.

Prerequisite:

1. Pending Data should be marked as Yes in the Object level, configure object Definition à Search Objectà Set Pending Data as Yes, so that edit option is available on the workflow.
2. In all the workflow levels, where validation is required, Edit transaction should be marked as Edit with Route change under Manage Organization, Pay and Job structures à Workflow.

Process:

1. Make multiple workflows in every level you want validation, for example, a workflow is Employee (initiator)à Manager (Level 1)àManager’s manager (Level 2)à HR Admin (Level 3), and we want Validation at Level 1 and Level 3, where there are certain fields which must be filled without which workflow will not go to next level.

Then we will create 2 workflows

1. Manager as the sole approver in first workflow with Edit transaction as Edit with route change and respect all permissions
2. Manager’s Manager and HR Admin in Second workflow with Edit transaction as Edit without route change at all levels as HR Admin is anyways the last approver where validation will trigger, please refer screenshots below

IMG 1: First workflow with Manager only role

IMG 2: Second workflow with EMM and HR role

1. Create 2 Rules, first rule for validation, second rule to trigger workflows as per conditions

IMG 3: Rule to check based on the approver and raise validation on Workflow approval screen

Post this Workflow Rule will trigger workflow to next level

IMG 4: Trigger of workflow to next level

With the above process you can achieve validations on the workflow levels but there are few cons to it:

1. If we are using Is User in Permission group, then delegation can’t be done to anyone except for those present in that group
2. In case of Send back, it will not start from the first workflow, but the same workflow will trigger through which send back is pressed, for example, if second workflow is in progress and send back is triggered then on resubmission it will skip the first workflow and transaction will move directly to second workflow.

With all being said, it is a workaround which has been achieved and implemented successfully with a middle eastern client. Hope this will help you to make known decisions for configuration and deciding the process.

Happy Learning!!