Understanding Move Next and Move Previous in BPF

Introduction

At times we must work on BPF Stages and navigate Stages automatically based on the business requirement, for quick test D365 Client API’s can be used for navigation with predefined methods moveNext and movePrevious in console window of browser before writing JavaScript code. As an example, existing Vaccination BPF on an existing Contact record was used to show these navigation methods.

Step 1

Login to the required environment and go to flows and select Business process flows – Vaccination and observe whether BPF is active or not, if not then activate it as shown in the below figure.

Move Next and Move Previous in BPF

Step 2

After Step 1, as this BPF was written on the top of contact record, open any existing contact record as shown in the below figure.

Move Next and Move Previous in BPF

Step 3

After Step 2, click on F12 (developer Tools) from keyboard / open console window of selected browser, here I have used Chrome as shown in the below figure.

Move Next and Move Previous in BPF

Step 4

After Step 3, type the below code snippet to get the details of the current Process [BPF Details]

Snippet : Xrm.Page.data.process

And hit on enter key in the console window/tab as shown in the below figure.

Move Next and Move Previous in BPF

Step 5

After Step 4, now assign the above snippet to a local variable with the name vaccinationProcess with the below snippet

Snippet

var vaccinationProcess=Xrm.Page.data.process;

and then hit enter key after that verify the process name by using the below snippet

Snippet

vaccinationProcess.getInstanceName()

and observe that Vaccination name will be returned in the console window by API as shown in the below figure.

Move Next and Move Previous in BPF

Step 6

After Step 5, observe that before performing navigation current stage as Vaccination Status as shown in the below figure.

Move Next and Move Previous in BPF

Step 7

After Step 6, now go to the console window and execute the below snippet to move to the next Stage

Snippet :

vaccinationProcess.moveNext()

and observe record current stage will be moved to Provide Discount from the previous stage and record automatically saved as shown in the below figure.

Move Next and Move Previous in BPF

Step 8

After Step 7, now go to the console window and execute the below snippet to move to the previous stage

Snippet :

vaccinationProcess.movePrevious()

and observe record current stage will be moved to Vaccination Status from the previous stage and record automatically saved as shown in the below figure.

Move Next and Move Previous in BPF

Note:

If you take new record, then first save the record with required fields.
Provide required fields on each stage before executing above steps otherwise navigation methods will not trigger.
Observe every time when navigation methods were executed from console, record will be saved automatically, so that even you refresh the page it maintains Stage that was executed from console window.
API Reference found here

Conclusion

In this way, one can easily use Client API methods of navigation between stages in Business Process Flow before writing JavaScript code quickly.