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How To Prevent Workflow From Triggering Itself

  • Nov 17, 2021 8:12 PM UTC
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I have a workflow that's triggered by an update to a list item in SharePoint Online, but part of my flow is applying an update to the item that triggered the flow so I'm ending up in an infinite loop.  Is there a configuration that would prevent the workflow from triggering itself?  I want it to run whenever a physical user updates an item, but not when the item is updated by the workflow automation.  

Best answer by Gavin-Adams

HI @nmaceyko 

If you are using a nintex form for o365 on the sharepoint list item,

I normally have some logic in the form (eg rule, hidden field, etc) which sets a Boolean value of 'FormUpdated' to yes. That was this field is only set to yes by human interaction.

 

In the start trigger add a condition to only start when 'FormUpdated' = yes.

Then in an action in the workflow update the item to set 'FormUpdated = no.

 

That should filter out the self trigger for you.

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3 replies

Gavin-Adams
Nintex Partner
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  • Answer
  • Nov 17, 2021 8:33 PM UTC

HI @nmaceyko 

If you are using a nintex form for o365 on the sharepoint list item,

I normally have some logic in the form (eg rule, hidden field, etc) which sets a Boolean value of 'FormUpdated' to yes. That was this field is only set to yes by human interaction.

 

In the start trigger add a condition to only start when 'FormUpdated' = yes.

Then in an action in the workflow update the item to set 'FormUpdated = no.

 

That should filter out the self trigger for you.

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  • Author
  • Nov 18, 2021 6:12 PM UTC

Thank you this eventually did work for me but there was one very important setting in the Nintex form designer that needed to be changed before I could get it to work right.  I was having a tough time getting the rule to set the FormUpdated flag to trigger properly upon form load and I finally realized it was because it wasn't configured to run the rules when the form loads, instead it was only running when the user interacted with the form:

 

 

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Gavin-Adams
Nintex Partner
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  • Nov 19, 2021 12:27 AM UTC
That's a great find.
I hadn't seen that setting before.

Thanks for pointing that out.
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