This workflow action bundles a collection of actions in a container that can be collapsed and expanded to make workflow designing more convenient.
This action does not require any configuration. It has a border that contains a pearl, when actions are added to the pearl inside the border, they become part of the Action set.
The action set can be minimized by activating the title bar's drop down menu and clicking Minimize.
To save an action set as a snippet, activate the drop down menu on the action title bar and click Save as Snippet. For more information, please refer to the Workflow Snippets.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will add a user to an Active Directory security group.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
To configure the LDAP Path, refer to the LDAP Picker for more information.
The username (sAMAccountName) of the Active Directory entry.
The name of an existing Group to which the user will be added. E.g. "Backup Operators". Multiple groups can be separated with semi-colons (;).
Selecting this option will cause the workflow to error if the user already exists in the group. By default this option is checked.
This workflow action will allow the assignment of a task to one or more users and request a specific outcome. The list of possible outcomes is determined by the person designing the workflow.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The assignees list contains all users or groups that will be assigned the task when the workflow is run.
Users can be:
- Entered directly using their username, email address or full name and will be resolved where possible against the SharePoint user list or Active Directory.
- Searched for: click on the address book icon on the right.
Please note that users that are external to the SharePoint environment can be added as Assignees by specifying their email address. However, the only way that they can respond to the Task is through LazyApproval, as they will have no access to the SharePoint site.
To search for users, click on the address book icon on the right.
The configuration dialog allows the workflow designer to search for and/or add users to the Assignees list by one or more of the following methods:
- Internal Search: Entering a partial display name, email address or user account name and clicking on the magnifying glass will provide a list of matching users and groups from SharePoint as well as Active Directory.
- External email address: Enter an external email address manually. Where possible Nintex Workflow will resolve this to an actual user account.
- Lookup: Provides the option of adding a dynamic reference as an approver. e.g. Workflow variable, list field.
Click the title bar to expand or collapse each option.
Create individual tasks for all group members
In the case where a group is assigned the task and Create individual tasks for all group members checkbox is:
- Not selected - all users in that group will receive the task notification. However, the first respondent will represent the entire group.
- Selected - an individual task will be assigned to every member of the group.
Groups will only be expanded to one level. Groups within groups will not be expanded.
When this option is selected, the assignee at runtime can delegate the task to another user. For more information, please refer to Delegating Approval Tasks. Changing the 'Allow delegation' option on the 'Action' screen is the same as changing the 'Allow delegation' option for all assignees on the 'Task Notification' ribbon option. See the 'Task Notification' ribbon option section below for more information.
If LazyApproval has been enabled, the workflow can permit the assignees to use LazyApproval. Lazy Approval means that a task response can be registered when the assignee replies to a notification email or an automated OCS / Lync conversation with a recognized word or phrase. An administrator can edit or add to the list of acceptable terms. For more information, please refer to the Managing LazyApproval settings. Changing the allow LazyApproval option on the 'Action' ribbon option is the same as changing the 'Allow LazyApproval' option for all assignees on the 'Task Notification' ribbon option. See the 'Task Notification' ribbon option section below for more information.
Allows entry of dynamic text that will display on the task response form. This can be used to communicate additional information about the task to the responding user. References can also be inserted using the Inserting reference fields feature.
The Outcomes define all the possible responses to the task. When completing the task, assignees must choose from one of the listed outcomes.
New Outcomes can be added by clicking Add outcome or removing/editing existing outcomes using the icons.
Each outcome is configured with a name and an optional description, which is displayed on the task response form and can be used to provide instructions and more detail. Whether or not the assignee must provide comments for the outcome can be configured as optional, required or none.
There are five behavioural alternatives to instruct Nintex Workflow how to handle tasks with multiple assignees. These are:
- First response applies: The first response received will be used for the overall outcome. All other pending tasks will be set to 'not required'.
- Majority must choose a specific outcome: The majority of assignees must agree on the same outcome. If a majority is not reached, the 'outcome achieved' variable will be set to 'no' and the overall task outcome will be blank. As soon as Nintex Workflow determines that a majority cannot be reached, the action will complete and all pending tasks will be set to 'not required'.
- All must agree on a specific outcome: All assignees must select the outcome specified in the 'Outcome' drop down list. If any assignee chooses an alternative outcome, all pending tasks will be set to 'not required', the 'outcome achieved' variable will be set to 'no' and the overall task outcome will be blank.
- Majority decides: The outcome variable will be set to the most popular outcome. If Nintex Workflow can determine the most popular outcome before all assignees have completed the task, all pending tasks will be set to 'not required'. If two or more outcomes have the same number of responses after all tasks are completed, the 'outcome achieved' variable will be set to 'no' and the overall outcome will be blank.
- All must agree: All assignees must agree on the same outcome. If an assignee responds with an outcome which differs to a previous respondent, all pending tasks will be set to 'not required', the outcome achieved variable will be set to 'no' and the overall task outcome will be blank.
After an outcome is reached, this workflow variable will be populated with the chosen outcome. See the 'Behaviour' section above for more detail on how outcomes are determined.
In some circumstances, it is possible that an outcome is not reached. After this action is completed, this workflow variable will be populated to indicate whether or not an outcome has been reached. See the Behaviour section for more detail on how outcomes are determined.
Allows the title of the task to be defined. This is the title that appears in a SharePoint task list. If left blank, the action's title will be used by default.
References can also be inserted using the Inserting reference fields feature.
Allows a task content type other than the default to be used. This option will only display if an alternative content type is available on the site. Alternative content types are primarily used to enable custom task response forms.
Specifies the value that should be assigned to the priority flag for the task. References can also be inserted using the Inserting reference fields feature.
Set a date for the task to be completed by. Note: When tasks appear in Nintex Mobile Apps, the tasks list will be sorted by this due date.
Choose which form type is presented to Assignees.
When the workflow runs, the ID given to each task that is created will be stored into an Integer, List Item ID or Collection workflow variable.
Set user permissions to: Sets the user permission on the item.
When task is complete, set user permissions to: Sets the user permission on the item after the task has been completed.
Note: Setting the item permissions could be useful when the task is delegated, this will give the delegated user the necessary permissions to view the item.
When an outcome is achieved, sets the % Complete value for "Not Required" tasks to 100%.
Sent when the task is assigned to a user, also used when the task is delegated by one user to another.
Edit settings for
Changing this setting from the default All Assignees allows the configuration of unique notification options for a particular Assignee in the list.
Unless specifically configured, assignees will use the All Assignees settings. To override settings for a specific Assignee, select their name from the drop down list.
Changes to All Assignees will not affect users who are given custom settings.
When this option is selected, the assignee at runtime can delegate the task to another user. For more information, please refer to Delegating Approval Tasks.
If LazyApproval has been enabled on the server, the workflow can permit the assignees to use About LazyApproval. Lazy Approval means that an approval or rejection task response can be registered when the assignee replies to a notification email or an automated OCS / Lync conversation with a recognized word or phrase. An administrator can edit or add to the list of acceptable terms. For more information, please refer to Managing LazyApproval settings.
Delivery type is the method of delivering the notification to the recipients.
Available delivery options; None, Email, User preference or Instant Message (if enabled on the server). For information on User preference, please refer to Configuring user preferences.
Please note: Nintex does not provide support for troubleshooting email, SMS or OCS / Lync systems.
If Allow LazyApproval is checked and Delivery type selected is IM. The option Send a conversation request to confirm if the user is available to respond will be available. Checking this option will ask the assignee if they are available to respond, if the assignee responds with "No", the Delivery type will be switched to Email and the assignee will receive a notification email instead.
If at anytime the assignee does not respond within 5 minutes to the automated OCS / Lync conversation, the conversation will end and a notification email to complete the tasks will be sent instead.
The CC field sets read-only users who will receive the notification. CC recipients are not able to respond to the tasks.
To set the CC field click on to open the Select People and Groups configuration dialog.
The BCC field sets read only users who will receive the email. BCC recipitants are not able to respond to the tasks. Other users addressed in the email via the To, CC and BCC fields will not be able to see any addresses in the BCC field. To set the BCC field, enter the account name, or alternatively, select the address book icon for additional options.
The From field sets the user or domain group that will appear as the sender of the message. This setting applies to emails only. If no From user or domain group is specified, the From address configured in Global Settings will be used.
The priority of the notification. This is only applicable when using email notifications.
The Subject is the title of the notification being sent. If an Instant Message is being sent it will be pre-pended to the body of the notification.
It can be added manually or by clicking on , to use Insert reference fields from within the runtime instance of the workflow.
Allows file attachments to be added to the notification. You can specify multiple URLs by separating each URL with a semicolon. You can also specify multiple URLs by referencing a collection variable.
Files will not be received by a user when SMS or IM is selected as the delivery method. For information on User preference, please refer to Configuring user preferences.
This sets the format of the email.
Selecting:
Rich Text enables italicize, bold, underline and indent information within the email using simple HTML styles provided by the SharePoint rich text tool bar. Plain Text is simply the text without any stylized formatting.
The body of the notification will adapt depending on whether the Rich Text or Plain Text format is selected. Within the space provided, enter the content for the notification as straight text. Also available are Insert reference fields from within the workflow.
Sent when the user no longer needs to respond to the task. This can occur when:
- A task is assigned to multiple users but only one is required to respond.
- The workflow is terminated prior to the task being processed.
