Workflow Design question on Frequently updated SharePoint Lists

J
Badge +3

We have a SharePoint list that has list items created and updated frequently.  However, we only need a workflow started when the value of 1 sharepoint list column is equal to "Needs Review".


Users will create and update the list item many, many times, finally they are ready for the list item to be reviewed with approvals.  How would you approach the design?


Sure, it is very easy to have a workflow started with list item created or updated, but 90% of those workflows don't need to be created (unless the column value = "Needs Review").  To me it doesn't make sense to add that overhead to the K2 server and create all those workflows whenever a list item is created/updated, when I really only need a workflow when the list item column has value "Needs Review".


Anyone have any ideas for a design approach on my question above?  Using K2 blackpearl, I'm thinking to use K2 Studio to create the workflow, unless you think we need some coding, then I could use the Visual Studio Designer.

4 replies

J
Badge +6

I’ve not tested this senario before.


You can write a   Event handler on the list or document library (item updated / updating)., which checks the column value and if the column value is “need for review”, then it starts K2 workflow using K2 object model.


This approach requires 2 components


1.       Event Handler to start the K2 workflow based on column value , which is sharepoint feature


http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms437502.aspx


http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms475328.aspx


2.       K2 workflow , this can be designed in K2 stuido or visual studio

S
Badge +6

I agree with the previous response. Best approach would be to have a custom event handler that triggers the K2 workflow based on your conditions.

J
Badge +3

#1 - thank you so much for the reply.


Any ideas to get this done without writing custom sharepoint code?  Our SharePoint IT owners don't allow that.


Maybe a different look at the situation.  Do you think it really causes lots of overhead to the K2 server if we use a line rule to figure out if the SharePoint column = "Need for Review" then continue, else the workflow will end.


In our example, the SharePoint list will have about 1000 items created/updated each week, and really only about 100 of the items each week will have the value "Need for Review" which means the workflow will need the approval process.  Would you go through the custom sharepoint event handler to save the K2 server from the overhead of the 900 "extra" workflows per week???

S
Badge +6

personally, I would go with the event handler approach. You should be able to convince the SharePoint IT owners because K2 also adds event handlers as part of its installation.

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