enterprise-patterns

Frappe Enterprise Patterns

Architectural patterns for building production-grade enterprise applications.

When to use

• Building CRM, Helpdesk, HRMS, or similar multi-entity systems
• Designing SLA-driven workflows
• Implementing assignment and queue management
• Building audit trails and activity logs
• Integrating with external systems (email, telephony, CRM)

Inputs required

• System type (CRM/Helpdesk/custom)
• Core entities and relationships
• SLA requirements
• Workflow states and transitions
• Integration points

Procedure

0) Design data model

Start with clear, normalized DocTypes:

Ticket (parent)
├── customer (Link: Customer)
├── assigned_to (Link: User)
├── status (Select: Open, In Progress, Resolved, Closed)
├── priority (Link: Priority)
├── sla (Link: SLA)
├── activities (Table: Ticket Activity)
└── response_by, resolution_by (Datetime)

Key patterns:

• Use Link fields for relationships
• Use child tables for activities, timelines, line items
• Use Dynamic Link when target DocType varies

1) Implement state machine

Option A: Workflow DocType

• Create Workflow with states and role-based transitions
• Link to your DocType

Option B: docstatus for submission flow

docstatus	Meaning
0	Draft
1	Submitted
2	Cancelled

Option C: Custom status field with validation

def validate(self):
    allowed = self.get_allowed_transitions()
    if self.status not in allowed:
        frappe.throw(f"Cannot transition to {self.status}")

2) Set up permissions

Row-level filtering:

• Use User Permissions to restrict by entity
• Combine with Role Permissions

Always re-check in RPC methods:

@frappe.whitelist()
def update_ticket(name, status):
    doc = frappe.get_doc("Ticket", name)
    if not frappe.has_permission("Ticket", "write", doc):
        frappe.throw("Not permitted", frappe.PermissionError)
    doc.status = status
    doc.save()

3) Build activity trail