- An error occurs in the workflow at runtime.
See Ribbon Option: Task Notification above for field descriptions.
Optional notification Reminders can be configured to be sent to each assignee who has not yet completed the task.
The number of reminders to be sent.
The delay before sending each reminder in days, hours and minutes.
The total time is calculated by summing all fields, regardless of the Time calculation option selected. For example, 4 days and 4 minutes will be calculated as 96 (24x4) hours and 4 minutes.
Specifies whether or not hours outside the work week should be included when counting down to send a reminder.
The During business days only option will specify that weekends or holidays are not included in the countdown, but after hours on a business day are.Example:
- The task is assigned Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day before sending a reminder (the work week is defined as Monday to Friday).
- A reminder will be sent Monday morning: weekends are not included in the countdown.
The During business hours only option specifies that only business hours are used in the count down.Example:
- The task is assigned Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours before sending a reminder (the work day is defined as Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm).
- A reminder will be sent at 11am on Thursday: after-business hours are not included in the countdown.
If neither option is selected, all hours will be included in the count down.
Examples:
- The task is assigned Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day before sending a reminder.
- A reminder will be sent Saturday morning: weekends are included in the countdown.
- The task is assigned Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours before sending a reminder.
- A reminder will be sent at 8pm on Wednesday: after-business hours are included in the countdown.
Public holidays and any other special occasions are set using the "Site Settings > Nintex Workflow > Manage Holidays" page.
See Ribbon Option: Task Notification above for additional field descriptions.
Escalation is optional, there are two possible escalation paths:
- Delegate task will re-assign all pending tasks to the nominated user after the specified time.
- Complete task will auto-respond to all pending tasks and set the overall outcome of the action to the indicated outcome after the specified time.
- The specified outcome does not have to be one of the configured possible Outcomes set in the Action.
Escalation occurs after all reminders have been sent and the specified "Time to escalation" has elapsed.
See Ribbon Option: Reminders above for additional field descriptions.
This workflow action will assign a SharePoint task to one or more users.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Ribbon Option: Action
The Assignees list contains all users or groups that will be assigned the task when the workflow is runs.
Users can be:
- Entered directly using their username, email address or full name and will be resolved where possible against the SharePoint user list or Active Directory.
- Search for users, click on the address book icon on the right.
Select People and Groups
To search for users, click on the address book icon on the right.
The configuration dialog allows the workflow designer to search for and/or add users to the Assignees list by one or more of the following methods:
- Internal Search: Entering a partial display name, email or user account name and clicking on the magnifying glass will provide a list of matching users and groups from SharePoint as well as Active Directory.
- External email address: Enter an external email address manually. Where possible Nintex Workflow will resolve this to an actual user account.
- Lookup: Provides the option of adding a dynamic reference as an approver. e.g. Workflow variable, list field.
Click the title bar to expand or collapse each option.
Create individual tasks for all group members
In the case when a group is assigned the task and Create individual tasks for all group members checkbox is:
- not selected, all users in that group will receive the task notification. The first respondent will represent the entire group.
- selected, an individual task will be assigned to every member of the group.
Groups will only be expanded to one level. Groups within groups will not be expanded.Users can be entered directly using their username, email address or full name and will be resolved where possible against the SharePoint user list or Active Directory.
When this option is selected, if the assignee field of the task is changed, Nintex Workflow will record the change as a task delegation and the new assignee will receive the Response Required Notification. If this option is not selected, Nintex Workflow will not track the change to the assignee and Nintex Workflow reports and web parts will not reflect the new assignee.
Allows entry of dynamic text that will display on the task response form. This can be used to communicate additional information about the task to the responding user. References can also be inserted using the Inserting reference fields feature.
There are two behavioural alternatives in this action to instruct Nintex Workflow how to handle tasks with multiple assignees. These are:
- All must respond: All assignees must complete the task before the workflow will continue.
- First response applies: After the first response is received, all other tasks will be set to 'not required'.
Choose to use an existing, or instruct Nintex Workflow to create a new content type.
If using an existing content type, select any content type that inherits from 'Workflow Task' but does not inherit from 'Nintex Workflow Task'. The 'Nintex Workflow Task' content type is reserved for request approval and request review actions. Also if selecting an existing content type, specify the value to assign to each field when the task is created.
Set a date for the task to be completed by. Note: When tasks appear in Nintex Mobile Apps, the tasks list will be sorted by this due date.
When the workflow runs, the ID given to each task that is created will be stored into the selected collection variable.
When an outcome is achieved, sets the % Complete value for "Not Required" tasks to 100%.
Changing this setting from the default All Assignees, allows the configuration of unique notification options for each Assignee in the list.Unless specifically configured, assignees will use the All Assignees settings. To override settings for a specific Assignee, select their name from the drop down list.Changes to All Assignees will not affect users who are given custom settings.
When this option is selected, if the assignee field of the task is changed, Nintex Workflow will record the change as a task delegation and the new assignee will receive the Response Required Notification. If this option is not selected, Nintex Workflow will not track the change to the assignee and Nintex Workflow reports and web parts will not reflect the new assignee.
Delivery type is the method of delivering the notification to the recipients.
Available delivery options; None, Email, User preference or Instant Message (if enable on the server). For information on User preference, please refer to the Configuring user preferences.
Please note: Nintex does not provide support for troubleshooting email, SMS or LCS systems.
The CC field sets read only users who will receive the notification. CC recipients are not able to respond to the tasks.
To set the CC field click on to open the Select People and Groups configuration dialog.
The BCC field sets read only users who will receive the email. BCC recipitants are not able to respond to the tasks. Other users addressed in the email via the To, CC and BCC fields will not be able to see any addresses in the BCC field. To set the BCC field, enter the account name, or alternatively, select the address book icon for additional options.
The From field sets the user or domain group that will appear as the sender of the message. This setting applies to emails only. If no From user or domain group is specified, the From address configured in Global Settings will be used.
The priority of the notification. This is only applicable when using email notifications.
The Subject is the title of the notification being sent. If an OCS/LCS message is being sent it will be pre-pended to the body of the notification.
Added manually or by clicking on , to use Insert reference fields from within the runtime instance of the workflow.
Allows file attachments to be added to the notification. You can specify multiple URLs by separating each URL with a semicolon. You can also specify multiple URLs by referencing a collection variable.
Files will not be received by a user when SMS or IM is selected as the delivery method. For information on User preference, please refer to the Configuring user preferences.
This sets the format of the email.
Selecting:
Rich Text enables italicize, bold, underline and indent information within the email using simple HTML styles provided by the SharePoint rich text tool bar Plain Text is simply the text without any stylized formatting.
The body of the notification will adapt depending on whether the Rich Text or Plain Text format is selected. Within the space provided enter the content for the notification as straight text, also available are Insert reference fields from within the workflow.
Ribbon Option: Not Required Notification
Sent when the user no longer needs to respond to the task. This can occur when:
- A task is assigned to multiple users but only one is required to respond.
- The workflow is terminated prior to the task being processed.
- An error occurs in the workflow at runtime.
The number of reminders to be sent.
The delay before sending each reminder in days, hours and minutes.
The total time is calculated by summing all fields, regardless of the Time calculation option selected. For example, 4 days and 4 minutes will be calculated as 96 (24x4) hours and 4 minutes.
Specifies whether or not hours outside the work week should be included when counting down to send a reminder.
The During business days only option will specify that weekends or holidays are not included in the count down, but after hours on a business day are.
Example:
- The task is assigned Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day before sending a reminder (the work week is defined as Monday to Friday)
- A reminder will be sent Monday morning, weekends are not included in the count down.
The During business hours only option specifies that only business hours are used in the count down.
Example:
- The task is assigned Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours before sending a reminder (the work day is defined as Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm).
- A reminder will be sent at 11am on Thursday, after business hours are not included in the count down.
If neither option is selected, all hours will be included in the count down.
Examples:
- The task is assigned Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day before sending a reminder.
- A reminder will be sent Saturday morning, weekends are included in the count down.
- The task is assigned Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours before sending a reminder.
- A reminder will be sent at 8pm on Wednesday, after business hours are included in the count down.
Escalation is optional, there are two possible escalation paths:
This action allows the workflow to perform basic string concatenations for use within other actions at runtime.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Allows the combination of straight text with Insert reference fields from within the workflow and site at runtime.
When this option is selected, tokens will be searched for twice. For example, if a token called {WorkflowVariable:EmailTemplate} is inserted into the text area, and the resulting value contains the text {ItemProperty:Title}, the title token will also be replaced when this option is selected.
The result of the string that is built at runtime will be stored in a text Workflow variable that is selected from this list.
This workflow action allows a time period to be added or subtracted from a date to create a new date.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The date to use as a base for the calculation can be:
The time period change will be applied to this date.
The number of:
to add to the date.
The value can be:
Note: a negative value can be used for a subtraction operation.
For more information on lookups, see Using Lookups.
Specify whether the date is being specified according to the server's locale settings time zone or UTC time.
A date/time workflow variable in which to store the result of the calculation.
A text variable that contains the date in the XML friendly ISO 8601 format.
The Call web service workflow action allows the workflow to make a call to a SOAP web service method.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
A mandatory field that represents the full 'URL to the WSDL definition of the SOAP web service to call'. Once a URL has been entered, click the Refresh button on the Web method to select from the available Web methods. References can also be inserted using the Inserting reference fields feature.
