News and Guidelines

I appear to come across the same scenario time and time again.  A request of some sort is made.  It goes through one or multiple lines of approval.  Whilst it is in the approval process the item is set to read only so that no amendments can be made while it is in review.  Upon final approval, the item/document is updated to reflect the approved/rejected status.  The permissions on the item at that point do not allow for this update.  Or upon approval an item is added to another list that the “initiator” does not have access to contribute to.  So I thought I would discuss the different options that can be used for dealing with permissions inside a workflow:Set item permissionsThis action allows you as the workflow designer to decide to inherit or create unique permissions on the current item on which the workflow is running.  This works well in state machine workflows where the permissions at each state need to change (i.e. the current approver needs

We recently upgraded Nintex Forms for SharePoint 2013 and have found suddenly that some forms that have been published and unchanged for ages and broken and won't open in any mode (new, edit or view) because of corrupt or broken people picker fields. The uls logs showed an error similar to:Error=Object reference not set to an instance of an object.   at Nintex.Forms.SharePoint.FormControls.PeoplePickerFormControl.EditModeDataBinding(String value)     at Nintex.Forms.SharePoint.FormControls.PeoplePickerFormControl.OnFormControlDataBinding(Object sender, EventArgs e)     at System.Web.UI.WebControls.CompositeControl.DataBind()     at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBindChildren()     at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind(Boolean raiseOnDataBinding)     at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBindChildren()The fix came after a call with the amazing Nintex Support (Kavin) who told us to do the following with the people picker controls in question:Ch

In relation to the announcement made by Microsoft regarding SharePoint 2010 workflow retirement for Microsoft 365, Nintex Workflow for Office 365 is not impacted by the SharePoint 2010 workflow retirement. To note:Nintex Workflow for Office 365 is not impacted as it does not leverage the SharePoint 2010 workflow engine to run its workflows. Nintex Workflow On Premises is not impacted as the retirement only applies to Microsoft / Office 365 platform. For more information or assistance, please reach out to Nintex Support.

What is the real calorie burn needed to make my documents automated? This is always a fair question I consider when I demonstrate Nintex Drawloop for Salesforce. “I have a unique scenario.” “We have a complex data model.” “You probably can’t do this.” All fair statements. The truth is… the answer to the calorie burn may be simpler than anticipated.  Let’s talk about those quotes… Statement: “I have a unique scenario.”Response: As all scenarios are different typically the approach is always the same. I need a document generated with data that exists in a system of record like Salesforce and it needs to be delivered in a specific way like eSign, emailed or stored. Shuffle the deck with any process and the story is different but we are all play with the same cards. Meaning we hard a feature f

Ever been in a situation where you need some randomized test data? “Test One” living at “123 Fake St” can only get you so far. Luckily, Nintex RPA can help you generate real-looking randomized data! This blog will cover how you can use Nintex RPA to create randomized data. What’s Out of the Box    There are a ton of randomized tokens available out of the box, which are all accessible through the Expression Builder (the “magic wand” looking icon). Just like any other token, these random tokens can be used anywhere you need to, such as in a Send Value action or Set Variable. Since there are so many, I won’t go over each of them but I’ll highlight some of the ones I use most: Random First Name and Random Last Name This goes

Following on from this question Need to Copy a repeating section from a List-item to a repeating section to a different List-item?‌  raised by Pam Lewis‌ i thought i would blog my solution in case there were others with the same requirement. Requirement: ListA - Title column and repeating section.ListB - Title column, lookup column and repeating section. Create an item in ListA, update a repeating section with info as required. Save.Create an item in ListB, from a lookup control, select the relevant item from ListA and the repeating section on ListB will be populated from the repeating section data from ListA. Form from ListA:The repeating section control is connected to a plain text multiline of text column.The first text control in the repeating section

A few days ago, I released a custom field type called "Nintex Repeating Section Data" for SharePoint 2013 to simplify how you can display of the repeating sections in SharePoint List Views without the need of creating complex workflows. If you haven't checked that yet, please refer to my blog post.     After the amazing feedback I received from the Nintex Connect Community as well as Nintex fans on

Yebo you read the title right  So this workaround will assist you in either deleting or restoring a previous version of a Nintex Form for Office 365 using SharePoint Designer 2013.  Author Palesa Sikwane‌ Long Description This is a little workaround that can assist you in setting deleting a broken Nintex form or restoring the previous version of a Nintex Form, on Office 365 using SharePoint Designer Dependencies Nintex Workflow 365 SharePoint Online SharePoint Designer 2013

