Archive: Nintex for Office 365 Knowledge Articles

TopicUnable to delete a workflow or uninstalling Nintex apps from Sharepoint Online site  InstructionsCheck if 'Preservation Policy' is enabled on the site. If it is enabled, disable it and then delete the workflow / app.The policy can be enabled back after deleting the app or workflow.  

QUESTIONIs it possible to open Nintex Forms using the SharePoint mobile app or OneDrive for Business mobile app?ANSWERNo, these will open default SharePoint forms.  The only way to open mobile Nintex Forms is either through the Nintex Mobile App, or a standard mobile browser.ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONRELATED LINKS

TOPICHow to update a multi-value Lookup column through a Nintex for Office 365 workflow.INSTRUCTIONSThe Update Item action does not support updating multi-value lookup columns in SharePoint Online; the Office 365 Update Items action must be used instead:Use a Query List action to build a collection of the IDs that will be used to update the Lookup column This will provide a collection output similar to Use two Replace Substring In String actions to remove the '' characters Use a Replace Substring In String action to update comma character (,) to a semi-colon (;) between each of the ID values This will result in a string that looks like: 1;3;4;5;7 Use this newly built variable within the Office 365 Update Items action to post the desired values into the multi-value Lookup column ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONRELATED LINKS

TopicYou may experience current workflows are being suspended and no longer running to completion. This is due to numerous deleted association workflows that are ahead of the new running instance.  InstructionsThis is a known issue with 2 possibility of the root cause:1. There are other workflow on the list (if any) to make sure that all the workflow has a Start Option from Workflow Setting (at lease one of the option checked). If all the workflows has the start option, then it related with Microsoft issue that lead us to possibility no 2. 2. Most likely the issue down to a problem with the workflow publishing location associated to the specific site library. Workflow definitions are normally stored in a hidden folder called "wfsvc". This issue creates another folder called "wfsvc1" and puts the workflow there - Microsoft should be able to move the workflows from the wfsvc1 hidden folder to the wfscv hidden folder then remove the wfsvs1 folder. In some cases republishing the workflow m

TopicCreating custom content types to be used in Nintex Workflow for Office 365 task actions.Answer1. Navigate to Site Settings.2. Create new site content type.3. Configure the content type as follows: Select parent content type from: List Content TypesParent Content Type: Workflow Task (SharePoint 2013)Put this site content type into: Existing Group > Custom Content Types 4. The new content type will now appear as a option from the task action configuration. Additional InformationNote: The new content type will not appear if:1. The content type is added under the 'Nintex Workflow for Office 365' group.2. The new content type does not have a 'Task Outcome' column.

TopicHow to skip the start page when manually starting a workflow. InstructionsOpen Nintex Workflow Designer. From the ribbon, click on Workflow Settings. Scroll down to Start Form, select Custom and then clear the URL field. Publish the workflow. 

TopicHow to move workflows between development, test and production environments in Office 365. InstructionsExport the workflow from the test or development site using Nintex Workflow Designer "Export". Import the workflow to the production site using Nintex Workflow Designer "Import". 

TOPICHow to remove or delete a user from the SharePoint Online Group using Web Service in Nintex Workflow for Office 365. INSTRUCTIONSOpen a Nintex Workflow for Office 365 Designer. Drag and drop the Web Request action. Configure the action as below URL : ‍{Workflow Context:Current site URL}‍/_vti_bin/UserGroup.asmx Method : SOAP 1.1. Soap action : http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepo...eUserFromGroup <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">   <soap:Body>     <RemoveUserFromGroup xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepo...oap/directory/">       <groupName>string</groupName>       <userLoginName>string</userLoginName>     </RemoveUserFromGroup>   </soap:Body> </soap:Envelope> ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONRELATED LINKS

TopicHow to create a SharePoint Online Group using Web Service in Nintex Workflow for Office 365.  InstructionsOpen a Nintex Workflow for Office 365 Designer. Drag and drop the Web Request action. Configure the action as belowURL : ‍{Workflow Context:Current site URL}‍/_vti_bin/UserGroup.asmx Method : SOAP 1.1. Soap action : http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/directory/AddGroup Body : Content Content :<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">  <soap:Body>    <AddGroup xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/directory/">      <groupName>string</groupName>      <ownerIdentifier>string</ownerIdentifier>      <ownerType>string</ownerType>      <defaultUserLoginName>string</defaultUserLoginName>      <description>string</description>    </AddGroup>  </soap:B

