Explaining about Workflow's..?

WORKFLOW :

- Workflow is help us to accessing business and intimated automatically.

- It's an inbuilt functionality used on single object.

- Using workflow,based on criteria we mentioned on the parent record,we can do field update on the parent only But not on child object.

- Different types of actions are performed in workflow's.

  They are :

    1.Immediate Actions

    2.Time-Triggered Actions  -  means specific time is given to perform an action.

- Whenever create a record only,different Actions are performed and executed.

- They are

     1.send Email alert(sender,which email,To whom)

     2.create tasks(which tasks,To whom,Due Date,Priority)

     3.Field Update(Object,field,logic)

     4.Send Outbound Message(Endpoint URL,fields....)

1.Send Email Alert :
    - whenever some activity has happened in the application and meets our criteria.
    - we can plan to notify one/multiple users through an email.An email has send to be predefined in the system and also provided in the workflow.
2.Creating a Tasks :
    - helps us to create a task to any user in the organization and perform some activities with specific time.
    - All the tasks assign to the user,will be displayed in the home page of that user's a/c's and reminder will be pop-up automatically whenever due date is approached.
3.Field Update :
    - Any field in the object on which workflow rule has been created OR any related object can be updated to a constant/dynamic value if the workflow is triggered.
    - Dynamic value updation can be performed with the help of formulas.
4.Sending an Outbound Message :

    - An external application can be intimated with some information from our objects along with the session ID and record ID whenever a workflow is triggered.
    - The message format that be support right now is " SOAP ", originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol.
" SOAP is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks."

- Whenever If you want these above actions are executed based on application by using " Rule Criteria " & " " Evaluation Criteria ".

- Rule Criteria :
        - In this we specify the conditions that the field value's of these records should meet inorder to execute the workflow actions.

    ex: whenever create a new employee,below actions performed  and executed.

          -send email alert @ print offer letter

          -create a task @ create ID card,Identify room

          -Field update @ salary update

          -send outbound message @ Verification background.

- Evaluation Criteria :
        - it decides the kind of records for which actions are to be executed,if their rule criteria is satisfied.
        - options are available shown below... 

                      @ every time record is created/modified

                        @ only whenever record is created

                        @ whenever record is created (or) edited and didn't previously meet the Rule criteria.

Note :
- The actions defined in a workflow will be executed only when the evaluation/rule criteria are satisfies.
- The total no.of workflow rules that can be created dependent upon editions that we are.