Workaround: Append Changes to Existing Text

  • 5 October 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 150 views
J
Badge +4

Hi Nintexers,

 

I just wanted to share a simple workaround for the missing support of the "Append Changes to Existing Text" option for Multiline text fields in Nintex Forms for Office 365.

 

Apparently on 26th September Nintex announced that this feature is planned for development, but I can't wait that long... happy.png Support lists with versioning turned on and where "Append Changes to Existing Text" is set to "Yes." – Customer Feedback… 

 

For my solution I was using the new responsive forms but it should work also in the classic ones.

 

What you need

  • Repeating section
  • Multiline text field: Comment/Notes
  • People field: Created by
  • One Rule How to

 

How to

  1. Move Note and Created by field into the Repeating Section which is connected to a SharePoint Multiline text column
  2. Set the default value of the Created by field to "Current User (Display Name)"
  3. Disable the People field
  4. Create a rule for the Multiline text field: When not(Note_Created_By==Current User (Login ID)) Then Disable 

 

Advantages

• Every comment field can be only edited by the user that made the comment otherwise it will be disabled.

• Unlike in SharePoint you can see old comments while editing.

 

Disadvantages

• People can be destructive and delete each others comments.

• You don't get a time stamp like in SharePoint.

 

3 replies

mikeatnationwid
Badge +4

Thank you for this, Jan Asmuth‌.  Have you heard about any updates? 

P
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

Good day guys, here's another workaround i did using a component workflow https://community.nintex.com/t5/Community-Blogs/Using-a-Component-workflow-to-track-the-history-of-an-item/ba-p/88782

J
Userlevel 1
Badge +3

for the o365 responsive form, I was able to replicate the append text that SharePoint already offers, without the use of SharePoint functionality. I was able to achieve this through the use of three variables, one text field, two rich text fields, a label for output, and a rule to set and clear fields.

fields:

  • Comments - text short 
  • CommentsAppended - text long rich
  • CommentsAppended2 - text long rich

label:

  • lblComments

Variables:

  • varcurrentUserDateTime = [Context].[Current user display name] +" ("+ formatdate(dateNow(),"medium")+"):"

This provide the user and time stamp for the comment

  • varCommentsAppended = [Form].[varcurrentUserDateTime]

    + " <i>" + [Form].[Comments]+ "</i>" 

This creates the message with user and time stamp

  • varCommentsAppended2 = [Form].[CommentsAppended]

    + [Form].[CommentsAppended2]

This appends CommentsAppended to CommentsAppended2 for the historical text

Rules:

setCommentsAppended

if

 Comments is filled

then

 CommentsAppended     value   varCommentsAppended

 Comments                     value   ""

 CommentsAppended2  value   varCommentsAppended2

 CommentsAppended    value   ""

 

20584i0A5C9D5BB54C4F80.png20585i18681D08E0D7580C.png20586i5DE9C0F0157406F1.png20587i241E9F81E13101D3.png

 

 

Reply


View our Community Site Map

Nintex Community Sitemap
Terms & ConditionsCookie settings