In our system we have many workflows to help us automate our tasks and
make our job more efficient in Zoho CRM. Most of the workflows work
correctly; however, there are 3 which have a single condition: look for
a string of characters in a custom Text Area (Small) and perform some
actions in case the string is found. All 3 workflows look for different
strings in the exact same field. None of the strings has special
characters.
As an example, one of the workflows looks for the
string "Pick-up
(Sultanahmet)" in the field and will update other 2 fields
in case the string is found. The string is usually located at the end
of the field (but not always) and for such reason we used the option
"contains". Which from common sense means "If the field
CONTAINS Pick-up
(Sultanahmet), then do A and B".
Nonetheless, since we created the workflow, it was never triggered
even though the exact same string was present in the text as in the
following example:
Essential Pass
Adult (+12) $75x1
Essential Pass Total = 75 USD
Public Transportation Pass: 1x Pass 6 USD
ORDER TOTAL (after discounts): $81 USD
Carrier: Free Pick-Up (Sultanahmet)
I have changed the color of the text and made it bold to make it
easier to identify. All cases and special characters are exactly the
same. As it can be seen from the example, the text INDEED CONTAINS
the string which should trigger the workflow but the workflow is not
being triggered.
We have reported this case to Zoho for over a month or so and
nothing has been done so far. Today I had a call from Gautham (from
the support team) to whom I shared my screen and showed him what was
going on.
After checking the condition for a while, he made a test with a new
order where the field ONLY contained the string we needed "Pick-up
(Sultanahmet)" and the workflow was correctly triggered.
However, I told him let's make a real test with real values and
I created a new order with the same text as the example above in the
aforementioned field. The workflow was not triggered.
After a long discussion with him, he said I should check the
condition and "correct" it according to what I wanted. I
told him the workflow was correctly created but it was not being
correctly triggered.
After another while, he said the field should CONTAIN ONLY the string we want to find. I said that makes no sense because for
that, there is another option called "is" which from common
sense means that there should be an EXACT MATCH between the value we
are looking for and the value in the target field. His response was
that we could create another field where only that string is found (as
a workaround).
I didn't agree with his explanation and for that reason I'm
opening this topic in case this happens to somebody else and hoping
one day Zoho will fix it.