This made my week! I’m a visual person and creating business rules in Dynamics CRM 2016 version 8.2 and Dynamics 365 has just become my new favorite thing. I used to dread doing this, but with the new improved business rules interface, it’s fundamentally the same thing, but now with a visually pleasing facelift.
What are business rules?
Business rules are simple automations to save you time. For example, you might want to show an error message if something is entered incorrectly, set the value of a field based on something else, or make a simple calculation. There are endless possibilities to save the end user time.
Let’s take a look:
Starting from the top, you have your buttons:
- Add
- Cut
- Copy
- Paste
- Delete
- Snapshot
They all work exactly as expected, so, if you want to create a new condition, move actions or conditions around or copy the same action and paste multiple times, just use these buttons! The best part, in my opinion, is the snapshot. You now can quickly and easily take a picture of your business rule.
How to use the new designer:
Business rules start with a condition (top left hand corner) and you can drag and drop any item whether it be another condition or an action to set up the kind of business rule you need (exactly as it acted in previous versions).
- Show Error Message
- Set Default Value
- Lock/Unlock
- Set Field Value
- Set Business Required
- Recommendation
(new feature – read more here)
When you begin to set up your condition, it will take you to the properties tab. Here you can give it a display name, ensure it’s the correct entity, and develop the rule for the condition. This should look familiar with the layout and new user interface being the main difference.
Once this is set you can apply it and it will show up in the Business Rule (Text View).
Nice to know: The source defines whether it is a business rule for the entity or if it is a business process.
If you develop rules around the Business Process too. You can either address a stage category (related to any business process or stage in your system) or a process name.
On the bottom left you will see a new mini-map. This allows users to navigate to a specific action if you have a business rule with multiple conditions. As you create the rule, you will see the text in your if/then statement on the bottom right hand corner.
If you want to know more about business rules, or see the previous version, read here.
If you have questions or need some assistance, visit our support page for more help.
