4.2 Bundles, SuiteApps, and SuiteFlow
Key Takeaways
SuiteBuilder customizes fields, forms, and records. SuiteFlow changes a standard process without a script. SuiteBundler moves objects between accounts. SuiteTalk is web services.
A SuiteApp is a packaged solution from NetSuite or a partner that an administrator installs into the account. Some SuiteBundler packages are also called SuiteApps in Help.
A SuiteFlow workflow is built from states, actions, and transitions. Actions can set a field or add a button, and transitions move the record when their conditions are met.
A purchase order can wait for a supervisor through a SuiteFlow workflow that sets Approval Status and adds an Approve button, with no SuiteScript.
SuiteScript, Map/Reduce, and RESTlets are outside this SuiteFoundation objective.
Platform Tools and What Each One Changes
SuiteFoundation's second platform objective is a high-level map. It names Installed Bundles, SuiteApps, and SuiteFlow. It does not ask you to recite Enable Features boxes, and it does not ask you to write SuiteScript. Five product names still get swapped, because each one sounds like "customization."
SuiteBuilder changes data and screens inside one account: fields, forms, record types, subtabs, and custom transaction types. SuiteFlow changes how a standard record moves through a process, such as purchase-order approval, without a script. SuiteBundler packages objects into a bundle so another account can install them. A SuiteApp is a packaged solution from NetSuite or a partner that you install into the account. SuiteTalk is web services: an external application reads and updates NetSuite records.
| Tool | What it changes | Who usually does the work | What a different tool is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| SuiteBuilder | Fields, forms, records, subtabs, and custom transaction types | An administrator shaping what gets stored and what a role sees | A multi-step process such as approval |
| SuiteFlow | A standard record's process, through states, transitions, and actions | A person who needs to change a process and does not write scripts | Moving a finished customization into another account |
| SuiteBundler (bundles) | A package of objects installed in another account | An administrator copying customizations from sandbox to production, or sharing them with another account | Designing the field or the workflow in the first place |
| SuiteApps | A packaged solution from NetSuite or a partner, installed into the account | An administrator adding a solution someone else already built | A one-off birthday field on the employee record |
| SuiteTalk | Records exchanged with an outside system through web services | An integration, not a user editing a form | A point-and-click approval inside the NetSuite UI |
Installed Bundles
SuiteBundler packages customization objects or configuration settings so they can be installed in other NetSuite accounts. Help's SuiteBundler overview calls these packages bundles, and it also says bundles are known as SuiteApps. Keep the exam jobs separate even though Help overlaps the names. The bundle is the vehicle that carries objects from one account to another. The SuiteApp, in the study-guide sense, is the packaged solution you choose to install.
An administrator builds a bundle in the Bundle Builder: basics, properties, the objects to include, and preferences for install and update. Some objects can be locked in the target account. A customization bundle holds custom objects such as fields, forms, record types, and workflows. A configuration bundle holds setup entries and preference settings. Availability can be private, shared with specific accounts, or public.
Installation starts at Customization > SuiteBundler > Search & Install Bundles. You can search by keyword or bundle ID. The installed bundles list shows what this account already has, whether an update is waiting, and which company owns the bundle. Some SuiteApp bundles are also on the SuiteApp Marketplace.
Installing a bundle does not mark a form preferred, and it does not draw a workflow. If the firm built a birthday field and a project form in a sandbox, a customization bundle is how those objects move to production. A finished workflow can ride along. SuiteBuilder and SuiteFlow are where those objects were defined.
SuiteApps
A SuiteApp is a packaged solution from NetSuite or a partner, installed into your account. Help describes bundle authors as internal developers packaging customizations for their own company, or as independent software vendors distributing a solution to customers. Administrators, and users with the SuiteApp Marketplace permission, install from the SuiteApp Marketplace. Help says that marketplace includes SuiteApps and SuiteApp bundles created with SuiteBundler. A solution you install from the Marketplace can therefore also appear on the installed bundles list.
Use the job, not the overlapping name, when you answer a question.
- Choose SuiteBuilder when the account needs a new field, form, record, or custom transaction that you will define yourself.
- Choose SuiteBundler when the task is to copy objects that already exist into another account, or to review what is already on the installed bundles list.