The username (including domain) used when authenticating against the web service. This is an optional setting, however if left blank the web service must be open to anonymous access.
The password for the username above when authenticating against the web service. If left blank, the web service must be open to anonymous access.
The web methods that are available for the web service.
The Editor mode defines the values to be sent to the web service. The message configuration depends on the parameters required by the selected web service method.
To pass the byte array of the document under workflow, type [FileData] into any input field. At runtime Nintex Workflow will base64 encode the file and pass that as the value.
For more information on the SOAP standard please refer to http://www.w3.org/TR/soap12-part0.
Specifies whether inserted tokens (workflow variables, list item properties, etc) should be encoded to ensure they are valid for sending to the web service.
The default value can be used for a single return value from a web service method.
Allow the workflow to store specific values from a web service response.
To specify an element:
1. Click on Select element to browse the response format and select a value. Click Apply.
2. Specify a workflow variable to store the value of the element selected.
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
This workflow action saves a version of the current properties and documents in a document set.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Specify whether the Document Set should include only major versions of the items in the set or the minor versions. Select the versions of the items in the set to include in the document set:
The comments describing what has changed in this version. Either specify a value or use the lookups feature to build the comments dynamically at run time.
For details on using Insert Reference, please refer to Inserting reference fields.
This action instructs a parent State Machine action which state it should run when the current state has finished. Change state actions can only be dragged on to the designer when used in a State Machine action.
To prevent repeated loops through states in a state machine, ensure that each state branch in the state machine has a Change state action. If a workflow completes a state branch without running a Change state action, then the workflow loops through that state again, possibly indefinitely.
If the state named in the Change state action does not exist in the state machine, then the following workflow error occurs: "Selected value '[name]' is not recognized as a known state value."
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The state to run when the current state has finished. Selecting End State Machine exits the state machine when the current state has finished.
Note: The state change does not occur until the current state has finished. If a state contains multiple Change state actions, then only the last one takes effect.
This action allows the workflow to check-in an item that was checked out with the Check out item action.
The workflow will error if checking in an item that was checked out by a different user.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
For more details on using List lookups, please refer to the Using lookups.
The comments entered will be stored with that items meta data as the check in comments.
Allows the combination of straight text with Inserting reference fields from within the workflow and site at runtime.
The comments are not stored in the Workflow History.
The type of check in to be performed. Options are:
The target document library version settings must match what is chosen in the configuration dialog.
This action allows the workflow to check out an item in a selected location to the initiator of the workflow. If a library is configured to require check outs, this action must be used to check out the item before an Update item action is used.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select either the Current item that the workflow is running on, or one of the available libraries.
If selecting a library location, the Where selector will appear.
This action provides direct access to the values in a collection variable.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The Target Collection parameter is required for each operation. This specifies the collection variable that the operation applies to.
Adds a new item to the collection with the value specified in the 'value' parameter. Optionally, a variable storing the index of what position to insert the item into the collection at can be used. If no index variable is selected, the item will be added to the end of the collection. If the index value is larger than the size of the collection, the workflow will error.
Removes the item stored in the collection at the specified index. This will cause the collection size to decrease by one.
Outputs a number indicating how many items are currently stored in the collection. The result is stored in a number variable specified at Store result in.
Retrieves a value at a specified index and stores the value in the variable specified at Store result in. The output variable must be compatible with the value being retrieved from the collection.
Outputs a Yes / No value into the variable specified at Store result in to indicate whether or not an item matching the specified value is currently stored in the collection. The comparison is done by comparing the text representation of the 'value' parameter with the text representation of each item in the collection.
Sorts the values in the collection and stores the sorted collection in another collection variable specified in Store result in. Store result in can specify the same variable as the Target collection.
Retrieves the value at the end position of the collection and stores it in the Store result in variable. After this operation, the retrieved item will no longer exist in the collection variable therefore the collection will be one item shorter.
Concatenates every value in the collection into a string which is stored in the Store result in variable. Each value is separated by the specified Delimiter value.
Removes all the items from the collection.
Searches for and removes any values that exist more than once in the collection, leaving only one instance of each value. For text values, duplicate matching is case sensitive.
Removes all items from the collection that equal the specified value.
This workflow action forces all existing batched operations to be committed. Batched operations are operations performed by workflow actions that do not commit immediately. For example, the "Update list item" action doesn’t actually update an item immediately, it waits until the workflow commits. The workflow commits at a delay action, a task action or the end of the workflow. So when the update list item action runs, it just registers that it needs to update the item, the item actually updates on commit.
The SharePoint workflow engine doesn’t necessarily commit batched operations in the order they are displayed on the designer. For example, if the following actions are in this order:
Set item permissions action (Nintex)Update list item action (Microsoft SharePoint)Set permissions action (Nintex)
These would actually execute in this order:
It executes it in this order, because there are actually two batches, the Microsoft batch and the Nintex batch (any other third party has their own batch). This is because third parties cannot add operations to the Microsoft batch. In addition, all items in a single batch are executed before actions in another batch. The batch that is executed first depends on the first activity: If the Microsoft SharePoint action was encountered first, then all the Microsoft actions would run before the Nintex actions.
The "Commit pending changes" workflow action: The "Commit pending changes" action is another point where a workflow will execute all its batch operations.
So, modifying the above example:
In this case everything will run in order. The Nintex batch will run first because the Nintex action is first encountered, but in this scenario there is only one action in this batch. The "Update item" action will run. Then the workflow will commit, and the final "Set item permissions" action is in a new batch.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This action has no settings to configure.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
* This action requires Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
This workflow action will compile an existing audience in the environment.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The name of the audience to compile.
For details on using Insert Reference, please refer to Inserting reference fields.
An account with permissions to compile an audience. In Central Administration, this account will need to be explicitly added as the administrator of the User Profile Service with the permission to Manage Audiences.
Specifies whether to perform a complete or incremental compilation.
This workflow action will complete any outstanding workflow tasks. It will process enough individual tasks to achieve the selected outcome, the workflow engine will then process the remaining individual tasks in accordance with the task settings.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Specify this workflow variable to nominate which task action to complete.
When configuring other task actions, nominate a workflow variable of type Action ID to store the assigned workflow action ID.
Specifies how long to wait before the task is completed. If the task is completed manually in this period, the complete action will finish without performing any change to the task.
If the task is set to complete immediately, the action will always wait at least a minute before processing.
The total time is calculated by summing all fields, regardless of the Time Calculation option selected. For example, 4 days and 4 minutes will be calculated as 96(24x4) hours and 4 minutes.
For details on using Insert Reference, please refer to Inserting reference fields.
During business days only
The During business days only option will specify that weekends or holidays are not included in the count down, but after hours on a business day are.Example:
- The task is assigned Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day before sending a reminder (the work week is defined as Monday to Friday).
- A reminder will be sent Monday morning, weekends are not included in the count down.
During business hours only
The During business hours only option specifies that only business hours are used in the count down.Example:
- The task is assigned Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours before sending a reminder (the work day is defined as Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm).
- A reminder will be sent at 11am on Thursday, after business hours are not included in the count down.
Neither option
If neither option is selected, all hours will be included in the count down.Examples:
- The task is assigned Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day before sending a reminder.
- A reminder will be sent Saturday morning, weekends are included in the count down.
- The task is assigned Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours before sending a reminder.
- A reminder will be sent at 8pm on Wednesday, after business hours are included in the count down.
The value to set outstanding tasks to. Use 'Approved' or 'Rejected' for approval tasks, and 'Continue' for other task types.
When selected, pending approvers for the completed task will receive an email informing them that their input is no longer required.
Comments to be recorded when the task is automatically completed. The comments will be added against each individual task that the Complete task action must process to achieve the desired outcome.
Allows the combination of straight text with Inserting reference fields from within the workflow and site at runtime.
Please note that there can be a delay between when the task is processed and when the workflow continues.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
Note: We only support the conversions supported by Word services.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The document which is to be converted. Select either:
The list of available file types that the source can be converted to.
The URL to place the converted document. Either specify a valid URL or use the Insert Reference fields feature to build a valid URL. E.g. 'http://mycompany.com/sales/Shared%20Documents/PDFDocument.PDF'
Note: The following settings will result in an unknown file type and the 'Windows can't open this file:' dialog will appear when a user clicks on a converted document:
If the Converted document should overwrite an existing item if it already exist in the Output URL specified. Select either:
This workflow action will interpret a provided text value, and store it into a workflow variable of a different type. For example, if a text variable contains a number, this action will store the value as a numeric value in a number variable.
A common scenario for using this action is using it with an Inline function or the result of a query that returns a text string that contains a number, and that number needs to be stored into a number field of a SharePoint list. The value cannot be stored into a number field while the value is stored in a text variable. The example in the screenshot demonstrates processing a text variable by using an Inline function to extract the first 4 characters (maybe the variable contains 1234-XXAB). These first 4 characters will then be interpreted and stored into a number variable.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The value that is to be interpreted.
This option specifies the variable in which the resulting value will be stored. If the input text cannot be converted into a value that is compatible with the selected variable, the workflow will error.
This option only appears when the 'Store result in' variable is a date time variable. This option allows the exact formatting of the input date to be specified. When a date format is specified, the input date will only be recognized if it is an exact match to the format. This URL lists the recognized date formatting values: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx.
