Site Workflow needs to run on multiple libraries. Shall I have multiple site workflows or combine these into one?

  • 11 July 2017
  • 4 replies
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I have a parent (site) workflow that triggers a child (library) workflow.  This will need to be replicated across multiple (three) libraries, all of which are similar in the data gathered, just segregated for business purposes.  The site workflow will be scheduled and it is fine to have all three libraries processed at the same time.

Would it be best to have the parent (site) workflow as three separate workflows or shall I combine all actions into one workflow?  Certainly, the goal is not only to be effective, but also efficient and I'm wondering what others have found to be the best practice in similar instances.

Business use details:  the libraries are all legal libraries with contract documents of various purposes and those documents need periodic notification to various parties.  The parent workflow will select candidates and the child workflow will send notifications.  Each library is basically a carbon copy of the other in terms of data fields and these all belong to the same SharePoint site.  (In my situation, the Flexi Task did not meet business needs.) 


4 replies

Userlevel 3
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It really depends on your requirements.  If you're looking to have an efficient process, one question I'd ask is why have a child workflow at all?  Why not have the notification process in the site workflow?  If the notification processes are similar across the libraries, it would make sense to only design the process once.

Also, you may want to consider putting some of the processes in a UDA.  Let's say hypothetically you go with a single site workflow for all three, but then later want to split it up.  If you build the process for selecting the candidates in a UDA, then it's really simple to add another site workflow and drop the UDA in. 

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Thank you for your input - I was thinking to possibly set parts up in a UDA and now I'll explore that further.  The reason for the parent-child is that business wants this to run on a schedule and not based upon user action.

Userlevel 3
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Yes, you'd need the site workflow (parent) for the schedule piece, but I don't see a need for the child workflow.  You could handle the steps needed for the notifications directly from the site workflow.  That was my point.

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I see, thank you for the clarification.  I'll look into handling it from that perspective.

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