Force.com Platform Fundamentals

Preface
Introducing the Force.com Platform
About the Sample Recruiting App
About Universal Containers
Considerations for the Recruiting App
Building the App: Our Design
Custom Objects
Security and Sharing Rules
Automated Processes
Custom Reports and Dashboards
Visualforce
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
Analyzing Data with Reports and Dashboards
Moving Beyond Point-and-Click App Development
Learning More
Glossary
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Automated Processes

Three of our requirements involve automating business processes, such as triggering an alert email to a recruiter whenever a job application's status has changed, and submitting new job openings for executive approval. Once again, the Force.com platform makes these requirements easy for us to implement natively with the built-in Process Builder and approval process components.

Process Builder and approval processes allow us to create business logic based on rules:
  • Process Builder can assign tasks to users, update fields, or send email alerts.
  • Approval processes allow users to submit sensitive records like new contracts or purchase orders to other users for approval.

For example, in our Recruiting app, we can create a process that triggers an event whenever the status of a job application has changed to Reject or Extend an Offer, as illustrated below.

Process When a Job Application's Status Has Changed A process showing the actions involved in changing a job application status

When a hiring manager makes a decision to either extend an offer to or reject the candidate, changing the status of the application triggers the appropriate task to be assigned to the recruiter for that position. Based upon the hiring manager’s decision, the recruiter performs the appropriate follow-up task.

Similarly, we can define an automatic approval process that sends all new positions to the appropriate management for approval. If the position is approved, its status automatically changes to Open - Approved and recruiters can start the hiring process. If the position is rejected, its status automatically changes to Closed - Not Approved and the position won't be filled.