Salesforce has many automation tools like Approvals, Process Builder, Workflow, and Cloud Flow Designer to automate organization’s repetitive business processes. Mostly developers use Workflow and Process builder.
Workflow enables to set up workflow rules that identify what kinds of record changes or additions trigger specified workflow actions, such as sending email alerts and updating record fields.
Process Builder can be utilized to automate all workflow actions (with the exception of outbound messages). Traditional workflow can still be utilized in parallel, however, Process Builder gives you the ability to do things that workflow can’t.
Workflow does 4 actions
- Create Task
- Update Field
- Email Alert
- Outbound Message
We can create task when any record in inserted. Example:Assign follow-up tasks to a support guy one week after a case is created.
Update the value of a field on a record. Example: Change the Owner field on a contract three days before it expires.
Send an email to one or more recipients on action. Example : Send sales management an email alert when a sales rep qualifies a large deal.
Send a secure, configurable API message (in XML format) to a designated listener. Example : Trigger an outbound API message to an external HR system to initiate the reimbursement process for an approved expense report.
You can use the Process Builder to perform more actions than with workflow:
- Create a record
- Update Records
- Quick Action
- Flow
- Send an email
- Post to Chatter
- Approvals
- Process
- Apex
Create new record when conditions are met.
Update any related records. Related records can only referenced in Process Builder. This was not available in Workflows.
Use a quick action to create a record, update a record, or log a call.
Invoke an active autolaunched flow or active invocable process that exists in the current org.
Send an email to one or more recipients on action. Example : Send sales management an email alert when a sales rep qualifies a large deal.
Post to the feed for a specific record, user, or Chatter group.
Submit a Salesforce record for approval if an approval process is defined for the current entity.
Invoke a process from another process.
Invoke Apex methods annotated with @InvocableMethod and include custom parameters with @InvocableVariable.
What we can’t do in Process Builder
Right now we can not send Outbound messages from Process Builder.
What we can do only in Process Builder
Process Builder lets you control the order of your criteria.
In Workflow, there’s no way to determine which order workflow rules run in. So there’s always a risk of one rule overwriting what another did. In Process Builder, we can determine the exact evaluation order of process’ criteria.
Process Builder lets you access fields on every related record.
In Workflow, we can reference fields on the record’s parent. Process Builder, on the other hand, lets access the fields on any related record, no matter how far away that record is. You can reference fields on a parent record, grandparent record, or great-great-great-grandparent record twice removed.
Process Builder is the future.
All new functionality for the workflow use case will come through Process Builder only. If we want to use the shiny new functionality, we have to migrate to Process Builder.