The culture code to use for conversion of the input string into another variable type. For example, if the provided input string contains a number in a European format, specify a European culture (such as “de-DE” for German) to ensure that the value of the input string is interpreted correctly. Specify “Invariant” for an invariant culture. For a list of culture codes, see the following Microsoft article: Table of Language Culture Names, Codes, and ISO Values Method.
When this parameter is blank, the current language settings of the SharePoint site are used.
For details on using Insert Reference, please refer to Inserting reference fields.
This workflow action copies an item from one list or library to another within the current site (not parent sites and not sub-sites). It only allows copying from the root level of a location (e.g; a folder within a document library is not valid) to the root level of another location in the same site. The content type of the source must match the content type of the destination - the workflow will error if the source and destination are incompatible. To copy the library item in the workflow to another location in SharePoint (including folders and sub-folders of the same site), please use the "Copy to SharePoint" action.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This mandatory field is used to select the list or library where the item that is to be copied is located.
This mandatory field is used to select the filter criteria to return one or more items to be copied (e.g; Created By, Title, Content Type etc.). The information types available in the drop-down are dependent on what is selected in Copy from.
For more details on using List lookups, please refer to the Using lookups.
For details on using Insert Reference, please refer to Inserting reference fields.
This mandatory field is used to select the destination in the current site for the item when it is copied. The destinations available in the drop-down are dependent on the content of the site.
Only root level locations are valid (folders and sub-folders are not supported).
If the item to copy is a file in a library, and a file with the same name already exists in the target library, this option will determine if the file will be overwritten. If this option is not selected, a time stamp will be added to the end of the filename.
Overwriting a file does not increase its file version.
This workflow action downloads a copy of the current item to a specified location. This action is only available when designing the workflow on a library.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This required field must be a valid UNC path accessible from the SharePoint server where Nintex Workflow is installed e.g. \\myfileserver\reports. If a file name is specified in the destination path, the file will be copied using this file name.
The user to authenticate against when the document is copied to the specified location.
The password to authenticate with when the document is copied to the specified location.
This action allows the workflow to copy items from the current library to another library within SharePoint.
When the workflow is running on document libraries, the item that the workflow is running on will be copied. In a list, any attachments on the list item that the workflow is running on will be copied.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select a location enables a site picker (Select a document library or folder) to navigate through the portal structure of the current SharePoint environment and select the library to which the document will be copied. Folders and sub-folders can be selected.
Enter a URL allows manual entry of the URL or selection using Insert Reference. To copy a file to a remote environment, Enter a URL must be used.
For more details on using Insert Reference, please refer to Inserting reference fields.
This option is available when designing a workflow on a form library. It allows for InfoPath attachments embedded in the form to be extracted and copied. The XPath query is used to indicate where in the form XML structure the attachments exist. If the XPath query evaluates to more than one attachment node, each attachment will be copied. To copy the actual form item in the form library, choose the Copy InfoPath form option.
Use this setting to determine the behavior when a file with the same name already exists in the destination.
Check this box to replicate a folder structure in the target library if the item being copied is in a sub folder. This option is not applicable when the destination is a remote SharePoint environment.
Check this box to set the item properties on the target item to the same values as the source item. Only matching fields will have their values copied.
Stores the new URLs of the copied files into a text or collection variable.
If the destination library is on a remote SharePoint environment, credentials with access to upload files are required. For copying files to a SharePoint site in the same environment as the workflow, the workflow automatically uses permissions with global SharePoint access if no other credentials are specified. To copy the item as a specific account in the local farm, enter the user credentials.
When a file is copied to the local farm with the global system account (i.e. no alternative credentials are specified), workflows in the destination location will not start automatically.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will create an Active Directory group in the specified LDAP location.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
To configure the LDAP Path, refer to the LDAP Picker for more information.
Specify the scope for the group. Available options are: Domain local, Global or Universal.
Specify the type of group to be created. Available options are: Security or Distribution.
The name of the group to be created. E.g. Testers.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will create an Active Directory user account in the specified LDAP location.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
To configure the LDAP Path, refer to the LDAP Picker for more information.
A unique username to specify for the Active Directory entry. This must be a unique username not used within the Domain yet.
The Active Directory Common Name value. This must be unique within the Container in which it will be created.
The display name of the principal user. If this field is left blank, it will default to the value of sAMAAccountName@domain.com
The display name of the new account.
The given name of the new account.
The surname or last name of the new account.
The email address of the new account.
The manager of the new account. The value entered must be the sAMAccountName of the manager in the Active Directory
The password of the new account. Use this drop down option to set password information correctly. The New Account Password option provides the following additional settings:
Select other fields to set for the user. Select the field name, then click the Add button.
AD Fields to take note of:
Note: Leaving all 3 checkboxes unchecked will remove all options. The only valid multiple selection is User cannot change password AND Password never expires.
For details on using Insert Reference, please refer to Inserting reference fields.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only.
This workflow action creates a calendar appointment or meeting request in Microsoft Exchange.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This action connects to Microsoft Exchange Server using the Exchange web services.
This section defines the appointment to be created. When the action runs, the calendar appointment will be created in the calendar of the user specified in the For field.
No meeting request will be sent to this user. The account credentials specified above must have write access to this user's mailbox.
For more details on using Insert Reference please refer to Inserting reference fields.
Note: Dates specified in the Start Date and End Date fields will be treated as local time according to the time zone specified in the team site regional settings.
This section allows the addition of additional meeting attendees. These users will receive meeting requests.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
* This action requires Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
This workflow action will create a new audience in the environment.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The name of the new audience. The value can be added either manually or built up dynamically at run time using Insert Reference
An account with permissions to create an audience. The account must be an administrator of the User Profile Service with Manage Audiences permissions. See the Application Management page in Central Administration.
Additional information to describe the audience. The value can be added either manually or built up dynamically at run time using Insert Reference
The user who will be listed as the owner of the audience.
To set the site owner, click on to search for and/or add users to the Owner list by one or more of the following methods:
Click the title bar to expand or collapse each option.
Specify whether audience membership requires users to match any of the audience rules or all of the audience rules.
Audience rules specify the requirements that a user must meet to be considered a member of this group. Multiple rules can be added by clicking the 'Add Rule' link.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will create a single record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM v4.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. A record can be created for any entity, including custom entities.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This workflow action creates a new list item in a list within the current site.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Used to select a list in which to create an item.
Used when creating the item. If a folder content type is selected, a folder is created. Likewise, if a document content type is selected, the appropriate blank template will be used.
To overwrite an existing item in the destination library tick this check box. If this option is not selected, an identifier will be appended to the filename. This applies to libraries only.
The created item will be assigned an ID. This new item ID can be stored in a List Item ID Workflow Variable. For more on using variables, please refer to information on Workflow Variables, please refer to Workflow variables.
Available fields that can be added to the created item will be dependent on what fields have been created in the destination list. For each field in the drop down list, a value can be added either manually or based on a dynamic element provided by Insert Reference .
This workflow action creates a new item in a list within another site.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The target site for the new item.
Drop down list containing available Lists at the target location. Additional Fields are displayed depending on the option List selected.
Either specify a value or use the lookups feature to specify a new folder to create the item in. If no folder is specified, the item will be created at the root level of the library or list.
Used when creating the item. If a folder content type is selected, a folder is created. Likewise, if a document content type is selected, the appropriate blank template will be used.
Available fields that can be added to the created item will be dependent on what fields have been created in the destination list. More than one field can be selected. By default, the Name of the item must be specified. When a Field is selected, an input field is added to the dialog to allow a value to be specified. To remove a field click on .
The created item will be assigned an ID. This new item ID can be stored in a List Item ID Workflow Variable. For more information on using variables, please refer to Workflow variables.
This workflow action permits the creation of a new list anywhere in the web application.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The template is the SharePoint list template to be applied to the new list.
Click on the drop down box and select the desired template. For more information on SharePoint list templates, please refer to the SharePoint Help Files.
The Team site is the site or sub-site in which the new list will be created.
This option displays a link to the created list on the left hand navigation (Quick Launch) of the parent site.
The list will be created using the current security context of the workflow by default. This can be the rights of the initiator or the rights of the workflow owner. If an override username and password is provided, the workflow action will use the permissions of the provided account to create the list instead.
This action allows the creation of a site anywhere within the SharePoint environment using the workflow.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The Title is the name to be assigned to the site. Added either manually or based on a dynamic element provided by Insert Reference . For more details please refer to Inserting reference fields.
The Description is a brief statement about the site. Added either manually or based on a dynamic element provided by Insert Reference . For more details please refer to Inserting reference fields.
Specifies whether or not to use the same permissions as the parent site.
If permissions are not inherited, a site owner must be specified. The site owner is the person who will manage the site being created and will be given Administrator privileges for the created site. For more information on privileges and permissions, please refer to the SharePoint Help Files.
To set the site owner, click on to search for and/or add users to the Site owner list by one or more of the following methods:
The Parent site is the site that will contain the created site.
The URL name is the web address relative to the specified parent site (do not include the full site URL). For example: http://myportal/sites/<URL name>
The SharePoint site template to be applied to the site being created. If multiple languages are installed in the environment, an option to choose the language for the site is available.
Click on the drop down box and select the desired template.
For more information on SharePoint site templates, please refer to the SharePoint Help Files.
This option displays a link to the created site on the left hand navigation (Quick Launch) of the parent site.
