How to Customize Default Approval Workflow (Part.2)

In Part. 1 blog post, I introduced how to add Person or Group TextBox as CC form in Change Request Task Form. Only adding CC form, It doesn't work. So, in this blog post, I introduce how to add logic in custom Approval workflow to use CC form.

Part.1 Add Person or Group TextBox in Task Form

Part.2 Add logic in custom Approval workflow

The Steps are here.

• In Approval - Copy05 Top, click "Edit Workflow" and click "Approval Workflow Task (en-US) Copy".

• Click "Change the behavior of a single task".

• Add "Set Workflow Variable" in "When a Task Completes" section's top.

• Click "workflow variable" and click "Create a new variable..." from pulldown. Fill in arbitrary name and choose String Type. Press OK.

• Click value and click fx. Fill bellow parameters.

• Click "Current Task:Assigned To" in "When a Task is Pending".

• Click icon besides CC. Select "Workflow Lookup for a User...". And Fill in bellow parameters.

• Click OK and publish the workflow.

The steps were finished. Please confirm that you can get CC email when you run the workflow.

Tips:

In the steps, I created a workflow variable in "When a Task Completes" section to get CC form content. And I added the workflow variable as a CC address in "When a Task is Pending" section. The important point is that you can't directly get CC form content in "When a Task is Pending" section. When you fill in CC form and click Send in Change Request form of a workflow task, The workflow task is completed and new workflow task is created. CC form content is associated the completed task. So you need to get CC form content in "When a Task Completes" section.

How to Customize Default Approval Workflow (Part.1)

I'm sorry it has been taken long time since previous blog post.

Today I'd like to introduce how to customize default approval workflow using only SharePoint Designer (with non code).

This is new feature in SharePoint 2010. In SharePoint 2007, we couldn't customize default approval workflow. So you needed to make new own workflow from zero base if you want to customize approval workflow.

I introduce these steps in two blog posts.

Part.1 Add Person or Group TextBox in Task Form

Part.2 Add logic in custom Approval workflow

OK, I introduce Part1 first, add bellow Person or Group TextBox as CC in ChangeRequest in Task Form.

The Steps are here.

• First create a copy of default Approval Workflow in SPD. Click Copy and Modify and create new copy of default Approval Workflow.

• Click Approval Workflow Task.

• Click New in Task Form Fields to create CC as Person or Group Field.

• Fill in these TextBox, choose Person or Group in Information type, and click Next.

• Click Finish.

• Save and Publish the .Approval Workflow.

• Back to Approval - Copy05 page. Click Approval Workflow Task in Form.

• Task Form is opened in InfoPath 2010. Check the CC form which was created previous step. 

• Select CC Row and copy it(Control + C). Delete CC Row from default form.

Tips : You can also add CC from Fields property menu. But you can't resolve names in CC by using Enter key if you drag & drop CC from Fields property menu to ChangeRequest form. So you had better use the copy from default form.

• Click Page Design Tab and choose ChangeRequest from View pulldown.

• Add new Row and paste CC Row (Control + V) in ChangeRequest form.

• Save the InfoPath form to local and Publish it.

Steps were finished.

I'll introduce how to use the CC in next blog post.