- Choose a SuiteApp when NetSuite or a partner has already packaged the solution and the task is to install it.
- Choose SuiteTalk when an external system must create or update records through web services.
The Purchase Order Approval Workflow SuiteApp shows the overlap in a useful way. It is a packaged approval solution you can install. Help also says you can change that purchase-order routing with SuiteFlow. The SuiteApp is the package. SuiteFlow is the tool that modifies the process.
SuiteFlow
SuiteFlow is NetSuite's graphical workflow manager. Help defines each workflow on one record type. The workflow holds the stages that record passes through. In a stage it can act, for example by sending an email or adding a button, and it can move the record to another stage. NetSuite starts a workflow instance from a trigger. Triggers include viewing, creating, and updating a record, and a workflow can also run on a schedule. You lay this out in the Workflow Manager. No script file is required.
States, Transitions, and Actions
A state is one stage of the business process. Every workflow contains at least one state. When a record enters a state, that state's actions run in listed order, each according to its trigger and its conditions. A transition then moves the record to another state when the transition's own trigger and conditions are met. You need at least two states before a transition can exist. Conditions on actions and on transitions are how one workflow can send a small transaction down one path and a large transaction down another.
Actions worth recognizing here are Set Field Value, Add Button, and Send Email. Help's estimate-approval overview sets Approval Status to Pending Approval on entry, then transitions toward a supervisor, finance, or an approved state. That workflow updates a standard transaction. It is not a new custom record and it is not a web service call. A purchase order uses the same shape: an entry state sets the approval field, a button lets the supervisor move the order forward, and a later state records the approval.
Outside This Objective
SuiteScript, Map/Reduce, and RESTlets are outside this SuiteFoundation objective. Map/Reduce is a SuiteScript type for large asynchronous processing. A RESTlet is a SuiteScript script exposed for REST calls. SuiteTalk remains web services for an external application. Someone editing states and buttons inside NetSuite is using SuiteFlow.
An administrator turns the needed feature on before its menu appears. This objective tests each tool's purpose, not the Enable Features checkbox list.
Purchase Orders That Wait for a Supervisor
The administrator wants each purchase order to wait for a supervisor before the order can be received. Nobody on the team writes scripts.
SuiteFlow is the matching tool. Build a workflow whose record type is the purchase order. In the first state, a Set Field Value action sets Approval Status to Pending Approval as the order is created. An Add Button action labeled Approve appears for the supervisor while the order is in that state. A transition fires when the supervisor uses the button. The condition on that transition can require that the current approver is the supervisor. The following state sets Approval Status to Approved. While the order remains pending approval, it is still waiting, and receipt follows the approval rather than skipping it. The change is states, actions, and transitions on a standard transaction.
SuiteBuilder is the stop if the purchase order needs a new body field. SuiteBundler is the stop after the workflow works in a sandbox and must be installed in production. SuiteTalk is the stop if an outside system must create the order through web services. The Purchase Order Approval Workflow SuiteApp is a packaged approval solution the firm might install instead of drawing the first diagram. Changing the standard process without a script is still SuiteFlow.
Practice these tool choices with the Oracle NetSuite Foundation practice questions.
A purchasing administrator who does not write scripts must change the standard purchase-order process so an order waits for a supervisor before it moves ahead. Which tool is meant for that change?
SuiteBuilder, because a new custom field has to exist before any approval can be stored
SuiteBundler, because installing a bundle is the only way to add a state to a transaction
SuiteFlow, because a workflow can set fields and move a standard transaction through states without a script
SuiteTalk, because web services are required before NetSuite will change how a purchase order is approved
Which description matches a SuiteApp for this SuiteFoundation objective?
A packaged solution from NetSuite or a partner that an administrator installs into the account
The personal preferences page where each user selects a preferred transaction form
A Map/Reduce script deployment that approves purchase orders in bulk
The web services channel an external warehouse uses to create item receipts
Which set of pieces is a fair high-level description of a SuiteFlow workflow?
A RESTlet, a governance limit, and a Map/Reduce script that replace the diagram
States the record passes through, actions that run inside a state, and transitions that move the record when conditions are met
One custom field, a preferred form, and the Restricted box on a role
A public bundle, a configuration bundle, and a SuiteTalk login
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.