CRM 4.0: Use JavaScript execute/call/launch CRM Workflow

I have a question from my colleague: How to use JavaScript execute workflow in CRM 4.0? The question also repeats very often in CRM Forums, no answer so far.

In CRM 3.0, Mitch Milam has described how to Launching a Workflow Rule from JavaScript, it works great. However, in CRM 4.0, the class: ExecuteWFProcessRequest has been deprecated, so it won’t work in CRM 4.0. Although there are many ways to launch a workflow, if you want to run it through JavaScript, here’s the trick:

/* the function */
ExecuteWorkflow = function(entityId, workflowId)
{
    var xml = "" + 
    "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" + 
    "<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\">" + 
    GenerateAuthenticationHeader() +
    "  <soap:Body>" + 
    "    <Execute xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\">" + 
    "      <Request xsi:type=\"ExecuteWorkflowRequest\">" + 
    "        <EntityId>" + entityId + "</EntityId>" + 
    "        <WorkflowId>" + workflowId + "</WorkflowId>" + 
    "      </Request>" + 
    "    </Execute>" + 
    "  </soap:Body>" + 
    "</soap:Envelope>" + 
    "";

    var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
    xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
    xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute");
    xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
    xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
    xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);
    var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
    return(resultXml.xml);
}

/* call */
var theWorkflowId = "3FD2DD58-4708-43D7-A21B-F0F90A0AA9F2"; //change to your workflow Id
ExecuteWorkflow(crmForm.ObjectId, theWorkflowId);

Enjoy coding! :)