Hi Ruediger,

just an idea: How about you configure your reminder to send a copy of the mail to a sharepoint library which is able to receive emails? Then you could use a event receiver or another workflow on item created in that library and write back the timestamp to the task list?

Could that work? Not very beautiful, but would be easy to setup.

Greetings

Philipp

Hi Philipp,

thx for your replay!
The suggested solution is indeed not very beautiful this solution will create a lot entries in the receiving library.
IS there no other solution?
May be the flexi task is not the right action to use?

KR,

Ruediger

This is the only solution I can think of if you want to use the integrated reminder mail of the task actions. And you could configure your additional WF/Event receiver to delete the library item immediately after the timestamp has been written to the task list. So you would probably have not more than 1 or two items at the same time in this library.

Another possibility is to create the reminder mails separately. Which means you are using parallel paths. One path is your Task assignment, the other path is a loop where you can send mails and create timestamps for the mails to write them back to your task list.

After your task has been completed, you set the variable you use as your loop condition to false, so the loop will stop. For the escalation timestamp (I presume you escalate to rejected but it's the same for approval) you will need to check who completed the task item. If after completion it has been modified by the system account (or the account that runs the workflow), it was completed due to escalation otherwise it was completed by the assignee. You will also need a pause for... action in your loop to wait for some days between the reminders.

I've never actually used this structure but It could help to solve your issue.

Regards

Philipp

Hi Philipp,

thx again for your fast reply!

I think I will try to change the flow and use the suggested parallel paths next week.

Have a nice weekend

KR,

Ruediger

Hi Phillip,

Sorry it took a while until I finally found some time to try your suggestion.

I have created the suggested parallel actions but I have some issues using this variant:

  In first instance the part for the left loop condition went wrong. When the task has been answered the variable “ReminderLoopVar”  was
set to “0”, but the loop was already started so that an reminder mail was sent although it was no longer necessary (because of finishing the task).

To get this solved I have added a “Run if” action to send the reminder only in case “ReminderLoopVar” equals “1”.

The next problem is that the task ID is empty for the “Update Item” action. So it’s not possible to update the task item and the URL
calculated to reach the item from the reminder mail does not work.

Example URL for the reminder mail including the link to the Task
item: http://xxx.xxx/dep/IT/eTrac/Lists/Workflow%20Tasks/EditForm.aspx?ID=

Task definition screenshot:

Update Item action config screen shot:

In case the reminder parallel part is finished the task is set to “ Not required” instead of sill “pending”.

Do you have a suggestion to solve these issues?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Ruediger,

unfortunately I don't have a quick solution for your issues. I would have to recreate your workflow and test it on my own environment but I'm not sure when I will find the time to do this. I hope to be able to provide you some feedback at the end of the week.

Greetings

Philipp

Hi Ruediger,

don't know why the taskID is empty, I thought this would work since the task is already existing but doesn't work for me either.

Which brings me back to my first suggestions. Yes, this may produce some list items. But you can either delete them immediately after you updated your task item or daily/weekly within a separate site workflow.

Or how many task items pending and waiting for approval for more than 14 days are we talking about?