Landing page to check workflow status


Badge +4

Hi,

I have a Nintex form submitted by some users. Once the form is submitted, user gets notified and workflow will be triggered.

This workflow has three approval stages, I have a requirement , to create a landing page for user to come and check status of their submitted form.

Eg : On landing page for Form ID : 10, Approver A approved, In - Process at Approver B

Is there any way, can we show this on a page or Nintex Form with some graphical representation ( if possible )?


19 replies

Userlevel 4
Badge +12

Hi,

Do you have a list workflow or a site workflow? If its a list workflow, easiest way should be to add the name of the approver to a dedicated column in your list and show it in the default view for the users.

For the representation of the approval status you could use the workflow status column or have an own choice column that represents the status.

197297_pastedImage_1.png

Would that help?

Badge +16

I agree with this but also think you should have your own status column that you can update with each decision; i.e. "Approval Status":

  • Awaiting Approver A Approval
  • Awaiting Approver B Approval
  • Awaiting Approver C Approval
  • Approved
  • Rejected

Then add this to your list view.

Userlevel 5
Badge +14

you have several options:

1. show/teach them OOTB functionality - in item's context menu (resp. on ribbon) there is 'View workflow history' item. that navigates you to workflow status page. if you there click on a workflow, you are navigated to 'Workflow progress' page where you can graphically see how does your workflow goes on.

2. there is 'Workflows I've Started' web part. so you can build you own page and that web part on it, it will give users access to 'their' workflows (it navigates to the same workflow progress page as described above at the end)

3. there is as well {Common:Workflow Status URL} reference available in workflow, that provides direct link to workflow progress page. so you can use acc. your needs (save it to list field, place it on a form, send it in notification ....)

have a look on documentation as well there is a chapter related to that http://help.nintex.com/en-US/nintex2013/help/#Workflow/RootCategory/SharePoint/Nintex.Workflow.WorkflowStatus.htm?Highli… 

Badge +4

Thank you all for your suggestions.

yes, I am using list workflow. Sorry, for missing this part, when I say users, these are field guys, who just want to see how their submission is going on.

If I am able to show them like this pic, it would be straight forward. I have designed this wire frame using Visio.

I am  not sure, whether this is achievable or not. Meanwhile, i will implement other options suggested and demo them to business.

Badge +4

Along with this, I have few other questions.

1. As i said this workflow has three approval stages, can we do this?

If Apprv A is blank, Get Approval/Escalate to Apprv B --> Apprv C--> End Workflow

If Apprv B is blank, Apprv A ---> Apprv C--> End Workflow

If Apprv C is blank, Apprv A--> Apprv B--> End Workflow

If Apprv A & B are blank, Apprv C--> End Workflow

 

Because, business user mentioned, it's not mandatory to have all approvals on the form.

In my Nintex Form, I am auto-populating all these approvers from a SharePoint list based of 'Dropdown Selection'.

In Workflow, I am querying that list and storing these approvers in workflow variables. 

Note : We don't have group / Mutliple users in any of Approver

2. For my scenario, what would be the correct action? 'Request Approval' or 'Assign Flexi Task' ? As of now, I am using 'Request Approval', but i am not sure is this correct action or not, to get approvals?

3. I need to update list 'Title' column to 'Custom Name', can I do this in the same workflow process?

4. In the Task form, my repeating section is getting displayed in 'XML' format, can i change it some HTML format?

let me know for additional information.

Thanks,

Badge +16

So for your approvals I would wrap your request approval/flexi task with "Run if" action with the configuration of that to check whether approver a/b/c has a value in it like this:

Request Approval / Flexi Task - depends what you want from the task?  If it is straight forward approval and rejection then either are fine and it is entirely your choice.

Userlevel 5
Badge +14

note that every workflow action has an option 'Hide from workflow status', so you can control which axtions appear in workflow progreass and which not, to make it as simple as you need.

the drawback is that it will display the same simplified way to admins.

if you want to have some custom graphic, you will need to develop it on your own

Badge +16

3. I need to update list 'Title' column to 'Custom Name', can I do this in the same workflow process?

Do you mean rename the column?  If so, you should do this in the list settings.  If you mean the value then you can use Update item or set field value to do this.

