Pull data from SharePoint Online list and display it on task form
Here’s what I’m trying to do: I have a workflow that adds data to a list in SharePoint Online. I also have a Scheduled Start workflow that is going to run weekly and pull (query) data from the SharePoint list based on certain criteria.
Later in the Scheduled Start workflow is an assigned task. What I’d like to do is have that task form display some of the data (i.e., from selected columns in the list), allow the assignee to make changes to it, and then write those changes back to the list.
I know there is kind of a way to do something like this using XML and stuff, but it requires that a SharePoint Online start event be used. I have no need for such an event and don’t know how I’d use it in this scenario anyway.
I’m open to alternatives to the above. But I’d like it if the task responder could update multiple SharePoint list items with one task.
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Hi @DavidAD,
Hope you have been well. Of course, there are many ways to achieve a solution; it just depends on how you think about it or how complex you want to make it.
This is how I would approach this one.
As the workflow starts on a schedule and does a query, I assume that the query would always be the same; it's just looking for a due date or something. As this is the case, I would use a data source that uses the same query.
Display the data source in the repeating section of the task form.
When the task is submitted, loop through the repeating section and update each row in the SharePoint list regardless of whether it has been changed by the task assignee or not.
I hope this helps.
Thanks, @SimonMuntz! The way you describe it is pretty much what I have in mind. And, thanks to your suggestion and the Nintex help documentation, I’ve made some significant progress. However, I’ve hit a roadblock.
My repeating section is successfully pulling in two of the four fields I’m aiming for:
Those first four fields are supposed to be filled with the external data query results. As you can see, the second and fourth ones (Branch/department and Suggested action plan) are not populating.
I should note that the names of my form fields are Branch or department and Action plan respectively, so that they match the names of the SharePoint list columns. For example:
I know this is how it should work because the two fields that are successfully populating are set up the same way.
This is the data from the query:
I’m assuming there is some kind of naming convention I’m not accounting for, because the two fields that are populating are pulling data from columns that SharePoint creates automatically (the Employee name is the Title column, and the Item ID is the list item number). The two fields that are not populating are columns I created. I wondered if I needed to account for the spaces between words, so I tried this:
But that’s not working either. Any suggestions for how I can get these two fields to populate as they should?
Ha! I typed all that, posted it, and then figured it out.
For the benefit of others, it is the naming convention that needs to be accurate, as I guessed. To find out what it is, go to the List settings of the SharePoint list, then click on the column name in the Columns section. Look at the end of the page URL. The text following “Field=” is the page's internal name. Copy that and paste it into the Name field of your form control.
In the example above, the Name was supposed to be Actionplan. When I used that, the text pulled in to my repeating section just fine.