This option displays a link to the created site on the top navigation of the parent site.
This option ensures that the created site uses the same top navigation as the parent site.
Stores the URL for the created site in a text workflow variable.
The site will be created using the current security context of the workflow by default. This can be the rights of the initiator or the rights of the workflow owner.
If an override username and password is provided, the workflow action will use the permissions of the provided account to create the site instead.
This workflow action will provision a new site collection in the farm. All of the options available in the SharePoint Central Administration page 'Create site collection' are available.
For more information on any option, see the SharePoint documentation.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The username and password to use when creating the site collection.
The name of the new site collection.
The description of the new site collection.
The administrator of the new site collection.
The secondary administrator of the new site collection.
The SharePoint web application that will contain the new site collection.
The URL name for the new site collection. The managed path and top level site URL are specified.
The site template to use to create the site collection.
The quota template to limit the resources used by the new site collection.
The variable in which to store the complete URL of the new site collection.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action creates a task in Microsoft Exchange.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This action connects to Microsoft Exchange Server using the Exchange web services.
This section defines the task to be created. When the action runs, the task will be created in the Exchange task list of the user specified in the Assign To field.
The user will not receive any notification. The account credentials specified above must have write access to this user's mailbox. A task can only be assigned to a single user.
For more details on using Insert Reference please refer to Inserting reference fields.
Note: Dates specified in the Start Date and Due Date fields will be treated as local time according to the time zone specified in the team site regional settings.
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
This workflow action can be used to declare the current item as a record.
The record restriction settings can be applied once the current item is declared as a record. Record restriction settings can be defined in the Record Declaration Settings page on your SharePoint site.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Note: There are no Options to configure within this workflow action.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will disable or remove a user from an Active Directory store.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
To configure the LDAP Path, refer to the LDAP Picker for more information.
The username (sAMAccountName) of the Active Directory entry.
Whether to disable or delete a user.
This workflow action will delete or restrict access to an existing site collection.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The username and password to use when decommissioning the site collection.
The URL to the site collection being decommissioned.
The decommission action to apply.
This action will delegate outstanding workflow tasks to a specific user.
This allows for escalation scenarios as seen below. In this example, an approval task is assigned to a user and after a specified delay, if the user has not responded, the task is delegated to another user.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select a workflow variable that contains the ID of the Request action that is to be delegated. Only variables of type "Action ID" are listed.
To store the Action ID in the variable, configure the Store action ID in field in one of the following actions:
Specifies how long to wait before the task is delegated.
If the task is completed in this period, the delegate action will not take effect.
The total time is calculated by summing all fields, regardless of the Time calculation option selected. For example, 4 days and 4 minutes will be calculated as 96 (24x4) hours and 4 minutes.
Specifies whether or not hours outside the work week should be included when counting down the Delegate after value.
The During business days only option will specify that weekends or holidays are not included in the count down, but after hours on a business day are.Example:
- The delegate task action starts counting down Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day. (the work week is defined as Monday to Friday)
- The task will delegate on Monday morning, weekends are not included in the count down.
The During business hours only option specifies that only business hours are used in the count down.Example:
- The delegate task action starts counting down Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours (the work day is defined as Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm)
- The task will delegate at 11am on Thursday, after business hours are not included in the count down.
If neither option is selected, all hours will be included in the count down.
Examples:
- The delegate task action starts counting down Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day.
- A task delegation will be sent Saturday morning, weekends are included in the count down.
- The delegate task action starts counting down Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours.
- A task delegation will be sent at 8pm on Wednesday, after business hours are included in the count down.
The user or group to delegate to. Manually enter the user name, or use the people picker to search.
Comments to be recorded when performing the delegation. These comments will appear on the workflow history page.
Enter the comments manually, or use Insert Reference to build the string dynamically at run time.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will delete or disable a record of an entity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM v4.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. A record can be deleted or disabled for any entity, including custom entities.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will delete an Active Directory security group.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
To configure the LDAP Path, refer to the LDAP Picker for more information.
The name of the group to be deleted.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only.
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013.
This workflow action will delete an existing audience in the environment.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The name of the audience to delete.
Added either manually or based on a dynamic element provided by Insert Reference .
An account with permissions to delete an audience. In Central Administration, this account will need to be explicitly added as the administrator of the User Profile Service with the permission to Manage Audiences.
This workflow action can be used delete all drafts on the current item.
It deletes the draft or minor versions of the current item.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Note: There are no Options to configure within this workflow action.
This workflow action deletes a list item in a list within the current site.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select the list to delete an item from.
Once the Delete from field is set, the Where field will appear.
Use the Where field to select which item to delete. The field choices will depend on what was selected in the Delete from drop-down.
Select the list to delete an item from.
Use the Where field to select which item to delete. The field choices will depend on what was selected in the Delete From drop-down.
This workflow action can be used to delete multiple items within a library or list in a specified site.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The target site where items are to be deleted.
Choose whether to use the UI to build the query, or edit the CAML manually.
The following elements will build the query:
Drop down list containing available Lists at the selected site.
Specify whether to delete items within subfolders by checking this option.
The criteria that items in the list must match in order to be deleted. Use the Filter to specify the delete rules:
The CAML query editor appears when CAML Editor is selected in the Editor Mode. Displays the CAML query being constructed.
This workflow action can be used to delete all previous versions (major and minor) of the current item that the workflow is running on.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Note: There are no Options to configure within this workflow action.
This workflow action allows the deletion of a site anywhere within the SharePoint environment.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This action discards the 'checked out' status of a previously checked out document within the current site.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select either the Current item that the workflow is running on, or one of the available libraries.
If selecting a library location, the Where selector will appear.
If not selecting the Current item, use this section to specify the filter criteria to identify which document should have a check out cancelled. Manually enter the value, or configure the criteria based on Inserting reference fields. For more information on lookups, see Using Lookups.
Note: if the filter criteria returns more than one document, only the first document in the collection will be applied.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only.
The Enable Lync/ OCS action will enable OCS/LCS or Lync 2010/2013 for an existing Active Directory user account.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select from Lync 2010, OCS 2007 or LCS 2005.
To configure the LDAP Path, refer to the LDAP Picker for more information.
The username (sAMAccountName) of the Active Directory entry.
The SIP address for the Active Directory Account. E.g. sip:john.smith@mycompany.com
Check to enable LCS/OCS for the nominated Active Directory account. If left un-checked, the other properties will still be set.
Note: The Lync mode remotely invokes the PowerShell command 'Enable-CsUser'.
Lync server
The name of the Lync server.
Registrar pool
The fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Registrar pool where the users' Lync Server account will be homed.
Account to enable
The username (sAMAccountName) of the Active Directory entry.
SIP address
The SIP address for the Active Directory Account. E.g. sip:john.smith@mycompany.com
Telephony
Select the desired communication type. Chose from Audio/video disabled, PC-to-PC only, enterprise voice, remote call control, remote call control only.
Policies
Domain controller
Connect to the specified domain controller in order to enable a user account
SIP address type
Instructs Lync Server to auto-generate a SIP address for the new user.
SIP domain
The SIP domain for the user account being enabled.
Authentication mode
Select from with default, basic, digest or negotiate.
For more information on the above parameters refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398711.aspx
This action will terminate the workflow and, if specified, will log a user defined message in the history list.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
There are no mandatory fields to complete in this workflow action.
A message can be added to be logged into the history list.
For details on the SharePoint History List, please refer to SharePoint Help Pages.
This action is for advanced users and allows the workflow to run a SQL command.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
A SQL connection string to use when connecting to the remote database.
Provider options are:
For example: Data Source=myServerAddress;Initial Catalog=myDataBase;Integrated Security=SSPI;.
Enter the SQL statement directly and/or use Insert reference fields to build the string dynamically at run time.
Use this option to ensure that any value chosen from the Insert Reference button is escaped for use in a SQL string. If the entire SQL statement is contained in a single variable, then this option must be unchecked.
Returns the result of a SQL 'select' query.
This list contains all the workflow variables that can be used to store the result of a SQL ‘select’ query. A collection variable can be used to store multiple records. If a variable that is not a collection is selected, only the first record will be stored. If multiple columns are returned, only the value of the first column will be stored.
Use this option to store the result of specific column name that is returned from a SQL 'select' query.
To specify the column:
Note: If a variable that is not a collection is selected, only the first result will be stored.
This workflow action ends the workflow if a configured condition is not met.
Configuring this action is similar to the Set a condition action.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
For more details on using this action, please refer to Set a condition.
*This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise only.
This workflow action will find and return user(s) with a specified OCS/Lync presence status.
Note: Requires Office Communications Server 2007 or Lync Server 2010/2013 and the Instant messaging settings option in Global Settings must be set and configured.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The user, SharePoint or Active Directory group to search for users with the specified status from. Multiple users and groups can be separated with semi-colons (;).
To search for groups, click on the address book icon to the right of the input box. The Select People and Groups dialog will appear.
The OCS/Lync presence status to retrieve users by. To specify a dynamic value using the insert reference function, select 'Other value...'.
Select the workflow variable to store users from the group whom have the specified presence status.
The results can be stored in a text variable (only the first user of the total returned users will be stored) or a collection.
This workflow action is used to loop through each value in a collection variable.
Other actions can be dragged on to the designer as child actions of the For each action, and these actions will be executed for each value in the collection. The current value of the collection is accessible to each of the child actions via a workflow variable.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The collection variable to loop through.