Badge +4

Yes, when i submit the form, 'Title' in the list is getting saved as 'No Title'.

I want to rename/update it with combination of two fields, of the form.

Eg : My nintex form takes user input for 'Program' & 'Form Type', these are dropdowns. Once user submits the form, i want to see 'Program - Form Type' in 'Title' column

Badge +16

You could update this in your workflow using update item, choose title field then use the lookup to enter both those item values and the desired separator - I am not at my machine at the moment but can show you what I mean tomorrow if that doesn't make any sense? You may also be able to do it in the form which I can also check. 

Badge +4

Hi,

I tried to do as you suggested, but configuring 'Update Item' is bit confusing.

This is my scenario, I have a SharePoint list and this list form is customized using nintex forms. Once user submit an item, the workflow will be triggered.

The 'Title' column, which i mentioned belongs to the same SharePoint List where Nintex Form and Workflow are tied to.

Please show me the configuration, when you have time.

Thank you.

Badge +16

I will do first thing tomorrow for you happy.png 

Badge +16

OK so I have configured the update item as follows:

to get insert reference I chose the lookup button next to the text box.  I then chose item property Program and typed " - " and then chose item property form type.

After running the workflow I get this:

I had a quick look at doing it in the form but I think you will need to add javascript to do that - ‌ may be able to help with that route.

Badge +4

Thank You, it really helped me.

Userlevel 4
Badge +7

Hi

Cassy Freeman‌ has asked me to help you

You can accomplish what you want with some simple javascript.

On your Title column, edit the settings and in the advanced section configure as below

 

197364_pastedImage_1.png

setting the Store Client ID in JavaScript Variable to Yes and the Client ID Javascript variable name to varTitle

Repeat this for the Program Choice Field setting the variable name to varProgram and the Form Type Choice Field setting the variable name to varFormType.

Now double click the save button to edit the settings and configure as below

197365_pastedImage_2.png

Set the Client click value to be UpdateTitle()

Next, open the form settings and under Custom JavaScript paste the following code

function UpdateTitle() {
var program = NWF$("#" + varProgram).val();
var formType = NWF$("#" + varFormType).val();
NWF$("#" + varTitle).val(program + ' - ' + formType);
}

as shown below

197378_pastedImage_3.png

Save and publish your form, and a new record and select and Program and Form Type and when the record saves, the Title field wil be updated with Program - Form Type.

Hope this helps, if ou have any problems let me know

Paul

Badge +4

Hi Cassy,

I have a small issue here in sending notifications to approvers,

1. If approver A is blank, process is getting escalated to next approval. But what if, approver A is present and if he rejects? In my case even A rejects, it is sending notification to B. My goal is to end the workflow, if any of the approver Rejects?

This is how i configured my workflow,

      

In order to avoid that, I tried to process as shown in second image, but if 'Approver A' is blank, it won't even execute First step, which results in not sending notification to 'Approver B'.

What would be your suggestion here?

Badge +16

Could you add end workflow action under each reject branch? 

Badge +4

Got it.

I didn't observed it, thank you.

Badge +4

Paul Crawford‌ My apologies for not getting back on this. As I am not showing, 'Title' column on my form, haven't tried this. 

Both of your solutions work, Cassy's approach takes some time to set the 'Title' field, which is good for me in the intial days. But, now I am creating a site workflow querying 'Task List', but the first entry in task list still showing 'No Title', as the workflow is taking sometime to update it.

So, I followed your approach to overcome that, which worked perfectly. Few issues, I have faced in this process, 

  • As the 'Title' field is required, when I am trying to save the form, it didn't let me. To overcome this, I have done this,

                        

       navigated to 'Title' column settings, changed it  to not required. I am not sure whether this is correct approach or not, but this resolved the issue

  • As I mentioned, I don't want users to see 'Title' text box on the form. So, I added a rule to hide it on 'New,Edit,Display' mode like this.

                             

     This resolves the second issue.

Reason behind posting these, to check and see if there are better alternatives (or) am i good? Once again, thanks for you help.

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