News and Guidelines

Other than sounding a little like a Beatles song title..There is a certain seriousness about this blog post.. THE BUILD STRING ACTION IS COMING TO A CLOUD NEAR YOU... The last time I was this excited, was when I first got SENDMAIL to work on UNIX using noting but VI .  (I've included links for those who want to reminisce about the days before plug and play. ) So, as I was saying - the Build String Action is an old horse in the new Nintex O365 stable along with a heap of other great actions this month. Why the stable analogy? Well I believe the Build String is the dark horse, the grey man, that person you know that never looks for glory or fame, the type of action you need when you're feeling down. The one action that you can depend on when things gets rough, etc. Now for all you on-prem lovers, you know what I'm talking about. The build string action probably features more than once in 98% of your workflows. Well now the O365 lovers have it too. No longer will your data be unloved.. U

This post, is about taking repeating section data and moving it along through various task actions in a workflow.  There is a very simply way to put repeating section data that was filled in, in one task form and moving it to another, allowing another user to edit/delete/add to the repeating section. The first step is to create a Multiple Lines of Text variable.This variable will be used to store the Repeating Section data.Next, we need to add an Assign a Flexi Task action to our workflow, and configure the task form, using Nintex Forms.You'll be presented with the Nintex Forms designer page for the task form.  You'll need to add a Repeating Section to the form, and insert the fields that you want to appear in it.Before you save the form, double-click on the Repeating Section to bring up the settings and in the Connected To property, click on the drop down and you'll see your Nintex Workflow variable.  Select it.You can now save and close the form and also save the Flexi Task action. F

When a workflow errors it’s important to quickly get all the information you need to address that error as soon as possible. This may include data about the workflow, your Nintex and SharePoint configuration, and, in some cases, the Unified Logging Service (ULS) logs.With this in mind, I’d like to introduce Support Console. Support Console is available in the latest release of Nintex Workflow 2010 and 2013, and it’s designed to make it not only easier for you to see when workflows have errored, but quickly and consistently pull together the required information you need to resolve the error. Support Console, accessed via Central Administration in Nintex Workflow, provides you with a single view across workflow errors in your farm and a simple alert that lets you see at a glance how many errors have occurred in the farm in the past 24 hours. As you can see, there is now a single central view of all workflow errors, showing the workflow name, location, workflow initiator and when the err

Hello there.  If you're reading this post, I hope that you had the opportunity to read Part 1: Work Flow Purpose.  and Part 2: WWYSYDH​.  In part two of this series, I introduced the concepts of using the right actions to get the right results.  At the end of it I promised to go even deeper and provide an example Training Calendar solution for you with a list and workflow incorporating what I've been covering in this series.  Well, I did it.  I built it all out, typed this long blog, included screenshots and even remembered to attach the files. I will say this post is rather lengthy, but no solution is good without documentation and I wanted to explain each step so you would learn as you went along.  If you’re as excited as I am…let’s get going! Part 3: Meet Mr. Wilson.Scenario: I had a customer, whom I will call Wilson.  Wilson called me one day with an issue using his workflows.   He had been working on a calendar list for training and was wanting to make it automate notifications wh

Products: Nintex Workflow 2010 Several requests have come through for locating workflows in an environment where an action is used that could potentially have hard coded credentials present. Typically users are encouraged to use Workflow Constants instead of hard coding credentials into a workflow however, sometimes a few workflows slip by. This can make for a tough time when it comes time to migrate to claims. This migration preparation tool can assist with locating these workflows so that stakeholders can update their workflows to utilize Workflow Constants which are much easier to migrate. FeaturesQuickly and easily locate workflows using actions known to use credentials. Provides meta data for each workflow (if available) so users can go directly to the workflow and update it. Requires no configuration to run. Planned FeaturesA port for SharePoint 2013/Nintex Workflow 2013 if there is any interest. Screen Shots 

Introduction Going on with the series of "Adding functions to Nintex Workflows with XLST transformations", here is the Part 2 showing a sample with some new calculations using XLST. You can see the Part 1 here >>> Adding functions to Nintex Workflows with XLST transformations - Sample 1 (SUM) I 'll write about all xlst formulas that can be used in Nintex Workflow and currently are not available as inline functions. Those different formulas will be updated on a common document with all formulas and samples. More samples Now we'll see the following formulas: COUNT FLOOR CEILING ROUND AVG WorkflowSo let's start configuring the action named "Query XML"   On the XML I use   <?xml version='1.0'?> <root>   <expenditure>1000</expenditure>   <expenditure>3000</expenditure>   <expenditure>2000</expenditure> </root>  On the XSLT I use the following template  <?xml version='1.0'?> <xsl:stylesheet version="1

