Adding a Custom Button on a Record in NetSuite (Part 1): Workflow Action Script

Often times, customers will ask us to add customization to an existing form in NetSuite requiring an action to be performed on-click of a new button. In this article we'll discuss each of the options available to you to create custom logic on the click of a button in NetSuite. The first question we need to ask is, what type of logic is required? Depending on the complexity of the business logic that is needed to handle the button click action, this will dictate which technique is appropriate. In the simplest case, when the added button is clicked it will change the value of a field or the status of the record when pressed, or perform another action that is supported in a workflow (SuiteFlow).

Without writing a single line of code, we can add customization in NetSuite using workflows to perform many different behaviors and complex logic. The actions supported by workflows include:

We tend to use workflows for simple actions to be triggered when reaching a state, but for more complex requirements beyond what can be implemented in workflows and built-in actions, we’ll use SuiteScript. If we want to add SuiteScript code in the context of a Workflow, we may do so in Custom Workflow Actions (Workflow Action Script).

The next question we must ask is, what type of logic is required? Is it simple conditional logic (if/else conditions)? Or does the automation require a conditional loop (for or while loop)? If so, we likely will need SuiteScript. Do we need to access sublists or subrecord? One of the largest drawbacks to workflows are that they do not allow customization to sublists and subrecords. In other cases, workflow actions do not have support for SuiteScript API’s (e.g. XML API). So, in these cases we turn to SuiteScript to get the job done.

Workflow Action Script

To give an example of how we can leverage a Workflow Action Script, let’s assume we have the requirement to show a “Completed” button on a Sales Order when the Sales Order is linked to a Case record in NetSuite. If the Sales Order is linked to a Case Entry form, the status on the Case entry form should be changed to “Completed” when the “Completed” button is pressed on the Sales Order. To achieve this, we can add a new “Completed” button to the Sales Order form via configuration. When this button is clicked, it will trigger a new workflow action script called ‘Mark Case Complete’ to change the A/R Status to “Complete” on the Sales Order.  If there are any Purchase Orders with the Case number that are not partially or fully received an alert message will be displayed to the user stating, ‘’, and the script will exit. However, if there are no Purchase Orders with the Case referenced, or all Purchase Orders have been at least partially received that do have a reference to the Case, then if the Sales Order is linked to a Case Entry form, the status on the Case entry form will also be changed to “Completed”. The following script logic will be triggered when a new ‘Completed’ button is pressed on the Sales Order form:

Load the value for the Case Record (custbody_case_record)

If (Case Record != NULL) {
	Load Case Record
	Set Status of Case Record to ‘Completed’
	Save Case Record
}

Set the value for the A/R Status on the Sales Order (custbody_ar_status) to ‘Complete’