How to confirm successful Copy Item, before Delete Item?

  • 16 January 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 11 views

Badge +1

I have a functional workflow that does this:

  1. Looks to see if an item (a file in a document library "A") has the column "Ready" checked off (=Yes)
  2. If Ready=Yes
    1. Copies the file from "A" (PrepLib) to document library "B" (ReadyLib)
    2. Deletes the file from "A"

It works fine, but I know I need to do some validation

  • Check that a file with that name wasn't already in B before I allowed the copy.
  • Validate that the file was successfully copied into B before I delete it from A.

How do I do this?  I think I want to:

Before the Copy:  check for the Title of the current item (in A) and see if exists in B

  • if YES, stop the workflow, and send a message

Before the Delete:  check for the Title of the current item in B and see if exists in B

  • if YES, let it flow to the Delete step
  • if NO, stop the workflow, and send a message

I don't know which of the workflow actions to choose, or how to configure.  I'm considering "Query List" or "Request data". 

I've been researching for this answer, and haven't been able to find an example.

Thanks for taking a look and offering help!


2 replies

Badge +17

Annette, There may be more to this as a full solutions, but here is some help to get you unstuck. See the bold text below

How do I do this?  I think I want to:

Before the Copy:  check for the Title of the current item (in A) and see if exists in B

  • if YES, stop the workflow, and send a message
  • Use query list action here and check for the same title. If it returns a match then send an email 

Before the Delete:  check for the Title of the current item in B and see if exists in B

  • if YES, let it flow to the Delete step
  • if NO, stop the workflow, and send a message  

While you may be thinking it right, I'm not sure you want to "stop the workflow". Simply use the send email notification or if you want to wait for a response you the assign a task action.

Badge +1

Thanks, Eric - I'll try the Query List action to search for the file name before the Copy step.

Is there another way to check for success before the Delete step - something less specific than looking for the file name in the list a second time?  For example,

  • Is there some "success" variable that gets set when the Copy step completes correctly, and I could query the variable? 
  • Or if the workflow goes to the next step beyond the Copy, is that confirmation of success?  Maybe I could set a column in the list to some success message so there is a record on the SharePoint list

My users don't really want to get emails or become involved in the workflow.  I just need to make sure I protect the data from disappearing.

Thanks again!

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