In Making “Work Flow” Matter Part 1, I discussed purpose and the benefits of setting a clear vision for your workflow.  Without a purpose, your workflow can end up being nothing more than a resource constraint on the platform, and no one wants to build that. To honor my commitment to dig deeper with each part of this series, I offer you the below meme for some light humor.  The next part of the series I will simply title “Mr. Action, WWYSYDH? (pronounced Whissidh)”.  Interested?  Keep reading… Part 2: Mr. Action, what would you say you do here?When it comes to workflows, do you know what your workflow actions are actually doing?  This goes beyond the purpose, the logic and the idea or the workflow.  What actions are you using, and are they impacting the object and platform in the correct manner?  I touched on this some in part 1 so let’s go deeper. If you have ever built a complex workflow, you would have at some point experienced that workflow failed to run, or an error message while

There are times that you need to change your Nintex Mobile App to a different site, or use a different account. Especially when you are testing. Look at the document Nintex Mobile Apps Product Guide​ I found some direction about my account and login that I will copy here.  When you sign in to Nintex Mobile apps, your credentials are remembered by the app and will automatically sign you in the next time you launch the app. You can sign in to Nintex Mobile apps on different devices and on different platforms. For instance, you can use the Nintex Mobile app on your Windows 8 laptop as well as on your iPhone at the same time, using the same user account.The Nintex Mobile app supports “roaming” of your data from one device to another one for synced items, i.e. forms which have been submitted to the SharePoint server. Items stored locally to the device, specifically in the Drafts and Outbox folders, are not visible across devices. If you are sharing the mobile device you use for executing

Introduction Some days ago I saw an answer on Nintex Community ( Re: Workflow Number Formatting  )  about how to solve number formattingOne of the replies from Manfred Lauer was about solving it with XSLT using the "Query XML" action. That reply inspired me to start writing about all xlst formulas that can be used in Nintex Workflow and currently are not available as inline functions. I will write some different post with differents formulas and will update a common document with all formulas and samples. First sampleThe first sample is for calculating the Sum of some values WorkflowSo let's start configuring the action named "Query XML" I left the result on the workflow history, where magically we can see the calculated result 

Now, it is a widely known fact that most people around the world dislike Vegemite.Except of course if you're Australian... We can’t get enough of the black sticky left over bits of the beer brewing process.Well I can safely say that this month I have something that everyone one will like digesting... With the releases notes out, this month’s O365 action drop adds the long awaited Site Collection provisioning actions. For those still thinking about Vegemite;Time to get your mind out of the pantry and focus on these two actions for a minute or two and pop yourself into the shoes of the PMO team or SharePoint Online admin.Adoption of SharePoint Online has been fantastic within the business - so much so, creating new sites and site collections has become a bit of a chore and bottleneck and the request are starting to bank up.Enter the self-service function for the PMO to create new Program Management Site Collections as a method to secure their project sites with their own Program Site Col

Products: Nintex Workflow 2013, Nintex Workflow 2010 A request came in for how to dynamically update a content type via Nintex Workflow. The person wanted to update a content type field based on the values of items in a list. Below you will find a PowerShell script that can be used with NTX PowerShell action: NTX PowerShell Action - Initial Beta Release PowerShell Script Add-PSSnapin microsoft.sharepoint.powershell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue   $_web = Get-SPWeb http://contoso.com   $_field = $_web.Fields | where {$_.Title -match 'TitleOfTargetField'}   $_ct = $_web.ContentTypes | where {$_.Name -match 'NameOfTargetContentType'}   $_field.Choices.Clear()   foreach ($item in $_web.Lists['TitleOfSourcelist'].Items){   $_field.Choices.Add($item.Title)   }   $_field.Update()   foreach ($usage in [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContentTypeUsage]::GetUsages($_ct)){   $list = $web.GetList("$($web.Url)$($usage.Url)")   if($usage.I

There are times when you need to build a workflow that goes up the management chain, assigning tasks.  With the Query User Profile action in Office 365, you can now start building that logic into your workflow. Workflow Design  How It Works I started off this workflow with initializing some variables.  The first one will be used in the condition for the loop and the second, simply stores the current initiators email address in a variable because we can reuse that through the loop. The only reason I'm using a State Machine in this workflow, is so that it's easier for me to take a screenshot of it and also to break up some of the workflow logic. It's the right branch that does most of the workflow.  We are looking at going up the management chain, use data from the User Profile service.  The Loop action is what allows us to keep querying the user profile and it does this, based on the value of a yes/no (boolean) variable called boolContinue.  If it's set to "yes", which we did in the Ini