TopicTo use the userProfileLookup() runtime function in a Calculated value control with Nintex Forms for O365 access has to be granted to the User Profile Service first. InstructionsTo allow application access to user profilesOn the Site Contents page for your site, click the Nintex Forms for Office 365 app. On the upper right of the Nintex Forms for Office 365 page, click Nintex Forms Admin and then select Allow Application Access to User Profiles. Note: If you don't see the Nintex Forms Admin option, your user account may not be a member of the Owners group for the site. To add your account to the Owners group, go to the Site Contents page for the site, click Site Permissions, select Advanced permissions settings, find the Owners group (the group name starts with the site name), and use SharePoint options to add your account. Click Trust it Related Linkshttps://help.nintex.com/en-US/o365/#o365/O365Forms/Admin/UserProfileAdmin.htm

TopicUsing the default configuration of a Query List action to return a collection of List Item IDs the collection that is returned looks like the following: [{"Id":1,"ID":1},{"Id":2,"ID":2},{"Id":3,"ID":3},{"Id":4,"ID":4},{"Id":5,"ID":5}]This output makes it hard to use in a For Each action as additional operations are required inside the For Each loop to extract the ID.For a more usable output read on. InstructionsConfigure the Query List action by changing the "Output type" from 'Single output' to 'Separate output per column'.Additional InformationThe output collection will look like the following:[1,2,3,4,5]This formatting makes it easier for the For Each action to read the list item ID at each index to target a list item to perform an activity on.  

TopicHow to use the Component Workflow option to start your workflow from another Nintex for Office 365 workflow. InstructionsYou can start a component workflow from another workflow in your Office 365 tenancy, by using the Run Component Workflow action, once a component workflow is published and you’ve selected the relevant Start option.To Start your Component workflow from a workflow in the current Office 365 tenantDesign the parent workflow that will call your Component workflow. In the workflow designer, add the Run Component Workflow action at the point in the workflow you want to call the Component workflow. Select the Component workflow you want to run. Select to either Wait for Component workflow to complete before continuing. Run both workflows concurrently.         5. Publish the parent workflow. Related Linkshttps://help.nintex.com/en-US/o365/o365/O365WorkFlow/CreatingWorkflows/UseComponentWorkflow.htmhttps://help.nintex.com/en-US/o365/o365/O365WorkFlow/WorkflowActions-

TopicWhen making a change to the permissions of an item, and attempting to set the custom configured level created in SharePoint Online. Admin is unable to locate the new group under the permission drop down or in the advanced lookup feature under the "custom permissions" field.  InstructionsAfter you have created your custom permission set and name it, you have to manually type the name of the custom permission into the corresponding field in the action.  Having this field populated will override the selected permission set for this item. Additional Information  Related Linkshttps://community.nintex.com/t5/Blog/Introducing-quot-custom-permissions-quot-within-Office-365/ba-p/105677?lightbox-message-images-105677=5540iF97E14A4B5A301A8  

TOPICHow to use custom fonts in the CSS of Nintex Forms for Office 365.INSTRUCTIONSOpen the Nintex Forms designer from the list ribbon. Open Forms Settings and expand Custom CSS. Add your custom font like the example below: @import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Indie+Flower');   .custom-indie-font {  font-family: 'Indie Flower';  } Add the new CSS class (custom-indie-font) to the control on your form.ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONRELATED LINKS

QUESTIONWhat are Nintex best practices for handling Workflow Throttling?ANSWERReduce the number of operations per request:  When multiple workflows are running at the same time, if workflows are waiting for a wake-up event, make sure that this event will only affect the workflow running on the current item. Example: When using the Wait for Event in List Item action; if any item on the list is interacted with, workflows waiting on this action will wake up, resulting in a high number of calls being made to the SharePoint environment. The preferred alternative would be using an action like Wait for Field Change in Current Item. This action will only wake up the workflow instance if the item it is running on is interacted with instead of any item on the list. Breaking workflow definition into smaller parts, and calling these child workflows through the Start Workflow action. This will help reduce the number of requests per workflow instance. Reduce the frequency of calls: If loops a

