New list columns missing from workflow start event options - How do I force a refresh?

D

How do I force a workflow start event to refresh so that newly added list columns can be used? 

 

I've opened/closed the workflow, opened/closed the start event, clicked the start events connection refresh button, clicked the start events retrieve lists button, changed the start event list & then changed it back... none of these things seem to do anything...  am I missing something?

 

It'd be nice if there was a 'refresh list' button inside the start event options (and any other applicable actions)... with some sort of confirmation that the refresh has occurred...

 

Thanks.

11 replies

Garrett
Userlevel 6
Badge +16

Hi @DaveF 


 


I manage to get the updated column by creating a new SPO connection ("SPO2")



Then update the SharePoint action to use the new connection



 


If I revert back to the first connection ("SPO1"), NWC displays a alert - Unconfigured item



The new column "Department" is not recognized by the first connection ("SPO1")



 


Hope that helps


 


 

Garrett
Userlevel 6
Badge +16

Hi @DaveF 


 


Was my suggestion of any help?  Please let me know, so I can see if I'm able to assist further.

D

@Garrett  Thanks for the reply, but I don't think we were referring to the same thing... 


 


After building out most of my workflow, I had to add a new column/field to the list that's used in my start event to trigger the workflow...   after adding it though, the start event & the 'Update item' actions in my workflow weren't showing the new field that was added to the list... 


 


Eventually the new field showed up though...   I'm pretty sure it happened after I switched the 'Start Event > Event' option from "SharePoint - New or update item" to "SharePoint - New list item", and then back to "SharePoint - New or update item"...  this doesn't seem like an ideal way to get the list values to refresh though... as it temporarily break all the actions in the workflow... luckily everything was fine after I switched the 'Event' back to what it was initially.

Garrett
Userlevel 6
Badge +16

Hi @DaveF 


Thank for sharing.


 


My Start Event is Nintex Form. I created the initial connection "SPO1" to my SPO List.


Later I added a new column "Department" to the SPO List. Initially I wasn't able to access to the Department column however I am able to do so today (after 2 week). - there seems to be some time delay to "fetch" the new column.


 


After adding the column, I re-connected SPO1, but the Department column was not available.


Then I created another connection "SPO2" and immediately was able to access the new column.


This method also break all SharePoint actions in the workflow and I need to reconfigure all those actions.


 


In summary,


@DaveF manage to get updated SPO List column by switching back and forth the Start Event (Great solution)


@Garrett manage to get the update SPO List column by creating a new SPO connection however this will break the workflow (Painful)


@Garrett states that the original connection eventually gets the update SPO List column but the time delay is uncertain for the moment

Gavin-Adams
Userlevel 4
Badge +12

thanks for posting on this @Garrett 


I had the exact same problem yesterday.


 


@butlerj could you highlight this issue to the relevant NWC project manager please?


We need a better way to refresh the connection on demand to the sharepoint list for sharepoint online start events without having to reselect the connection type or reselect the list.

butlerj
Userlevel 5
Badge +19

Hey @Gavin-Adams, I've raised this to the two PMs that own the SharePoint Online integration with NWC. Will let you know if they come back with anything (or they might update here)!


 


Cheers! 

Gavin-Adams
Userlevel 4
Badge +12

@butlerj thanks for the quick followup on this one.


Looking forward to an update from the PMs.


 


Cheers,
Gavin

Gavin-Adams
Userlevel 4
Badge +12

So...


@DaveF @Garrett 


I had this problem again today,


I went back out of the designer to the NWC dashboard. (FYI I'm using chrome)


DId a Ctrl-F5 to force refresh the page.


Went back into the workflow design and the new columns appeared on the actions.


 

_
Badge +2

Hi Gavin,


 


Thanks for raising this.



We have a few caches at play here that cause this behaviour. A common fix is indeed Ctrl+Shift+R to refresh. It doesn't always help though, and we're going to investigate this a little more later in the quarter.


 


Would you mind letting us know when the Ctrl+shift+R (refresh) does not fix your issue?

J

Ctrl+Shift+R resolved a related issue I had for this. I was using a workflow action for a document library and clicked the "Retrieve Lists" button in the workflow action assuming my newly created document library would appear. When I clicked the Ctrl+Shift+R button (after saving my workflow) then the newly created document library all of a sudden appeared in the list.


 


Ctrl+Shift+R is such a non-intuitive solution to this problem.


 


Good UI design would dictate that if a user clicks on the "Retrieve Lists" button in any of these workflow actions, that NWC actually does a real-time query of the names of the lists and libraries in the connection. Clearly, it's not doing that and is instead just pulling up some cached list that doesn't update itself.

B
Badge +8

I was having the same issue and toggling the Start Event action did the refresh I was looking for and now the new column in the SharePoint Online list shows up.  Thanks for the support!

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