Where to use business rules in MS CRM 2013

Question

We are upgrading our MS CRM from 2011 to 2013. Since 2011 did not had business rules facility we had used javascript to develop most of the functionalities. Now we want to replace those javascripts with business rules. Which functionalities should we bring in business rules from javascript?

Answer 1

The question here is: If the JavaScript use supported methods and it works, why we need/want to replace some of them with Business Rules?

You need to check if Business Rules are suitable to replace your JavaScript and if they suit in your project regarding their maintainability

Here a good overview:

https://crmbusiness.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/crm-2013-understanding-business-rules/

Answer 2

I would strongly advise you to think twice before you decide to replace your Javascript with business rules.

Having worked with them I learned they are useful for implementing relatively simple requirements.

Two major plusses:

1. Business rules give organizations the possibility to apply some business logic without needing to hire a software developer.
2. For Dynamics CRM 2015: business rules can be configured to run client AND server side.

But, business rules also have their limitations:

1. More complex rules (nested if/else, taking security roles into account, evaluating related record values etc.) are not supported.
2. When you end up configuring many business rules on one form, your solution can quickly become hard too comprehend. In Javascript you have much more flexibility in the way you structure your code.

When your CRM 2011 scripts are currently working fine, I can hardly come up with a reason to replace them. Recently I frequently ended up removing business rules my collegues configured previously, just because Javascript turned out to be easier to build, understand and maintain. The Javascript on these forms still was very modest in lines of code.

Answer 3

I started to look at using Business Rules in CRM2013 and it left me sadly underwhelmed. As Henk van Boeijen said you are severely limited because there is no If/Else in CRM 2013 and no ability for an AND clause.

CRM 2015 Business Rules are a vast improvement. I did a little blog post about CRM 2015 a few months ago where I talked about Business Rules (http://crmtroubleshoot.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/crm-2015-review.html)

I wouldn't touch business rules until you upgrade to CRM2015 and even then you might want to go with the old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach as upgrading your JavaScript from CRM2011 to CRM2013 to CRM2015 is not as vast a change as CRM4 to CRM2011 was.