What are Time Triggers?
Time triggers are used when we need to
execute workflow actions at certain time based scenarios
E.g. If we need to send an email to an
employee 6 days after he joined
Or if we need to update a field or send an
outbound message, two hours after the Lead has been qualified.
·
How to Create Time Triggers?
Time Triggers can be created in two ways
o
Apex Cron Jobs
o
Force.com Admin Setup
·
Via Point and Click
This post illustrates this method of creating
time triggers, more about cron jobs later.
There are basically 3 steps in creating a
time trigger/ time based workflows
We need to create a basic workflow rule in
order to add time dependent actions to it.
A basic workflow creation is explained
below; you could also watch a video
Step 1: Creating a Workflow Rule and Select
Object
§
Navigate to Your Name à Setup à
Create à
Workflows and Approvals
Click
New
§
Select the Object to which the workflow rule
applies to and click next
Step 2: Configure a Workflow Rule
§
Enter a
name for the workflow rule, Select an Evaluation Criteria and select criteria
on which the workflow is fired. You could also write your own formula instead
of the criteria. Here are some
examples for some common workflow criteria and click next
Step 3: Specify Workflow Actions
§
There are 2 types of actions that can be
selected
a.
Immediate Workflow actions: Those are executed
at the time workflow rule is fired and evaluates to true.
b.
Time- Dependent Workflow actions: These are the
actions we are more interested in.
Time Depended Actions are executed when the specific time selected
is selected, when defining a time trigger, use standard and custom date
and date/time fields defined for the object. Specify time using days and hours
After defining a time trigger you can add new actions or
existing ones to it. Following video explains more on creating a workflow rule.
