Force.com Platform Fundamentals

Preface
Introducing the Force.com Platform
About the Sample Recruiting App
Reviewing Database Concepts
Building a Simple App
Enhancing the Simple App with Advanced Fields, Data Validation, and Page Layouts
Expanding the Simple App Using Relationships
Securing and Sharing Data
Collaborating with Chatter
Automating Business Processes
Introducing Process Builder
Process Builder: A Closer Look
Automating Our Recruiting App
Creating a Process That Assigns Tasks
Creating a Process That Updates Field Values
Adding an Action That Sends Email Alerts
Introducing Approvals
Summing Up
Analyzing Data with Reports and Dashboards
Moving Beyond Point-and-Click App Development
Learning More
Glossary
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Introducing Process Builder

The Process Builder is a tool that lets you automate business processes using a convenient graphical representation of your process as you build it. Automated processes in the Process Builder consist of:
  • Criteria that determine when to execute action groups and
  • Immediate and scheduled actions to execute when those criteria are met.
Any change that causes a record to match the criteria automatically triggers the action group.

Example

Say Ben Stuart, a software development manager, wants to extend an offer to Ethan Tran, a bright young candidate who's interested in the Software Engineer position. At Universal Containers, it's a recruiter's job to extend offers, but in this case, Mario Ruiz, the recruiter responsible for the Software Engineer position, doesn't know whether or not Ben has made a decision unless Ben emails or calls him directly.

Instead of relying on Ben to remember to tell Mario, let’s automate it! We can set up a simple process that automatically assigns a task to the recruiter when a manager decides to extend an offer or reject a job application.

Automatically Assigning a Task to a Recruiter Using Workflow A diagram for automatically assigning a task to a recruiter using a workflow

Pretty powerful, isn't it? In general, if we can come up with a condition that specifies when a particular event should happen, we can make it happen automatically with the Process Builder. Processes are one of the secret ingredients that will transform our Recruiting app from a glorified database into a fully functional tool that everyone finds useful.

Now that we've got a general idea of what processes are all about, let's take a closer look at what it takes to create a process.