Skip to main content

I have a 3 level approval process which I have split into three O365 workflows, one workflow for each approver. I did this for flexibility, such as changing an approver if needed before their task is created, and also to have workflows complete as quickly as possible instead of running for extended periods waiting for all approvals. 

 

The first approval workflow triggers upon item creation, and if it is approved it updates a Status column to “Pending Level 2 Approval”. This works fine.

 

The second approval workflow successfully triggers under modified condition when Status = Pending Level 2 Approval.

 

The second approval workflow does the exact same thing as the first, upon task approval it updates a SharePoint status column to “Pending Level 3 Approval” (there is a condition check that will end the approval without needing Level 3 but that shouldn’t matter here).

 

The third approval workflow FAILS to trigger under modified condition when Status = Pending Level 3 Approval.

 

I cannot figure out why the Level 3 approval workflow will not trigger? Especially when the Level 2 workflow does successfully trigger based on the same logic and conditions when the Status changes. My SharePoint “Status” column is a choice type column, though I have tried swapping it out for a single line of text column with no luck.

Here you can see the SharePoint list item version history - a new version is made, and it is getting modified, it is setting the appropriate status, so what is the issue? 

 

First two workflows successful, no sign of the level 3 workflow triggering:

 

Hi @mtburgess ,

You can see that the item is modified by “SharePoint App”.  A workflow will not trigger when an item is updated by a system account. Try running the action as another user.

Thanks @SimonMuntz , how do you go about running the action as another user? Ideally it would be modified by the latest task responder instead of SharePoint app. 

In the version history screenshot if you compare version 3.0 and 5.0 you can see the same things are being modified, the MED Status and Approver comments, but only 5.0 is modified by SharePoint app instead of user. 

The 1st workflow is responsible for version 3.0, it kicks off the 2nd workflow which set version 5.0, and then that’s where it fails to kick off 3rd workflow. 

These workflows are nearly identical, updating list item and exiting the state machine are the last controls of each.

Hi @mtburgess,

Use the O365 Update items action to do the update.  This allows you to specify a user in the credentials in the connection.
https://help.nintex.com/en-US/office365/Designer/Actions/Office365UpdateItems.htm

Did you ever figure out why version 3.0 was modified by the user and version 5.0 by the SharePoint app?  I am facing the same issue. I have a trigger set “on modified” with a condition.  The condition is that a choice column titled “Workflow Trigger” is “Yes”.  

The schedule workflow does update the column value to yes, but the list workflow does not trigger.  I see it was modified by the SharePoint app.  

Hi @tony_monserrate,

As you can see in this thread, workflows will not trigger when the item has been updated by the system account (SharePoint App).
You can use the Office 365 update items actions instead of the Update item action. This will resolve the issue.  Ensure that the workflow being triggered has a pause as the first action.  This will allow time for the scheduled workflow to release the item before the triggered workflow starts operating on the item.


 

Reply


View our Community Site Map

Nintex Community Sitemap
Terms & ConditionsCookie settings