Why this article?Because the Related Item column is not yet available in the Nintex Form in O365. This article is a follow-up to Delegation in O365In my workflow, I really want to display the link to the document that needs approval in the task.So, I decide to validate the Delegated action by checking if DelegatedTo is empty of not in the SharePoint Form.In SharePoint 2013, the EditForm.aspx contains a Javascript validation function called PreSaveItem().The trick here is to use this name to execute your own code. Note that the PreSaveItem() function of SharePoint will still run. I need to validate only if the Content Type is Workflow Approve. But this field is not displayed if there is only one Content Type.That is why I am also testing the empty value in the following lineif (strContentType == "Workflow Approve" || strContentType === '') In my case, I have choosed to use the Person or Group column type.In SharePoint, you cannot test a Person or Group column like a Single text column.W

Products: Nintex Workflow 2013, Nintex Workflow 2010 Sometimes it can be helpful to replicate the page load behavior of the Nintex Workflow Support Console for troubleshooting purposes. This PowerShell script emulates the SQL Database queries that can potentially cause the page to timeout on loading. Here is an example error message thrown when loading the Support Console page: "Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding."  Running this PowerShell script should produce meaningful exceptions if there is an issue with loading the Nintex Workflow Support Console (assuming it is a SQL Client timeout issue). PowerShell Script Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint") [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Nintex.Workflow") [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("N

Do drop bears exist? NO.. Of course not, that is just something Australian’s tell tourists   But can you query the SharePoint Online User Profile service from Nintex O365 ? Well YES, yes you can..This month’s drop of O365 actions from the team at Nintex looks a little like this:Query User Profile Terminate Workflow End Workflow Hazzah I hear you say. Yup, I’m pretty happy as well.For those of you still scratching head trying to think of the significance of this Nintex O365 drop, let me break it down.Query User ProfileYou have an internal purchase order workflow, and to make it as seamless as possible, you can now use the Query User Profile service to lookup the Initiators address / office location via the profile rather than having it to manually entered. But one of the most probable scenarios is that you want to assign a task to the initiators Manager seamlessly. Without the need to ask or to do any other type of lookup or master list of line managers etc. Terminate Workflow Instances

SummaryNintex Forms does not currently offer an out-of-the-box method to print a Nintex Form. By adding a custom JavaScript button, you will be able to print the form. ResolutionNote: As Nintex Forms does not have a supported printing method, the print output may render differently than the screen output. Add a Nintex 'Button' control to the form and apply the following:Button Action: JavaScript Button Type: Button Button label: Print Client Click: window.print(); 

My development license happened to expire and I was able to get an updated file from support. I followed the instructions Importing a license / Adding new servers  in order to update my environment with the new license but it didn't seem to take. The license updated fine in Central Admin, but my site still had the red message that the license was expired. After a long time spent to make sure everything was in place and correct, the resolution came down to an IIS Reset. Immediately after this, all sites were up and running as expected.

Products: SharePoint 2010/2013 Recently a case came in where the company needed to locate where a feature had been activated within a specific Web Application as it was causing troubles with a Web.Config file. We were able to use this script to locate the sites with the features enabled. Run the below (attached as well as a *.txt file for your convenience) PowerShell script (PowerShell ISE works well) from a SharePoint Server:PowerShell Script foreach ($site in $(Get-SPWebApplication http://yourUrl).Sites) {         foreach ($feature in $site.Features)         {                 if ($feature.DefinitionId -match [Guid]'00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000')                 {                         $site                 }         } }  Usage: Replace http://yourUrl with the URL of your Web Application. Replace 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 guid with the Guid of the FeatureDefinitionId to be located.  To obtain the FeatureDefinitionId's of all fea

Although somewhat non-trendy nowadays, XML processing is still very much relevant in the SharePoint space. Nintex Workflow is very kind to offer us actions to make Web request or Call web service. It's not obvious, but the Query XML action can do both a GET HTTP request to retrieve some XML data and produce multiple XPath and XSLT outputs in a single action. The native SharePoint owssvr.dll endpoint that exposes the URL Protocol comes in handy when all you need is some selection of data from a SharePoint list or library. It lets you easily filter the data you want both vertically and horizontally: by some Field equals Value condition and a selection of Fields to output (without the clutter that a Lists.asmx web service call necessarily returns). So imagine you only need the people who have pending tasks assigned to them, then you need and format to say:Tell me, in the XML format, (Cmd=Display&XMLDATA=TRUE) who (Query=AssignedTo) has tasks in this list (List={GUID}, for example from

