Workflows not behaving as expected, possible bug?

[don820]

Hi! First off, thanks much to the many posters here, searching the forums has been helpful over the past months as we ramp up our use of sugar. We are currently running 5.2.e professional edition.

Now for my question --

Workflows for 'on update' and 'on save' are all working great. But the "After time elapses" workflows seem to be very problematic as noted on many forum topics in the last couple years.

I'm trying to write a workflow that notifies us of 'stale' opportunities, basically opportunities that haven't been updated for 60+ days.

In testing, I've run into three problems:

1. A new "after time elapses" workflow only seems to apply to data entered AFTER the workflow is created. For example, if I have 150 existing opportunities, then create a workflow to alert of stale opportunities, it only will alert of stale Opportunities we create AFTER making the workflow. How do I make a "after time elapses" workflow retroactively work for previously existing data?

2. I can get the "after time elapses" rule to work (on new data) only if I have a single condition. It doesn't matter what field, i.e., 'Sales Stage: does not change for 60 days' works fine. But I want to check for multiple conditions by also checking that 'Expected Close Date: does not change for 60 days'. My assumption is that when you have multiple conditions it ANDs them, but in testing it seems to just completely break. I.e., 1 condition and things work fine, but 2 conditions and I never get anything. It is testable and repeatable.

3. I only ever get 1 alert generated from a workflow. I would like the alert to be sent every time the scheduler triggers processWorkflow. I.e., I want it to nag us. But it seems like the workflow remembers when it sends an alert, and only ever does it once.

Any advice on these topics would be appreciated.

[jkliza]

I've been having TONS of problems with the workflow engine not working correctly over the last few months, and we are getting close to canceling sugar. We ran into the same problem ourselves last night....

Workflow rules targeting a leads whose status have been new for 4 hours, never fire.

There is no way to test it for a shorter time period either, so I can only test and have to wait 4 hours to see if it worked.

VERY FRUSTRATING.

- Jesse

[Angel]

1. A new "after time elapses" workflow only seems to apply to data entered AFTER the workflow is created. For example, if I have 150 existing opportunities, then create a workflow to alert of stale opportunities, it only will alert of stale Opportunities we create AFTER making the workflow. How do I make a "after time elapses" workflow retroactively work for previously existing data?

Any advice on these topics would be appreciated.

I believe what you are describing above is normal behavior. I'd have to test it to verify, but it seems to ring a bell.

You probably need to get the IDs of the existing opportunities into the workflow_schedules table in order to get them processed as well.

Sorry I don't have input on the other items at this time. When time permits I'll test out your scenarios and see if I can provide any further advice/comments.

[bconvis]

Hello Don820,

Read your initial post and believe you can do exactly what your trying to do in our module, Marketing Manager. Basically, Marketing Manager allows you to query just about anything in Sugar and produce a list of contacts, leads or accounts.

So - if you wanted to find all opportunities that are "stale" you could simply create a new Marketing Campaign in Marketing Manager, build the query, run the campaign and you would be able to do one of the following:

1 - Send an email to the account or contact related to the stale opportunity
2 - Create a task and relate to the stale opportunity
3 - Schedule a call and relate to the stale opportunity

Check out our website at www.sierracrm.com for information and demos of our two products, Process Manager and Marketing Manager.

Thanks,
Bill Convis
SierraCRM, Inc.

[RichW]

I've been having TONS of problems with the workflow engine not working correctly over the last few months, and we are getting close to canceling sugar. We ran into the same problem ourselves last night....

Workflow rules targeting a leads whose status have been new for 4 hours, never fire.

There is no way to test it for a shorter time period either, so I can only test and have to wait 4 hours to see if it worked.

VERY FRUSTRATING.

- Jesse

To test timed-based workflows more quickly than every 4 yours, you can edit the value directly in the WORKFLOW_TRIGGERSHELLS table (the PARAMETERS) column to change the number of seconds. You then need to change it in the /custom/modules/[modulename]/workflow/workflow.php. Look for "14440" if you selected 4 hours, since that's the number of seconds.

[McFads]

We are having problems with workflow as well and that's the main reason we are on Professional. It would be great to know Sugar is working on solving some of these issues.

[Angel]

You need to define the problems you are experiencing, or you might be waiting a long time.

If you elaborate on what it is you are having problems with, there is also the possibility that someone else already knows the solution or some recommendations that can help.

[Sunnsky]

This is definitely a bug. here's a link to bug tracker bug number 36640.
it's actually quite disturbing, it was entered on March the 23rd with only a medium priority and no updates on progress have been reported since. If you make an inquiry about progress, you get no response. UNBELIEVABLE!! Workflow s the reason we bought professional licenses 8 months ago. We've never had workflow working.

[maloner]

Hi Guys,

We have put substantial effort into fixing this issue and now have a fix.

If you need a fix, please contact me - john@providentcrm.com - the fix is SugarCRM version Specific, so I would need to prepare a package for you.

Let me know if you need any assistance.

Best regards,

John Malone
Provident CRM
SugarCRM Partner and Member of European SugarCRM Alliance
Manchester, UK & Dublin, Ireland
ph: +44 161 6602996
email: john@providentcrm.com
web: www.providentcrm.com