As the action loops through each value in the Target Collection, the value will be assigned to this variable. Actions that are children of the For Each action can use this variable to access the current value of the collection.
Any variable type can be selected, the workflow designer must ensure that it is compatible with the values stored in the collection.
A number variable can be selected to store the position of each item in the collection as it is accessed. The first item will be at position 0.
A Yes/No variable type can be selected to break the loop. When the variable is true the loop will not process any more collection items and the workflow will continue to the next action after the For each loop.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This action connects to Microsoft Exchange using the Exchange web services.
- Internal Search: Entering a partial display name, email address or user account name and clicking on the magnifying glass will provide a list of matching users and groups from SharePoint as well as Active Directory.
- External email address: Enter an external email address manually. Where possible Nintex Workflow will resolve this to an actual user account.
- Lookup: Provides the option of adding a dynamic reference as an approver. e.g. Workflow variable, list field.
- Click the title bar to expand or collapse each option.
The length of the meeting suggestion.
The results of the meeting suggestions will be stored in the workflow variable specified.
The maximum number of meeting suggestions that will be returned for any given day.
The maximum number of meeting suggestions that will be returned that occur outside of the business hours set on the Exchange server.
The Good threshold for attendance is the percentage of attendees that must be able to attend a meeting suggestion for the suggestion to be given a "Good quality" status.
The minimum meeting suggestion quality that is required for a meeting suggestion to be returned.
*This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise only.
This workflow action will retrieve the OCS/Lync presence status of a user.
Note: Requires Office Communications Server 2007 or Lync Server 2010/2013 and the Instant messaging settings option in Global Settings must be set and configured.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The username of the user whose presence status is to be retrieved.
To search for users, click on the address book icon to the right of the input box. The Select People and Groups dialog will appear.
The workflow variable to store the retrieved presence status of the user.
This workflow action will log a user-defined entry into the workflow history list.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Add the required message into the text box either manually or use Insert Reference to build the string dynamically at run time.
There is a maximum length of 255 characters in the history list entry. Additional text will be trimmed.
For details on the SharePoint History List, please refer to the SharePoint Help Pages.
This workflow action runs a set of child actions while a condition evaluates to true.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
For more details on using this action, please refer to the Set a condition.
For information on safeguarding performance by preventing excessive looping iterations, see Preventing excessive looping iterations.
This action allows the workflow to perform basic calculations at runtime for use within other actions in the workflow.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
To configure this action, two values need to be specified as well as the operation.
The mathematical operations available to be selected are:
Enter the value manually or use Lookups to reference variables and reference fields.
The result of the Calculation needs to be stored for future reference. The dropdown list will present the available workflow variables.
To create a variable, click the Variables button. For more information, see Workflow variables.
This workflow action will pause the workflow at this step and delay it for a defined period of time.
Parameters are evaluated when the action is executed, with times calculated in UTC. If the resulting delay period is shorter than the frequency of the Workflow timer job, or if it is a negative value, then the action executes at the next iteration of the Workflow timer job. For more information about SharePoint timer jobs, see the Microsoft article Timer job reference (SharePoint 2013).
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
By default, the delay period will be set to 5 minutes.
Set the delay period
Manually enter values or use Insert reference for dynamic values.
Set the Business hours only option to ignore non-business hours when counting down.
This action will pause the workflow at this step and delay it until a set date and time defined.
Parameters are evaluated when the action is executed, with times calculated in UTC.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Set the date and time at which the workflow will recommence by:
For more details on using List lookups, please refer to the Using lookups.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
The Provision User in Exchange workflow action will provision a mailbox for an Active Directory user account in the specified mailbox container or mailbox database location.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The path to the Nintex Workflow Exchange Connector Service. E.g. http://www.mycompany.com/siteECS/EmailProvisioning.asmx
In this example, the mycompany website contains a virtual directory called siteECS, which must be created by the Nintex Workflow Exchange Connector Service installer. EmailProvisioning.asmx is the web service created by the installer.
The IIS account created in the prerequisite section of the Nintex Workflow Exchange Connector Service installation manual.
Note: Click on the padlock icon to select from a list of Credential Workflow Constants, maintained in Site Settings by the system administrator.
The password of the IIS account created in the prerequisite section of the Nintex Workflow Exchange Connector Service installation manual.
Select the version of Microsoft Exchange Server. Supported versions are Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010 & 2013.
The LDAP path to the Mailbox container in which the mailbox will be located. E.g. LDAP://mycompany.com/CN=Mailbox Store (SERVERB),CN=First Storage Group,CN=InformationStore,CN=SERVERB,CN=Servers,CN=First Administrative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=MLG,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=mycompany,DC=com
Click on the LDAP Picker button to browse for a Mailbox Container.
The Exchange Database in which the mailbox will be located. This can be provided in the following formats:
Note: It is recommended to use Workflow Constants to store information about the Exchange Server Database.
The identity of the account to be created. This can be provided in the following formats:
This workflow action can be used to publish a workflow that is going through the workflow change approval process.
* This action is only available within the Workflow Change Approval process.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Note: There are no Options to configure within this workflow action.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
The Query BCS action will retrieve data from the Business Connectivity Service (BCS).
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
A valid username and password are required to access the BCS. This identity must have access to the external content type. If the external content type is configured to pass through credentials, the identity must also have access to the underlying data source.
The BCS application to query.
The instance of the application to query.
The name of the external content type to query.
the filter used to determine which instances of the selected entity to retrieve data from. Multiple filters can be added by clicking the Add filter link. Only entities matching all of the filters will be retrieved.
The property of the entity to query. More than one entity property may be retrieved.
To specify entity property:
Note: If a variable that is not a collection is selected, only the first result will be stored.
This workflow action will retrieve data from Microsoft Dynamics CRM v4.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The action mimics the Advanced Find functionality available in CRM.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The URL of the CRM server to connect to.
The Organisation located within CRM.
The credentials used to connect to the CRM server and organization.
The results returned can either be in XML or individual attributes can be specified and stored in a workflow variable.
The type of entity to be queried.
Used to specify/narrow down the records returned for the Primary entity selected.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
This workflow action will retrieve data from a Microsoft Excel workbook via Excel Services.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Username and password
Valid credentials to access the Excel Services web service. The credentials must have access to the workbook.
The location of the Excel workbook to query. The workbook must be in a configured Excel Service trusted location.
The name of the Excel sheet in the workbook that will be queried.
Specifies cells that should be set in the workbook before data is retrieved. Changes to these cell values are not committed to the workbook, they are only used to determine the values of the cells to retrieve information.
For example, if the cell to retrieve is the sum of E2 and E4, E2 and E4 can be set in this section and the result will be reflected in the cell to retrieve that data. Multiple cells can be updated by clicking the Add cell to update link.
The range of cells to retrieve values from. A single cell must be specified in the 'A1' format. Cell ranges must be specified in the 'A1:B2' format. If a cell or cell range is named, the defined name can also be specified.
The workflow variable to store the resulting value in.
If the selected variable can only contain a single value and a range is returned, only the first cell in the range will be used.
In a collection, values are stored left to right, top to bottom. For example, if the range to return is A1:B3, the values will be stored in this order: A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3.
Specifies whether or not to keep the cell formatting, or only return the plain value. For example, if a cell is formatted to display numbers as currency, selecting this option will return a string with the currency symbol matching the display in Excel. If this option is not selected, only the numeric value of the cell is stored.
The Query LDAP action allows the workflow to query a LDAP compliant data source such as Microsoft Active Directory. This action is for advanced users.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
To configure the LDAP Path, refer to the LDAP Picker for more information.
Select the LDAP query to run. The query can be added manually or use the Inserting reference fields to include runtime values in the query.
The property to retrieve for the item found. More than one property may be retrieved. To specify the property to retrieve:
Specify the method used to authenticate to the LDAP server.
Determines how the query should behave. The default search scope is 'Sub tree'. Details of each scope are as follows:
Check to specify that paging should be enabled on the result set. Enabling this option may help if the query result set does not contain all expected results. Note: This option is not supported in all environments.
The Query List action allows for list item data queries and stores the results in a workflow variable. The action performs a CAML site data query.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Choose whether to use the UI to build the query, or edit the CAML manually.
In Query builder mode, the following elements will build the query:
Select the list to query data from. Lists in the current team site are displayed.
Check this option to query for items within folders and subfolders.
The criteria that nominated list items must match in order to be selected.
The order in which selected values should be returned.
This option ensures that the inserted tokens will be encoded and is able to support special characters.
Include HTML formatting in rich text columns: This option determines how a value queried from a rich text field is returned. When this option is selected, the HTML mark-up from the field will be preserved. When this option is not selected, HTML mark-up is removed, leaving only the text.
Specify item limit: Specify the maximum number of items to be returned from the query.
The field to retrieve the data from. More than one field can be selected.
Note: If a variable that is not a collection is selected, only the first result will be stored.
When CAML editor is selected, the query can be run on either the current site or an alternate site to the one the workflow is running in.
To query an alternative site, select the Alternative site option and enter the Site URL to a SharePoint site. The site must exist in the same farm as the workflow, but can be in a different site collection or web application.
When the Alternative site is selected, the Query builder mode is disabled.