All,We have seen this in many sites that we use daily. I had a similar requirement from users to provide help for the choice that is selected from the Drop Down field. It could be description of the field or something else related to that field. I was just beginning to use Nintex Forms and due to the JScript and CSS capabilities, I wanted to give this a shot. Following things are main components of this solutions:Creating lookup and calculated field. Applying CSS to make a picture button. Generating an Alert with javascript. A - Setup List for lookup and descriptionCreate a list (List1) with 2 columns. Document Type, Description. Add few items in this list.Document Type Description Acceptance Sheet Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus eros diam, posuere sed risus ac, tempus aliquet justo. Curabitur non fermentum pur Assembly Drawing Aliquam bibendum eget libero sit amet condimentum. Nulla blandit sed nunc a malesuada BETA Trials V

Products: Nintex Forms 2013, Nintex Forms 2010 Summary The following error appears when loading up Nintex Forms Designer and is logged in ULS logs: The Expression prefix 'NFResources' was not recognized. Please correct the prefix or register the prefix in the <expressionBuilders> section of configuration. Symptom The following errors appear in the logs:  Cause The issue occurs when the Web Application Feature for Nintex Forms needs to be activated. Resolution Use the following procedure to resolve this issue. 1. On the Central Administration Home page, click Application Management.2. In the Web Applications section, click Manage web applications.3. In the Name column, select the web application on which you want to activate Nintex Forms. For example, select SharePoint -80.4. In the Web Applications ribbon, click Manage Features. The Manage Web Application Features dialog box appears.5. In the Nintex Forms section, click Activate. After a short delay, the dialog box refreshes and

Products: Nintex Forms 2010, Nintex Forms 2013 Summary The following error appears during Forms Installation: An object of the type Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedfile named “NintexForms2010Core.wsp” already exists under the parent Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPSolutionLanguagePack named “0” Rename your object or delete the existing object. An object of the type Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedfile named “NintexForms2013Core.wsp” already exists under the parent Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPSolutionLanguagePack named “0” Rename your object or delete the existing object. Symptom An error is logged in the installer progress window:  Cause The form solutions were only partially deployed to the farm in a previous installation attempt. ResolutionUse the following procedure to resolve this issue. Retract NintexForms.wsp and NintexForms2010Core.wsp (or NintexForms2013Core.wsp) from the farm. Remove NintexForms.wsp and NintexForms2010Core.wsp (or

A case came in the other day where a customer was unsure of what syntax to use when communicating with Exchange 2010. When you load up a 'Provision user in Exchange' action in Nintex Workflow Designer, the mailbox container has an option to browse to the Database via an LDAP Picker control:  If you are using Exchange 2003, using the LDAP picker is perfectly fine. If you are using Exchange 2007/2010/2013 you will run into issues with locating the target Mailbox Database. Instead of using the values the LDAP picker populates, consider using the browser to only retrieve the name of the database and populate the 'Mailbox container' field with this value:  If this action is not configured accordingly you will likely see error messages in your ULS logs that are similar to this: Category: (Legacy) Workflow InfrastructureLevel: Unexpected System.ApplicationException: Provisioning user on Exchange 2010 failed. Check the event logs on the Exchange 2010 server to determine the cause.     at Ninte

Products: Nintex Workflow 2013, Nintex Workflow 2010, Nintex Forms 2013, Nintex Forms 2010 SummaryMenus are not visible in Central Administration after installing or updating Nintex Workflow or Nintex Forms. SymptomAfter an install or update of Nintex Workflow or Forms, management menus are missing from Central Administration. Cause Admin features are not enabled on the Central Administration Web Application. Resolution Open a SharePoint PowerShell session. For Forms: Run this Cmdlet: Enable-SPFeature -Identity "NintexFormsAdminWeb" -Url http://CentralAdminURL For Workflow: Enable-SPFeature -Identity "NintexWorkflowAdmin" -Url http://CentralAdminURL

There are times when too many emails go back and forth. When you have a primary and secondary approver, the secondary may not have to approve anything very often because the primary approver may not miss much work. If that is the case, the secondary approver is bombarded by emails for no reason. You can set up for the secondary to receive emails only after so many days, hours, etc. Doing this can reduce all of those unnecessary emails and only notify the secondary approver if for some reason the primary approver hasn't completed a task in x amount of time. To do this, perform the following: Open the Assign Flexi task action Make sure the primary and secondary are in the 'Assignee' on the 'Action' tab Click on the Task Notification tab Click on the dropdown for 'Edit Settings for' and select the secondary approver Click on 'None' for the 'Delivery Type' Click on the 'Reminder' tab and set how many reminders need to be sent and the time between reminders You do not have to set the second