Learn how to use Nintex Workflow for Office 365 to create and automate a workflow for a simple approval on a document. This document also shows how to escalate and auto-complete tasks.
Create a new document library, and open the Nintex Workflow designer. Click on the Library tab, and select Nintex Workflow in the Ribbon.
On the Workflow Gallery page, click New list workflow.
For a related tutorial, see "Automate document review routing" in the Nintex Workflow for Office 365 help.
The first workflow action we’ll use is the Assign a task action. This action informs the selected user/approver of the document review request, usually the manager. In the User Interaction workflow action category, drag an Assign a task action onto the canvas.
You will notice that by default the Assign a Task action has two task outcome branches, Approved and Rejected.
Double-click the Assign a task action to open the configuration dialog.
Address the request to the reviewer/manager. In the Participant field, type a user in your O365 tenant. In this case, I will use “MOD Administrator”.
In the Task Title field, type “Document Review” in the field.
If no response is received within a week, escalate the task to a different person.
Note: You might decide to auto-complete the task instead. Select Auto-complete the task, specify when to auto-complete, and select an outcome.
To change the default email message, open the Initial email options section.
Drag two Send an Email actions onto the canvas, one onto the Approved branch of the Assign a Task action and one on the Rejected branch of the Assign a Task action.These two actions will be used to send an email to the initiator notifying them whether their document has been approved or not.
Double-click on the Send an Email action on the Rejected branch to open the configuration dialog. In the To field, click on the List Lookup icon. In the drop down menu, select Workflow Context and then Initiator.
In the Subject field, type “Document review: Changes required”. In the Email Body field, type “Hi, your document requires changes”.
As the employee, I want to know that the document has been approved, so we should send an email confirming that.
Double-click on the second Send an Email action on the Approved branch. In the To field, click on the List Lookup icon. In the drop down menu, select Workflow Context and then Initiator.
In the Subject field, type “Document Review: This document has been approved”.
In the Email Body field, type “Hi, your document has been approved”. Click Save.
You’ve now completed the workflow, let’s automate the start of the workflow and publish it.
Click Publish in the Ribbon and call the workflow “Simple Approval Workflow”. In the Start Options, check the Start when item is created box and click Publish.
To run the workflow, you need to close the Workflow Designer, open your Document Library and submit a new item. The workflow will now run.
Instead of Workflow data it should be "workflow variables".
Thanks sagar nesarikar! I've updated the document to reflect that
Welcome Emily Billing
I have started learning nintex recently so i really found this getting started articles helpful.
Thanks
Glad to hear it!
HI,
I am a Newbie to Nintex and workflows. I followed the tutorial to the letter, but when I add a new document to the Library, and I look at workflow settings, it shows no workflows in process. I have checked to make sure to start the workflow when a new item is created... Any ideas why it wouldn't work?
Paul
Hi Paul, welcome to Nintex! When you add a new item to the document library, can you click on the ellipsis next to the item, and then click on the second ellipsis. In the drop down menu is an item called "workflows". When you click on that, does the workflow you just created appear in the "Running Workflows" section?
HI Emily,
Thank you for responding so quickly.
It shows a status of suspended?
Paul Gemme
Ok, can you click on the suspended status? A new page will open, and there is a field called Internal Status. Next to that you'll find a blue information "i", if you hover over that you should see an error message which may give you some more details on why the workflow was suspended.
Emily,
This is the error message that I am getting. Any idea what this means?
RequestorId: 6a05e035-3b44-1b13-0000-000000000000. Details: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the workflow instance. Exception details: System.InvalidOperationException: Configuration 'HistoryListId' was not found and a default value was not specified. at Microsoft.Activities.Hosting.Runtime.Subroutine.SubroutineChild.Execute(CodeActivityContext context) at System.Activities.CodeActivity.InternalExecute(ActivityInstance instance, ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager) at System.Activities.Runtime.ActivityExecutor.ExecuteActivityWorkItem.ExecuteBody(ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager, Location resultLocation) Exception from activity GetConfigurationValue ParseGuid DynamicActivity