Save Repeating Section Data to SharePoint List and Use Later in Document Generation


I have the need to use a Nintex Workflow Cloud Form and Workflow to collect data and save it to a SharePoint list.  Data will come from multiple users with multiple roles and responsibilities, over a period of days/weeks.  Each row of data in the list has a unique identifier (in addition to the List Item ID) and multiple columns of various data types.  After all the data is collected, I want to use the data stored in my SharePoint list with the Document Generation workflow action to create documents containing this list data. 

 

Most of the data controls on my form corresponds to a SharePoint list data type (Text-Short to Single Line of Text, Text-Long to Multiple Line of Text, Number to Number, Currency to Currency, etc.).   I am able to use most of the SharePoint List fields with the document tagger.  However, I can't use the Repeating Section Data that is stored in a Multiple Lines of Text (mltxt) field in SharePoint.

 

If I wanted to generate the document at the time I collected the data, I can take the Repeating Section Data collection and tag the template so the data comes out formatted as table rows and columns.  This scenario however does not work for me because I do not want to generate the document at the same time the data is entered.

 

The data from my form's Repeating Section controls are saved to a SharePoint Multiple Lines of Text field.  The mltxt column is set for Plain Text.

 

I have more than one repeating section on my form, and am saving each set of repeating section data in a different mltxt field in SharePoint.

 

The form's Repeating Section data looks similar to this in the SP mltxt field:

"[{"se_text_short_1_k35kNYtHzu":"Just Checking to see","se_text_short_2_bSXk0k4VO2":"how RS data is stored in a sp list mltxt column"},{"se_text_short_1_k35kNYtHzu":"Still Checking to see","se_text_short_2_bSXk0k4VO2":"how RS data is stored in a sp list mltxt column"},{"se_text_short_1_k35kNYtHzu":"Testing Testing Testing","se_text_short_2_bSXk0k4VO2":"Testing 1234567890"}]"

 

It does not appear to be XML or JSON, and I don't know how to parse this data so that I can include it in the Document Generation action to create my document.

 

Anybody have any suggestions?

 

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

 


4 replies

Userlevel 3
Badge +11

Hi tpettijohn,


 


How are you storing the repeating section data to the multiline text fields in SharePoint? I just put a couple articles out on this topic and by connecting the repeating section to the multiline text field through the Connected to property of the repeating section, it should be stored in SP as XML as far as I know. Are you storing it through other workflow actions by chance? I haven't seen it stored in the format you're showing before.






For reference, here's the series of articles I just put out related to this topic. 
Part 1: Work with repeating section data from SharePoint based Nintex Forms
Part 2: Work with repeating section data from SharePoint based Nintex Forms 


 


Regards,


 


Jason

Hello Jason,


 


Thank you for putting together the articles on Repeating Sections.  Good information.  However, I don't seem to have the "Connected To" option in my Repeating Section controls.


 


I am using SharePoint Online and Nintex Workflow Cloud, but Do Not see a "Connected To" option in my form Repeating Section controls.  (see attached screen shots).


 


The 'Connected To' field does exist in the Nintex Forms for O365 Repeating Section control, but I do NOT see it in my Nintex Workflow Cloud Repeating Section control.


 


 


As for how I am saving/storing the data, I am saving it to the SharePoint list using a SharePoint Create Item control, and putting the repeating section data directly into a Plain text multi-line text field in my SharePoint list.


 


The raw repeating section data looks like this when stored in the multi-line text field


 


[{"se_number_1_A8egTFalV":10,"se_choice_single_1_e3evbT1dl":"Vendor 1","se_currency_2_PT9Tv0vrI":10,"se_currency_1_pYgvKQD90":1,"se_text_short_1_SpEquahyg":"First Item"},{"se_number_1_A8egTFalV":20,"se_choice_single_1_e3evbT1dl":"Vendor 2","se_currency_2_PT9Tv0vrI":40,"se_currency_1_pYgvKQD90":2,"se_text_short_1_SpEquahyg":"Second Item"},{"se_number_1_A8egTFalV":30,"se_choice_single_1_e3evbT1dl":"Vendor 3","se_currency_2_PT9Tv0vrI":90,"se_currency_1_pYgvKQD90":3,"se_text_short_1_SpEquahyg":"Third Item"}]


 


and


 


[{"se_text_short_1_k35kNYtHzu":"Clark Kent (a.k.a. Superman)","se_text_short_2_bSXk0k4VO2":"1-800-787-37626"},{"se_text_short_1_k35kNYtHzu":"Bruce Wayne (a.k.a. Batman)","se_text_short_2_bSXk0k4VO2":"1-800-Bat-Cave"},{"se_text_short_1_k35kNYtHzu":"Alex von Reiche","se_text_short_2_bSXk0k4VO2":"480-Man-ager"}]


 


As you can see, it is not XML.


 


Now, I did do some For Each loops and grabbed each row of the repeating section and formatted it as an HTML table, and then store the table I create in another SharePoint multi-line text field. (again, see the attached images).   This made it possible to get the repeating section data in a useable format to insert into a Word template for Doc Gen, or to use in an email notification or task message body.


 


Thank you,
Tom 


 


 

Userlevel 3
Badge +11

Hey Tom,


 


Actually that data you have is in a JSON style format stored by Nintex Workflow Cloud. I believe you can use the Query JSON actions to parse through it too. I need to work through some examples of that and publish them out here, but essentially you can replace the Query XML actions in the XML examples of those two articles I linked earlier with Query JSON actions, then use JSON PAth expressions for parsing.


 



 



 


 


Regards,


 


Jason

Thank you Jason.  I will give it a try. - Tom

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