I'm trying to make a SharePoint workflow start automatically for any new document that is uploaded to a specific doc library. I've configured the workflow in SharePoint Designer to auto start for new documents or changed documents. However, the workflow never starts automatically! I can run it manually, but it won't execute itself.
I've searched around and have found the core issue, which is reflected in my log:
"Declarative workflows cannot automatically start if the triggering action was performed by System Account. Canceling workflow auto-start."
However, all the fixes I've seen have not worked for me. A common solution is to not run or create the workflow as the SharePoint System Account. Well, my SharePoint service accounts are not the ones I'm logging in as to upload my documents nor was it the one I used to create the workflow. I've tried editing & re-publishing my workflow as a totally new account and it still won't auto-start.
Just focus on two things:
Workflow will never start automatically with system account.
Check the options Start workflow automatically when an item is created or changed from Workflow Start Options.
While publishing the workflow, u need to select the checkbox Start workflow automatically when an item is created or changed for the workflow to start automatically or else whatsoever the WF will not start automatically.
Instead of using Sharepoint system user account, u could use an account having contribute permission on site level and full control over the library
Run the command at the server in powershell
stsadm.exe –o setproperty –propertyname declarativeworkflowautostartonemailenabled –propertyvalue yes
After I did that, the workflow runs perfectly although it shows the created by as being "system account".
Related
The SharePoint install is a SP2010 install on a 2008 R2 server. Everything is fully patched. I am running the SP Designer on the SharePoint Server directly.
I have a workflow which is intended to send an email when a new document is created in a custom list. I have deliberately kept the workflow very simple in order to illustrate this problem.
After creating this single step workflow in SP Designer, I click "Check for Errors" and SP Designer reports "The workflow contains no errors".
I then click "Publish" but the Workflow Error dialog is displayed with the message
Errors were found when compiling the workflow. The workflow files
were saved but cannot be run.
Clicking the advanced button reveals more information:
Could not publish the workflow because the workflow configuration file
contains errors
Any suggestions gratefully received
I'll share what fixed it for me - deactivating all workflow features at the site collection level (that is, Workflows, Three-state workflow, Publishing Approval Workflow) and then reactivating the features. I was then able to publish my workflow. This post helped, not sure whether this only works for 365 though, but it's sure worth trying first if you are considering a reinstall.
after googling for quite some time, i think it's an authentication issue. How is your SharePoint set up? Do you use HTTPS for authentication? If so check out this article.
I know this error message from sharepoint. I got this by dealing with multiple lookup fields refering to other lists. Even when I check the worfklow for errors SharePoint says that its all fine but i can't publish it at all.
Try to build a new Test-Site on your Site Collection. Build a Custom Document Library, leave it standard and then set up a new simple workflow just sending a mail.
Fill out the needed fields in mail only using simple values. Send to your mailadress, simple mail subject and simple mail body.
Set the workflow to run only manually.
Try to publish the workflow.
When this is working, then compair to your existing workflow and change your values by trail and error.
After doing a clean install of the OS and SharePoint, workflows are working flawlessly. I can only conclude that the problems were caused by left over registry settings from MOSS 2007. Thanks for the suggestions that people made.
This could also happens if you chage the URL of the web application, all you have do is click the Design button from the library itself.
when changinf the URL from http://server/Site to example: http://server.xx1.net/site, and you try to publish it tries the old url.
what helped in my situation is changing from start workflow automatically to manually.some times answers for critical situation is very easy. hope it helps, many thanks
I ran into this problem and after digging for days and folks suggesting to rebuild the servers, disabling and re-enabling site features, remove previous workflow versions, etc. and trying everything except rebuilding the servers (not practical for clients production environment). I decided to try some tests and found that this issue was only happening on one particular list no matter how simple or complex the workflow was... And when I would check the box for start automatically on item create (or when item changed) it would fail to publish and give the error above, but if I published it with just manually start worked fine. Finally after deleting views and some more testing, I discovered that there was over 240+ columns in this list (I did not create it...) and 50+ workflows set to run on create... Thankfully I have a test environment I built out for the client so I sync'd the Site Collection database back to test environment from Production re-ran my tests and got same error... So what resolved the problem and what was the ultimate cause of the problem, there was to many columns defined in the list and I had to delete several columns to publish the workflow in the test environment. This actually issue translates into the there is a limit in SQL Server on how much data the list can store each type of column takes up so much space read more about it here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787(v=office.15).aspx#Column
So what I did in production was worked with my client to determine how to break up the list into multiple lists and have relationships between them, thus moving some of the columns and data to another list (Think database/list normalization)... I hope this solution helps someone.
