Introduction
Workflow is a cherished feature available in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which lets users configure a series of functions or methods call steps to perform a flow. The flow can be changed based on conditional values or inputs. It works like a data flow diagram presented in the below image.
Workflows are categorized in two forms in dynamics CRM:
- Asynchronous workflows
- Real-Time workflows or synchronous workflows
Asynchronous Workflows
Asynchronous is basically something that you don’t expect to complete instantly and you expect to run behind the scene. The same scenario followed in Microsoft Dynamics Asynchronous workflows.
The asynchronous workflow needs a windows service as a processer. Window Service named Microsoft Dynamics Asynchronous Processing Service must be running to run these workflows.
These workflows might take some time to start and run in the background is a good option for Asynchronous workflows.
Asynchronous workflow is mainly used to update entity fields or send an email on a certain condition that you don’t expect to complete on the same time.
Real-Time Workflows
This is called synchronous workflow as well, this is not recommended workflow as it holds all other dynamics CRM processes until that it moved to finish. But in some scenarios, it’s required.
To maintain data integrity intact, Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports real-time workflows which executed in synchronous mode with transaction aware operation.
Real-time workflow is triggered on an event and there is no delayed occurrence. It can be also configured to run on demand.