Assign task to group but send notification to shared mailbox = no notification on delegation

  • 5 January 2016
  • 8 replies
  • 30 views

Badge +2

Business Requirement:

 

We have a workflow with a flexi task that has to be fulfilled by someone in an Active Directory group.

 

The group members don't want to be bombarded with task assignment notifications. Instead, they want to have the email notification sent to a separate account tied to a shared mailbox. However, the task needs to be assigned to and fulfilled by one of the individuals, not the shared mailbox account.

 

Current (flawed) Solution:

 

To solve this problem, I've set up parallel actions.

 

On one branch, a flexi task is assigned to the AD group but notifications are turned off.

 

On the other branch, the workflow pauses for a moment so the flexi task has time to get assigned, and then an email notification action sends a message to the shared mailbox with a link to the assigned flexi task.

 

This allows users in the AD group to get the email in the shared mailbox but still fulfill the task from their own account.

 

Problem:

 

The problem is that there are times when an admin needs to go in and delegate the flexi task assignment to someone outside the AD group. They can perform the delegation, but the delegate doesn't receive an email since notification is turned off on the task.

 

Is there some way I can fulfill the business requirement such that the initial assignees don't receive an email notification but the delegate does?

 

 

Brad


8 replies

Badge +4

Hi Brad, you can make a very simple workflow on the workflow task list.

Configure the workflow for starting conditionally on the task modification : when AssignedTo (previous version) is not equals to AssignedTo.

When a delegation is made, the assignedTo field is updated. So you can just make an action "Send Notification" to the field AssignedTo.

Badge +7

Brad, how did you grab the link to the task to store it in that email you send?

Badge +2

Hi, Dave.

First off, here's what this section of workflow looks like:

Nintex Request Data - Shared Mailbox.jpg

In the Request Data action, I do the following:

  • assign the task to the group of assignees
  • turn off notification
  • create an Integer Variable (e.g. WorkflowTaskID)
  • point the "Store task ID in" setting to that variable.

In the Send Notification action, I do the following:

  • point the To field to the shared mailbox
  • include this URL in the body of the notification:

    Web URL/Lists/Workflow%20Tasks/EditForm.aspx?ID=WorkflowTaskID

The above link will link them directly to the edit view of the task form so they can just respond and submit.

I have the pause in there to ensure that the task ID gets created on the right branch before it attempts to use it on the left branch. Without that pause, the WorkflowTaskID variable would be empty.

Let me know if you get stuck.

Brad Jorgensen

Badge +2

Hi, Damien.

Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier...I must have fallen down a rabbit hole.

I've been told it's a bad design idea to run a workflow against a workflow task list, so I avoided this solution. I believe this came up at a Nintex conference, although I can't remember the reasoning behind it, but it made sense at the time. happy.png

Badge +7

Hi Brad, thanks for the detailed reply!

I must be doing something wrong.

I tried this once earlier and couldn't get it to work using a "List Item ID" variable. When I read your post I thought using an Integer might do the trick. However, even after pausing for 1minute, the variable doesn't seem to get populated so I end up with a link with ID=0.

Why would that be??

Related question: What ID is it storing? If I have multiple people in a Group that I am sending the task to, so wouldn't there be multiple tasks generated (one for each person)? That was what was throwing off my other notifications, the ID# was not lining up with the person opening the notification and therefore could not respond to that particular task...

any thoughts?

thanks again

FYI: I am using a flexi task, not a request data.

Badge +2

Hi, Dave.

I haven't tested this but I don't think you'd get the same experience from a Flexi Task.

If a Request Data action is assigned to a group, the first responder represents the group, so there's only one task.

With a Flexi Task, you have the option of creating individual tasks for each group member, so you're left with multiple task ID's.

You could theoretically store those ID's in a collection variable, do a For Each loop, look up each ID's Assignee, and provide a link to each task next to the corresponding assignee, but that seems a bit messy.

Try logging the ID. Is it 0 regardless of whether or not you have the Flexi Task set to assign individual tasks? If so, does increasing the pause duration help? Otherwise, you might have better luck with Request Data if that's a viable alternative.

Badge +7

Thanks Brad. I found this. I can try switching to a request data task, never used that one before...

https://community.nintex.com/message/2584#2584

Just doing some testing I found out the Request Data task action is doing it right. It's the only task action that populates the TaskID even before task completion. I tested all task actions and also included action id on the test. Below you can see the results.

Action IDTask ID
Request DataYesYes
Request ReviewYesNo
Request ApprovalYesNo
Assign Flexi TaskNoNo
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Badge +12

Hello, checking in to see if this issue has been resolved?

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