Include HTML formatting in rich text columns: This option determines how a value queried from a rich text field is returned. When this option is selected, the HTML mark-up from the field will be preserved. When this option is not selected, HTML mark-up is removed, leaving only the text. For more information about CAML queries and Site Data queries, see the SharePoint SDK.
Specify item limit: Specify a number of items to be returned from the query.
Field: The field to retrieve the data from. More than one field can be selected.
1. Select the required field to retrieve the data from and click Add.
2. Specify a workflow variable to store the values selected from the field query.
Note: If a variable that is not a collection is selected, only the first result will be stored.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
The Query User Profile action will retrieve information about a user from their SharePoint user profile.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The login name of the user whose profile should be queried. Multiple users can be specified.
A list of available profile properties that the action can read. More than one property may be retrieved.
To specify the property to retrieve:
Note: If a variable that is not a collection is selected, only the first result will be stored.
An account with permissions to query the user profiles.
The Query XML action allows the reading, transforming or querying of XML Data.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The XML source can be selected from these three options:
Return query results as text, inner XML or outer XML.
Use the drop-down to specify where the resulting text should be stored. More than one output value may be entered. To specify additional output select Add output and fill in the required information.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
PLEASE NOTE: The Word document must be in the docx format (either Word 2007, Word 2010 or Word 2013). Files in the format ".doc" cannot save content controls - it converts them to static content.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The document where the 'content control' is to be read from. Select either:
However if the selected workflow variable to store the content control values is type of Collection, all the values returned from all the content controls with the specified title will be saved.
This workflow action allows a regular expression to be performed on a block of text. A regular expression is a pattern that can match various text strings. It can be used to either check if the text matches a regular expression pattern or replace parts of the text that match a regular expression with different text.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The regular expression pattern to apply to the text. This action uses the Microsoft .NET regular expression syntax.
Use this option to specify that the pattern should be treated as case insensitive. When this option is selected, a pattern that matches 'T' will also match 't'.
The input text to which the regular expression will be applied.
The workflow variable in which to store the output from the operation. The drop-down will list:
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will remove a User from an Active Directory security group.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
To configure the LDAP Path, refer to the LDAP Picker for more information.
The Active Directory username (sAMAccountName) of the user. E.g. jsmith.
The name of an existing Group from which the user will be removed. E.g. Finance.
This action allows the request of one or more users to process an approval as part of the workflow.
For more details on the actual process please refer to Approving, Rejecting and Reviewing Items.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Visible on the design canvas will be two branches that dictate the path followed by the workflow depending on the response from the task approvers, to the right is the approval branch and the left the rejected branch.
The Approvers list contains all users or groups that will be assigned the approval task during the running of the published workflow.
Users can be:
- Entered directly using their username, email address or full name and will be resolved where possible against the SharePoint user list or Active Directory.
- Search for users, click on the address book icon on the right.
Please note that users not part of the Active Directory can be added as Approvers by specifying their email address. However, the only way that they can respond to the Task is through LazyApproval as they will have no access to the SharePoint site.
To search for users, click on the address book icon on the right.
The configuration dialog allows the workflow designer to search for and/or add users to the Approvers list by one or more of the following methods:
- Internal Search: Entering a partial display name, email or user account name and clicking on the magnifying glass will provide a list of matching users and groups from SharePoint as well as Active Directory
- External email address: Enter an external email address manually. Where possible Nintex Workflow will resolve this to an actual user account.
- Lookup: Provides the option of adding a dynamic reference as an approver. e.g. Workflow variable, list field.
Click the title bar to expand or collapse each option.
Create individual tasks for all group members
In the case that a group is assigned the approval task and Create individual tasks for all group members checkbox is:
- not selected, all users in that group will receive the task notification. The first respondent will represent the entire group.
- selected, an individual task will be assigned to every group member.
Users can be entered directly by their username, email address or full name and will be resolved where possible against the SharePoint user list. Users and groups that do not resolve automatically with the system users will require LazyApproval to complete their assigned task.
When this option is selected the assigned approver at runtime can delegate the task to another user. For more information, please refer to the Delegating Approval Tasks.
If LazyApproval has been enabled on the server, the workflow can permit the approvers to use LazyApproval. Lazy Approval means that an approval or rejection can be registered when the approver replies to a notification email or an automated OCS / Lync conversation with an approved word or phrase. A system administrator can edit or add to the list of acceptable terms. For more information, please refer to the Managing LazyApproval settings.
Allows entry of dynamic text that will display on the task response form. This can be used to communicate additional information about the task to the responding user. Insert Reference see Inserting reference fields.
There are four options that will determine which approvals are required at runtime in case of multiple assigned users.
- All must approve: Each user in the Approvers list must approve the item for it to qualify as approved. If one of the users denies or rejects the item, the item will be considered denied or rejected.
- First response applies: The first response received will be used for the overall outcome. All other pending tasks will be set to 'not required'.
- Only one approval is required: The task will be deemed as approved as soon as one approval response is accepted. All other approval requests will subsequently no longer be required.
- Vote: The number of approvals from users required for the document to be considered approved can be set using the "Vote" option. A text field will appear and a whole number equal to or less than the total number of approvers set in the Approvers section can be entered.
Allows the title of the task to be defined. This is the title that appears in a SharePoint task list. If left blank, the action title will be used by default.
Allows a task content type other than the default to be used. This option will only display if an alternative content type is available on the site. Alternative content types are primarily used to enable custom task response forms.
Specifies the value that should be assigned to the priority flag for the task.
Set a date for the task to be completed by. Note: When tasks appear in Nintex Mobile Apps, the tasks list will be sorted by this due date.
Choose which form type is presented to Approvers.
Allows a unique identifier for the action to be stored in an Action ID workflow variable. This identifier can be used to link the action to Delegate Task and Task reminder actions. Please note that the Action ID does not correspond to the ID of the SharePoint task item that is created.
When the workflow runs, the ID given to each task that is created will be stored into an Integer, List Item ID or Collection workflow variable.
Set user permissions to: Sets the user permission on the item.
When task is complete, set user permissions to: Sets the user permission on the item after the task has been completed.
Note: Setting the item permissions could be useful when the task is delegated, this will give the delegated user the necessary permissions to view the item.
When an outcome is achieved, sets the % Complete value for "Not Required" tasks to 100%.
Sent when the task is assigned to a user, also used when the task is delegated by one user to another.
Changing this setting from the default All Approvers allows the setting of separate notification options for each Approver in the list. In such a case please check the settings for each user.
Changes to All Approvers will not affect users who are given custom settings.
When this option is selected the assigned approver at runtime can delegate the task to another user. For more information, please refer to the Delegating Approval Tasks.
If LazyApproval has been enabled on the server, the workflow can permit the approvers to use About LazyApproval. Lazy Approval means that an approval or rejection can be registered when the approver replies to a notification email or an automated OCS or Lync conversation with an approved word or phrase. A system administrator can edit or add to the list of acceptable terms. For more information, please refer to the Managing LazyApproval settings.
Delivery type is the method of delivering the notification to the recipients.
Available delivery options; None, Email, User preference or Instant Message (if enabled on the server). For information on User preference, please refer to the Configuring user preferences.
Please note: Nintex does not provide support for troubleshooting email, SMS / OCS systems.
If Allow LazyApproval is checked and Delivery type selected is IM. The option Send a conversation request to confirm if the user is available to respond will be available. Checking this option will ask the assignee if they are available to respond, if the assignee responds with "No", the Delivery type will be switched to Email and the assignee will receive a notification email instead.
If at anytime the assignee does not respond within 5 minutes to the automated OCS / Lync conversation, the conversation will end and a notification email to complete the tasks will be sent instead.
The CC field sets read only users who will receive the notification. CC recipients are not able to respond to the tasks.
To set the CC field click on to open the Select People and Groups configuration dialog.
The BCC field sets read only users who will receive the email. BCC recipitants are not able to respond to the tasks. Other users addressed in the email via the To, CC and BCC fields will not be able to see any addresses in the BCC field. To set the BCC field, enter the account name, or alternatively, select the address book icon for additional options.
The From field sets the user or domain group that will appear as the sender of the message. This setting applies to emails only. If no From user or domain group is specified, the From address configured in Global Settings will be used.
The priority of the notification. This is only applicable when using email notifications.
The Subject is the title of the notification being sent. If an Instant Message is being sent it will be pre-pended to the body of the notification.
Added manually or by clicking on , to use Insert reference fields from within the runtime instance of the workflow.
Allows file attachments to be added to the notification. You can specify multiple URLs by separating each URL with a semicolon. You can also specify multiple URLs by referencing a collection variable.
Files will not be received by a user when SMS or IM is selected as the delivery method. For information on User preference, please refer to the Configuring user preferences.
This sets the format of the email.Selecting:
Rich Text enables italicize, bold, underline and indent information within the email using simple HTML styles provided by the SharePoint rich text tool bar. Plain Text is simply the text without any stylized formatting.
The body of the notification will adapt depending on whether the Rich Text or Plain Text format is selected. Within the space provided enter the content for the notification as straight text, also available are Insert reference fields from within the workflow.
Sent when the user no longer needs to respond to the task. This can occur when:
- A task is assigned to multiple users but only one is required to respond.
- The workflow is terminated prior to the task being processed.
- An error occurs in the workflow at runtime.
The notifications inherit default messages which can be edited by an Administrator. For more information, please refer to the Defining message templates.