As part of the recent upgrade in Nintex Promapp has implemented support for the SAML (Security Assertion Mark Up Language) conditions as part of its Single Sign-on functionality.  These conditions improve the security of single sign-on and ensure that claims generated by your Identity Provider can not be replayed by another party to gain access to your Promapp site.  The conditions supported include the time period that a claim is valid, whether that claim can be replayed, and specifying the intended audience for claim. For more details, see the Single Sign-on help article or our Release Notes.   What are the impacts?As part of any upgrade we thoroughly test Promapp’s adherence to the SAML pr

Nintex Workflow Visio Shape Collection - Initial ReleaseCheck out the asset in   - Nintex Workflow Visio Stencil Sheet   FeaturesEasy to mock up workflow designs in Visio prior to development work. OpenSource  Actively Developed 148 Shapes Nintex Workflow 2016 Shapes Easily installed (Installation instructions here)Planned FeaturesLabels for each shape Additional Icons for other products  Screen Shots 

The other day I overheard someone needing to encode/decode a URL string inside of a Nintex Workflow (and again at the Nintex 2017 InspireX during a presentation on Azure Functions). Presently this is a non-trivial task (more information here), so I decided to simplify the process a bit by creating a set of REST web service endpoints that would handle the encoding/decoding process.These web services can easily be called from the Nintex Workflow Web Request actions in On premises products as well as O365.To use these web service endpoints, configure a 'Web Request' action to POST application/json content to these endpoints:Encode: http://swunaapi.azurewebsites.n

Hello, **********I strongly suggest you review Repeating section as html tableIts easier and more efficient than this.********** I've been searching alot for something simple to convert or decode the xml that is generated from the repeated section into a plain text. most of the blogs uses UDA and some complex workflows to do that. but i managed to make a simple workflow and some extra controls on Nintex forms to get the text i needed. it may not be the optimal solution for most cases, but for me, its just what i need  as a start, create two list columns type of Multiple lines of text "plain text" 

Any Drawloop user in the Salesforce ecosystem knows that Nintex can deliver powerful document automation using data in Salesforce. This automation typically includes point-to-point value to document merging. However, there is sometimes a need to go beyond what is simply stored within Salesforce and deliver aggregates, grouping or charting of data. Drawloop does have the ability to preserve native MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint charts within a template. Drawloop can feed raw SFDC data into a template and allow a MS Word, Excel or PowerPoint chart to update and reflect the incoming raw data. This is especially powerful when making use of pivot charts or tables.  To make this work, you must first push the raw data to your template. In our example, the template is in excel. The raw SFDC report data is going to be pushe

What is the status of this? At what stage is that? Who is taking so long to sign? Where did this go? Why did this get sent back? All common questions one can get during any business process. When adding Nintex automation to any process the process is accelerated. As a regular user when asked one of the above questions what is the answer you give? How do you find out at what stage the process is at if you are not a Nintex admin? The answer is simpler than you would think. With Nintex Workflow Cloud or NWC you connect different systems of record and add automation where human interaction gets in the way. For example lets look at a quote to cash process.  The data is in Salesforce and pushed into a document for esignature. Prior to the signature there is an approval/redline process. Once approved the document is auto

Whether you are looking at digitally transforming your business to electronic forms, building workflows, generating documents or automating desktop manual processes through RPA, ROI is an important factor.  A solid digital transformation plan, will not only include the processes that you should automate, but also the best of breed tools you should use, and the cost of not only licensing, but the savings your business will achieve through this transformation. In this post, I'll endeavor to cover a few things to think about, that most companies aren't thinking about during thei digital transformation journey. Crowdsourcing understanding your businessWhether large or small, you are probably underestimating how many processes occur, in order for your business to run every day.  There is knowledge in t

To import Excel sheet into SharePoint list , We can use Query Excel Services Action with Collection operation . Requirements : 1. Excel file has "No" Null columns.2. SharePoint List3. Controls : Set Variable, Query Excel Services, For Each, Collection operation, Create item. Step 1 :Set Variable of Max Row needs to be imported. step 2: Use Query Excel Services Control as below  Use credentials to login to site , Workbook path should be an absolute path with sheet name Cells to retrieve is from and to rows  store in collection variable. step 3: For each loop with run if and collection operation and create item Foreach :

Since adding the Geolocation control into Nintex Forms, I've been getting a lot of questions around other geo-coding information and how to incorporate it into a business process.  This post is actually about a particular process where we use Nintex Workflow, but incorporating a Nintex Form into this would really help things out and make this process very interesting.  The User Defined Action (UDA) in this post, will take a known place or address (preferably, use an address), and it will give you the Latitude and Longitude.  This is actually part of a bigger process which I will talk about in a future blog post. Requirements In order to get the Latitude and Longitude, I chose to talk to the

