Assigned Custom Tasks, Titles, Pausing workflows and the dreaded failure to resume
I've had mixed results with pausing SharePoint Designer workflows based on a duration. Inevitably it will work a few times and then stop for no apparent reason when the pause duration ended. It could be the environment, a service pack level, or even a hotfix needing to be applied.
I was using the "Collect Data from User" action in a workflow and I needed to update the Title and pause for a while so that the Task List's Related Content field matched. (more detail in the Background) Pausing for any duration did not work. It simply stated "Failed to run" after pausing.
I did some research and found lots of hits on this, but nothing I could actually do. I didn't have physical access to the server to apply a hotfix or run any stsadm commands. So I tried a different approach as outlined below.
1) Added a status column on the first list, the one processing the information that the Task assignment workflow ran on
2) Modified my first workflow to only Update the Title, then set the Status column to "Updated Title"
3) Created a second workflow that also runs when a new item is created, but used the "If current item field equals value condition" to look for "Updated Title" in the Status column. This would then run and assign the Task with the Title column already updated, then change the Status to "Task Assigned".
So instead of pausing, it was waiting a brief period for that column to change, then resuming.
Background:
In my instance I was trying to assign a task to someone based on input from a Scheduling list (Custom List). That Scheduling list had a lookup column that was key piece of information located in a Candidate list. The problem was, a lookup column is not the primary column, as you may know this is the "Title" column. So when I assigned my Task it was using the Title for the "Related Content" field. Long story short, the user did not want them to enter anything in the Title field so I hid it in the content type as most people do so it doesn't appear on the Schedule form.
To overcome the Related Content field in the Task list from appearing as "(no title)" I created a very simple workflow that ran when an item was created to update the Title. Easy. What isn't easy is having that fire and update the list before the workflow assigns the task and uses the Title column. So I tried using the Pause until Duration, which sometimes would work, but then started failing. I tried extending the duration from 5 minutes to 10, to 30... nothing. Same error.
Update: Upon searching for another way around this, I cam across a great article from Laura Rogers. It utilized Information Management Policies in MOSS/SharePoint Server and I can kick myself for not thinking of this earlier. http://www.sharepoint911.com/blogs/laura/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=676af157%2D7d96%2D4e15%2Da987%2D54b8a3e4d948&ID=72
References:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/b84cbd31-aa97-4caf-bf99-ca30a4785714
http://richardihogan.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/sharepoint-designer-2007-workflows-with-a-pause-until-step-fails-to-resume/
I was using the "Collect Data from User" action in a workflow and I needed to update the Title and pause for a while so that the Task List's Related Content field matched. (more detail in the Background) Pausing for any duration did not work. It simply stated "Failed to run" after pausing.
I did some research and found lots of hits on this, but nothing I could actually do. I didn't have physical access to the server to apply a hotfix or run any stsadm commands. So I tried a different approach as outlined below.
1) Added a status column on the first list, the one processing the information that the Task assignment workflow ran on
2) Modified my first workflow to only Update the Title, then set the Status column to "Updated Title"
3) Created a second workflow that also runs when a new item is created, but used the "If current item field equals value condition" to look for "Updated Title" in the Status column. This would then run and assign the Task with the Title column already updated, then change the Status to "Task Assigned".
So instead of pausing, it was waiting a brief period for that column to change, then resuming.
Background:
In my instance I was trying to assign a task to someone based on input from a Scheduling list (Custom List). That Scheduling list had a lookup column that was key piece of information located in a Candidate list. The problem was, a lookup column is not the primary column, as you may know this is the "Title" column. So when I assigned my Task it was using the Title for the "Related Content" field. Long story short, the user did not want them to enter anything in the Title field so I hid it in the content type as most people do so it doesn't appear on the Schedule form.
To overcome the Related Content field in the Task list from appearing as "(no title)" I created a very simple workflow that ran when an item was created to update the Title. Easy. What isn't easy is having that fire and update the list before the workflow assigns the task and uses the Title column. So I tried using the Pause until Duration, which sometimes would work, but then started failing. I tried extending the duration from 5 minutes to 10, to 30... nothing. Same error.
Update: Upon searching for another way around this, I cam across a great article from Laura Rogers. It utilized Information Management Policies in MOSS/SharePoint Server and I can kick myself for not thinking of this earlier. http://www.sharepoint911.com/blogs/laura/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=676af157%2D7d96%2D4e15%2Da987%2D54b8a3e4d948&ID=72
References:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/b84cbd31-aa97-4caf-bf99-ca30a4785714
http://richardihogan.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/sharepoint-designer-2007-workflows-with-a-pause-until-step-fails-to-resume/