I have created a SharePoint workflow in visual studio , I have extended this workflow from the default SharePoint approval workflow as discribed here
The workflow is running properly. Is there a way I can get the workflow to run in the context of the user instead of th system account?
There are a couple of reasons this is not as desirable as it might seem. Firstly, the wrorkflow has to do things that the user does not have permissions to do directly. Secondly, workflows are background tasks, and as such there may not be a logged in user when the code is running.
If you just need a specific task to run as a user, take a look at http://blackninjasoftware.com/2009/04/09/how-to-programmatically-impersonate-users-in-sharepoint/
I need to add sharepoint approval to a list... and I was hoping to use the default approval process... but... I need to run some code once an item is approved. Do I have to then use VS to create a custom workflow?
I need to run some code that currently runs in an event reciever. I need to move the code to another function (as we are moving the processing out of event reciever code and now based on item approval). This code would execute after the item is approved and can be hosted as a service or .net code.
Full commented source to a state-machine based approval workflow comes with the MOSS SDK 1.5 in the samples directory.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6D94E307-67D9-41AC-B2D6-0074D6286FA9
-Oisin
I am new this sharepoint development and i have task in hand to do the following.
1.When a new document added to the library, the system will prompt for approvers & audience from a database table. this will be stored for future revisions for the document.
2. Upon successful completion of assigning approvers, audience the system will initiate the workflow to complete the approval process.
It would be great if anyone can point the direction to do the following:
1.is it possible to call a aspx page/form from document library insert/update event?
2.How to assign approvers to a workflow programmatically?
Thanks in Advance!
Alex
I'm not sure it is possible to explicitly call another page but you can use the "Source" url parameter to specify the page they are directed to after they press OK. Obviously, you will have to change "www.google.com" to be your new URL.
/Lists/Announcements/NewForm.aspx?Source=www.google.com
You can probably do all of this using custom workflow. With custom workflow you have two options: creating the entire workflow in visual studio or create custom workflow actions and using SharePoint Designer to build the workflow.
Building custom Workflow Actions.
We are using an infopath form that when submitted is supposed to fire off a custom .NET workflow. Basically, the information within the form is used to create a new sharepoint site. What I am seeing happen is that the first time the workflow runs (which is automatic after the form is submitted), the workflow errors out. When I run the workflow manually immediately after it fails, the workflow runs fine.
this.workflowProperties.Item["Client Name"]
I've debugged the issue down to the above line where workflowProperties is of type Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowActivationProperties. The first time the workflow runs, the property listed above (and all others) are null. The second time it is run the client name property is as it should be (populated from the infopath form).
Another important piece of information is that this workflow was working fine for over a year and suddenly started not working correctly a few weeks ago for no particular reason. We were having some permissions issues the past month but I cannot see how that could be related to the workflow issue. The user I am logged in as is a site collection administrator. I use the same user to kick the workflow off manually (which succeeds). I do not think that the workflow runs as the user that is logged in though (when it is run automatically on form submission).
Another interesting wrinkle to the whole situation: there are a total of 3 custom workflows that the application uses. 2 were made in visual studio - one of these works fine and other is displaying the behavior described above. The last was made in sharepoint designer and is failing.
I'm willing to try just about anything at this point. I am on a dev server (which displays the exact symptoms as production) so I can try just about anything.
I'm guessing this has to do with the workflow being fired asynchronously from the commit operation that sets the fields values. Can you try and fetch the item explictly from the list instead of using the Item from the workflow properties. something like the following:
SPListItem l_item =
workflowProperties.Item.List.Items.GetItemById(
workflowProperties.Item.Id
);
i'm not certain, but it may be worth a try.
The other thing to keep in mind is the SPContext.Current object will be null if being called from an EventReceiver, but will be valid if called manually. It doesn't sound like this is the issue, but its something to be aware of nonetheless.
If the InfoPath forms are submitted from a Vista or Win 7 machine, you might face this issue of getting a NULL value for the fields in the InfoPath form. Try adding a delay activity with around 10seconds and see if your are able to get the value of the fields from InfoPath.
Refer to this link for more details: Why does my SharePoint workflow fail when the client is running Vista or Windows 7?
Try looking in your SharePoint Logs.
They are located under the 12-Hive in the LOGS folder - open up the latest and look for something with 'Workflow infrastructure' in it, maybe that can point you in the right direction.
The "solution" was to do an export and transfer to a new server. Basically just use STSADM to do the export operation and then import the same file on the new server.
SEE:
http://sharepointdogs.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/content-migration-or-backuprestore-in-moss-2007/
I was on the phone with Microsoft Support for hours on this issue - transferring to a new server would be my recommendation for anyone else that might encounter this problem.