TopicHow to add tags to templates InstructionsTo tag a Microsoft Word or Microsoft PowerPoint template Open the Nintex Document Tagger: In the Document Generation action, select the template you want and then click Tag document. In the template, place your cursor where you want the tag to appear. Do one of the following to add the tag to the template To insert a tag: In the Nintex Document Tagger, select the tag you want. The tag is inserted where the cursor was positioned in the document. To copy a tag: In the Nintex Document Tagger, to the right of the tag, click the icon  and then click Copy.The tag is copied to your clipboard and appears where you paste it   To tag a Microsoft Excel template Open the Nintex Document Tagger: In the Document Generation action, select the template you want and then click Tag document. In the template, select the cell or range of cells that you want to tag. In the Nintex Document Tagger, select the tag you want. The tag is copied to your cli

TopicSorting items in a List Lookup control on Nintex Forms. InstructionsCreate a List View on the source list that is configured to display and order the items as desired. In the Nintex Forms designer, navigate to the configuration for the List Lookup control > General > Source View. Type the name of the desired list view in this field.

TopicWhen filling out a Nintex Form that has a currency control connected to a currency list column, the form can be submitted if the end-user inputs any character.  This is problematic as SharePoint only allows integers and periods to be entered in this column type. InstructionsSet up the currency control validation with regular expressions using the following expression:^[. 0-9]+$Additional Information

TopicHow to get the Display Name instead of the Login ID for the "Manager" property using "userProfileLookup" runtime in Nintex Form for Office 365  InstructionsUse the following runtime function:    userProfileLookup(replace(userProfileLookup("Employee Email", "Manager"), "i:0#.f\|membership\|", ""), "PreferredName") 

TopicHow to authenticate the DocuSign connection from Nintex Workflow for Office 365?InstructionsWithin the DocuSign actions, there is an 'Authorizing user' field. DocuSign will send an authentication email to the user specified in the 'Authorizing user' field. Once they authenticate Nintex for Office 365, the app will stay authenticated until the workflow is updated and re-published, at which point another authentication email will be sent.Additional InformationWhat happens in the authorization process?When the action runs, an email with the below content is sent to the email address selected for the Authorizing user.From: notification@nintexlive.comSubject: Contains phrases "Nintex Live" and "Request authorization".Contents: Contains links to authorize or deny the operation.When the link to provide authorization is clicked the user is prompted to do the following: a. Log in to the external service. b. Allow Nintex Live to access the external service. c. Option to stop receiving futur

TopicWhen using the "Query List" action in Nintex Workflow for Office 365, with a Filter that is equal to a variable that has an empty string. The query will return 0 results even though there are some item(s) with an empty string value on one of the columns. InstructionsDesign the workflow as below:Use the "Conditional branch" action to check whether a variable is empty or not. If the variable is empty then use "Query List" with Filter = Is Null. If the variable is not empty then use "Query List"  with Filter = "Variable".  

TopicHow to update the list column with a data type Person or Group (allow multiple value) with an empty value using Nintex Workflow for Office 365.  InstructionsOpen a Nintex Worklfow for Office 365 designer.  Create a "Collection" variable Drag and drop the "Set Workflow Variable" action. Configure this action and set it to update the Collection variable (created in step 1) with value as below Equals : List Lookup Source : Current Item Field : <Column List of Person or Group>. Note: Choose the list column of Person or Group (allow multiple value) that need to be updated.  Drag and drop "Clear Collection" action. Configured the action to clear the Collection variable (created in step 1). Drag and drop "Update List Item" action to update the desired Person or Group (allow multiple value) column list by setting the value with the collection variable (created in step 1).  Publish the workflow.  

TopicHow to elevate the permissions for the workflow initiator who does not have sufficient permissions to write to the log history in the list?  InstructionsUse an "Action Set" action to elevate the permissions. Additional InformationHelp File Action Set 

TopicHow to best avoid throttle events due to looping within Nintex Workflow for Office 365. InstructionsBest practices to avoid throttlingReduce the number of operations per request:  When multiple workflows are running at the same time, if workflows are waiting for a wake-up event, make sure that this event will only affect the workflow running on the current item. Example: When using the Wait for Event in List Item action; if any item on the list is interacted with, workflows waiting on this action will wake up, resulting in a high number of calls being made to the SharePoint environment. The preferred alternative would be using an action like Wait for Field Change in Current Item. This action will only wake up the workflow instance if the item it is running on is interacted with instead of any item on the list. Breaking workflow definition into smaller parts, and calling these child workflows through the Start Workflow action. This will help reduce the number of requests per

TopicHow to create a SharePoint Group in Office 365 environment, and then use that group as a "Participant" in a Task action.   InstructionsGo to Site Setting > People and Group. Add New Group. After the group is created, click Add New User to add member of the Group.