Extracting data from a repeating table in a form into a Nintex workflow to send emails

  • 15 March 2022
  • 4 replies
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I have been writing Nintex forms and workflows for some time but I still cannot figure out how to put data into a repeating section on a Nintex form and then use that data in a Nintex workflow.  I am using SharePoint on premises and Nintex 2016.  I have a form I wrote for HR to assign trainers to new employees.  I put a repeating section on the form so that the user can enter training course, trainer, date due, completion date, and the amount of time spent training.  In the workflow I need to send a flexi-task notification to the trainers in the repeating section that the new hire needs to be trained.  How do I assign the people in the repeating section to the flexi task? And then have the trainers respond to the task that the training was complete and update the form?


4 replies

Not sure if this is a match for your requirements but I had a similar situation whereby I needed to use values in the repeating sections in workflows. For me, I used the Query XML action to populate collection variables using xpath. Once you have the fields you need contained within the collections, you can then cycle through all the rows in a for-each loop and add each repeater field value into a variable using a collection process.


Once you have these variable values, you can reuse them in notifications and other actions or export their values to another list, which is what I used mine for.

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Hi Smashed.  What I have done is query xml and referenced a Multiline Text Field as my xml source (I connected the repeating table to the MTF).  Then I put that multiline text field as the xml source for my query.  Then I used the the xpath builder to grab the different fields in the repeating table and associate those fields with separate collection variables with which to hold the data.  My problem now is how to loop through the data and send an email to the people in the repeating table section.

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One method I’ve used where repeating rows are being employed, is via a secondary list. In your case the secondary list would store the course and trainer info. That list would then be used to trigger the necessary workflow with flexi task to multiple responders.

Hope this helps.

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Hi @ncocchiara_77 

 

There is a few ways to retrieve Data from Repeating Section (RS). 

The most typical method is to use Nintex Workflow to perform a Query XML of the RS column.
The result of the Query XML can then be saved into:
 -  the same list using a single or multiple column(s)
 - a difference list
This Query XML requires some technical expertise (XML, XPath, Using Loops)

Another method is to use the Form Rules itself to generate or extract the RS values. This values are then saved into a new field. I have written an article on this. Refer to the article.

 

Hope that helps

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