See post on SimplifyingProcesses.com Being a kid of the 90s, I have fond memories of the choose your own adventure books. As much fun as those books could be, that same type of experience in process management is not ideal. Processes which are broad in scope and contain numerous exceptions quickly render themselves useless for the front line workers in the business who rely on concise and accurate knowledge to perform their jobs well. Below we will identify various categories of exceptions and propose exception management techniques specific to Promapp – the process management platform by Nintex. Categories of exceptionsGiven

Scenario: We have two lookup column . Column A contains Country and Column B contains Sites.Based on country selection sites will get filter out .Issue: Since Sites contains duplicates value , in drop-down also it get visible.Solution: 1. In nintex form , save client id for the column B dropdown in nintex form. In below code client id is "txtsite".Then using $("select[id="+txtsite+"]>option") we get all list of values in dropdown .On "Mousedown" event , create array and check each value of dropdown , if value is already in array remove value otherwise add value to array. Once all check has been done, assign back the array to control value. <script type="text/javascript">//<![CDATA[ NWF$(document).ready(function(){    NWF$("#"+txtsite).on('mousedown',function(){var usednames={};$("select[id="+txtsite+"]>opti

When you start to go down your automation journey a common thing exists. You have parts of the same exact process in many different scenarios. Nintex has a way to avoid recreating the same work over and over. Simply Call another workflow. A way of solving this exists in all environments of workflow. Here is an example… You have hundreds of different contracts you send out. You want to automate the entire process. The first half of this process is always different depending on the use-case… Starting Event or How the process is started? (Forms, CRM, Time Based, Etc…) Systems used Contract used… The list could go on. But in a scenario like this there usually is a common part of the process. The delivery.  Without this feature I am talking about… Y

On this new October release, the "send notification" action have brought two new features that will bring some new capabilites to your Office 365 scenario.Mails can now be sent to external emails Mails can now contain multiple attachementsFrom the release date of this new version, when you will upgrade your app on your tenant, you have this frame that will open Lets make a deep dive in it. Everything we are going to talk about today is the "send an email" Action!                         So let's take a look at the difference between the previous and the new version. basically graphically, you  will see a new parameter below the "Subject"  line. This will allow you to add Email Attachmnents in your email. 

Let's take a look at the configuration and the functionality of Workflow Tagging. We'll start in Nintex Workflow Cloud Settings. You should see a new entry called Tags.The first option you will not is 'Allow workflow designer to create tags'. This will be On by default in all tenants and refers to the ability for the designer role to create tags.Add new tags by putting a name and selecting a colour from the Nintex Spring Summer pastel colour palette.With all your tags in place, you can now assign tags to workflows, workflo

The ProblemI recently had a customer ask how they could theme document templates based on certain criteria in a workflow without having to maintain multiple templates. As you can probably imagine, having to update multiple templates when content changes could present a variety of issues. The SolutionUsing Nintex Workflow Cloud to start from, I setup a botflow in Nintex RPA to tweak the looks of the main template for each run of the workflow. Watch this quick video here:  The botflow takes advantage of Word's built in "Theme" functionality. The botflow simply opens the Word document, adjusts the Theme based on the input variable from the workflow, and saves it. Then the workflow continues on to generate the document with the new theme. In my example I kept it simple with an input form, but of course that "Theme" could be determine

The Nintex Xtensions framework will allow developers to build custom connectors, using their own preferred code and development environment. Developers will be able to integrate any functionality that is accessible via a REST web call, through secure connection (HTTPS), in the Nintex Cloud Workflow Designer. Using tools like Windows Azure Serverless functions or Amazon Web Services, developers will be able to make their custom connectors available to workflow designers in their Nintex Workflow Cloud tenant. To add a connector to your Nintex Workflow Cloud tenant, follow these steps: Note: In order to access Xtensions within Nintex Workflow Cloud, a user will need to have the Developer role assigned. Open your Nintex Workflow Cloud tenant, and then click Xtensions in the dashboard (left pane). Click on the 

There are many examples of files and documents languishing in legacy or onpremises containers and being manually dragged and dropped or browse upload to an end repository. Invoices scanned or emailed to a central location, bills of sale dropped off in the mail, certificates of authentication, transaction receipts and so on.Take a look at your email inbox. In the last week there’s probably been a PDF you’ve received or a spreadsheet you’ve been sent to update or simply store somewhere in the cloud to then work on or share elsewhere as best practice. I believe digitally transforming these use cases should be quick and easy but truly transformational to the business implementing them.So how can we get from the legacy to the cloud, particularly when it comes to documents and files. We’ve seen Nintex RPA Run Workflow explained before, if you haven’t here’s an example - https://youtu.be/UROFnETC