See above Ribbon Option: Task Notification above for field descriptions.
A custom task form can be used to respond to an approval task. Please download the Nintex Workflow SDK from http://www.nintex.com for more information.
This workflow action assigns a task to a specified user. To complete the task, the user must provide a value for each data item specified in the action configuration. The workflow will wait for the task to be completed before continuing the execution. Once the task is completed, the data that the user entered is available within the workflow.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The user or group to retrieve data from. This task can only be assigned to a single user or group. If it is assigned to a group, the first group member to respond will act on behalf of the entire group.
Note: Although the People Picker field will allow multiple users to be added, the first person added will be the only person notified and the only person who can approve the task. If a group is added, all will receive the notification, but only one person will be able to respond. This is because the workflow action will only create a single task, and only one user will be able to respond to the task. Also, once one person responds to the task, the task will be completed and the other user will not be able to provide input.
To search for users, click on the address book icon on the right.
The configuration dialog allows the workflow designer to search for and/or add users to the Assignees list by one or more of the following methods:
- Internal Search: Entering a partial display name, email or user account name and clicking on the magnifying glass will provide a list of matching users and groups from SharePoint as well as Active Directory.
- External email address: Enter an external email address manually. Where possible Nintex Workflow will resolve this to an actual user account.
- Lookup: Provides the option of adding a dynamic reference as an approver. e.g. Workflow variable, list field.
Click the title bar to expand or collapse each option.
When the action runs, it creates a task for the user to complete. Each data item is created as a field in a task content type, and this content type is used when creating a task.
An existing content type can be used, or a new content type constructed. The list of existing content types will show all content types that inherit from the 'Workflow Task' content type. The new content type will also inherit from this parent. See the SharePoint documentation for more information on content types.
If an existing content type is chosen, the option will appear to make changes to the content type. This can include removing, adding or modifying existing fields. This option should be used with caution, as changes may affect other workflows or applications that use the content type.
A content type is only created or modified when the workflow is published, not when it is saved. If you define a new content type, then save the workflow, your changes will be lost when you next edit the workflow.
In this panel the data items to request from the user are defined. Each represents a field in the selected Content Type.
Each field has the option to store the value in a workflow variable. This will enable the value to be used directly in the workflow without it having to be looked up manually with a Set Variable action.
Further options for each field can be set from the SharePoint Content Type settings page.
The content type is only updated when the workflow is published.
When the workflow is published, it will generate a form for the task. This form is associated with the task content type and will overwrite an existing form if it exists. This option allows the designer to specify whether to publish the form or not when the content type already exists. If other applications use the form, or the form has been customised, the designer may not want to republish it so the changes are not lost.
When this option is selected, only data fields that have a variable selected for 'Store Result In' will have a visible input field on the published form. If this option is not selected, all the data items displayed in the field list will have input fields on the form.
The generated form is a standard list item edit page and can be customized in SharePoint Designer. The form is stored in the Workflows/NintexWorkflows/workflowname folder and will be named the same as the content type.
Note that the form is only published when the workflow is published.
When this option is selected, the published task form will have a field called 'Link' containing a hyperlink back to the item that the workflow is running on. This is used to provide context about the workflow item for the user responding to the task.
When this option is selected, the default SharePoint task form will display a panel with the field names and values of the item that the workflow is running on. This option does not affect the task form published by Nintex.
When this option is selected, the published task form will display a link to add attachments to the task item. The task respondent will then have the opportunity to optionally attach one or more files to the form.
This option allows the selection of a collection workflow variable in which to store the URL of each attachment that the task respondent added to the task. This option is only available if Allow attachments is enabled, or if Publish task form is disabled.
On the default task edit page, this text will appear at the top of the page before the input controls. It is stored in the task's description field.
When this option is selected, the user whom the task was assigned to will have the option to reassign it to another user.
When this option is selected, the user can complete the task by replying to the notification email. The email will contain a basic form, providing a location for the user to enter each requested value. By default, the form is appended to the message body. To control the location of the form, use the following token in the Input Required message:
{LAZY_APPROVAL_DATA_FORM}
Note: the email form only shows fields that have variables assigned.
For more information see the About LazyApproval help topic.
The title that will be assigned to the task.
Specifies the value that should be assigned to the priority flag for the task.
Set a date for the task to be completed by. Note: When tasks appear in Nintex Mobile Apps, the tasks list will be sorted by this due date.
Action IDs are used to link a task action to other actions in the workflow that are task related, such as the Task Reminder. Select an Action ID workflow variable to link this task to another action.
This will store the SharePoint list item ID of the created task into an integer workflow variable. This value can then be used to reference the task list item directly in workflow lookups.
Set user permissions to: Sets the user permission on the item.
When task is complete, set user permissions to: Sets the user permission on the item after the task has been completed.
Note: Setting the item permissions could be useful when the task is delegated, this will give the delegated user the necessary permissions to view the item.
Select the Default form or an InfoPath form.
Delivery type is the method of delivering the notification to the recipients.
Available delivery options; None, Email, User preference or Instant Message (if enabled on the server). For information on User preference, please refer to the Configuring user preferences.
The CC field sets read only users who will receive the notification. CC recipients are not able to respond to the tasks.
To set the CC field click on to open the Select People and Groups configuration dialog.
The BCC field sets read only users who will receive the email. BCC recipitants are not able to respond to the tasks. Other users addressed in the email via the To, CC and BCC fields will not be able to see any addresses in the BCC field. To set the BCC field, enter the account name, or alternatively, select the address book icon for additional options.
The From field sets the user or domain group that will appear as the sender of the message. This setting applies to emails only. If no From user or domain group is specified, the From address configured in Global Settings will be used.
The priority of the notification. This is only applicable when using email notifications.
The Subject is the title of the notification being sent. Manually enter the text or click the button to use Insert reference fields to build the string dynamically at run time.
Allows file attachments to be added to the notification. You can specify multiple URLs by separating each URL with a semicolon. You can also specify multiple URLs by referencing a collection variable.
Files will not be received by a user when SMS or IM is selected as the delivery method. For information on User preference, please refer to the Configuring user preferences.
This sets the format of the email.
Selecting:
Rich Text enables italicize, bold, underline and indent information within the email using simple HTML styles provided by the SharePoint rich text tool bar. Plain Text is simply the text without any stylized formatting.
The body of the notification will adapt depending on whether the Rich Text or Plain Text format is selected. Within the space provided enter the content for the notification as straight text and Inserting reference fields from with the workflow.
Sent when the user no longer needs to respond to the task. This can occur when:
- A task is assigned to multiple users but only one is required to respond.
- The workflow is terminated prior to the task being processed.
- An error occurs in the workflow at runtime.
See Ribbon Option: Task Notification above for field descriptions.
Optional notification Reminders can be configured to be sent to each assignee who has not yet completed the task.
The number of reminders to be sent.
The delay before sending each reminder in days, hours and minutes.
The total time is calculated by summing all fields, regardless of the Time calculation option selected. For example, 4 days and 4 minutes will be calculated as 96 (24x4) hours and 4 minutes.
Specifies whether or not hours outside the work week should be included when counting down to send a reminder.
The During business days only option will specify that weekends or holidays are not included in the countdown, but after hours on a business day are.Example:
- The task is assigned Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day before sending a reminder (the work week is defined as Monday to Friday).
- A reminder will be sent Monday morning: weekends are not included in the countdown.
The During business hours only option specifies that only business hours are used in the count down.Example:
- The task is assigned Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours before sending a reminder (the work day is defined as Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm).
- A reminder will be sent at 11am on Thursday: after-business hours are not included in the countdown.
If neither option is selected, all hours will be included in the count down.
Examples:
- The task is assigned Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day before sending a reminder.
- A reminder will be sent Saturday morning: weekends are included in the countdown.
- The task is assigned Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours before sending a reminder.
- A reminder will be sent at 8pm on Wednesday: after-business hours are included in the countdown.
Public holidays and any other special occasions are set using the "Site Settings > Nintex Workflow > Manage Holidays" page.
See Ribbon Option: Task Notification above for additional field descriptions.
Escalation is optional, there are two possible escalation paths:
- Delegate task will re-assign all pending tasks to the nominated user after the specified time.
- Complete task will automatically complete the task.
Escalation occurs after all reminders have been sent and the specified "Time to escalation" has elapsed.
See Ribbon Option: Reminders above for additional field descriptions.
This action is used to assign a task and send a notification to one or more users to review an item as part of the workflow. For more details on the review process please refer to Approving, Rejecting and Reviewing Items.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Ribbon Option: Action
The Reviewers list contains all users or groups that will be assigned the review task during the running of the published workflow.
Users can be entered directly by their username, email address or full name, and will be resolved where possible against the SharePoint user list.
In the case that a group is assigned the review task and Expand Groups is not selected, all users in that group will receive the task but the first response will represent the whole group. If Expand Groups is selected, an individual task will be assigned to every group member. Note that groups will only be expanded at one level. Groups within groups will not be expanded.
In order to search for the reviewers click on the address book icon to the right of the reviewers input box. The Select People and Groups dialog will appear.
The Select People and Groups dialog allows the workflow designer to search for and/or add users to the Reviewers list by one or more of the following methods:
- Internal Search: Entering a partial display name, email or user account name and clicking on the magnifying glass will provide a list of matching users and groups from SharePoint as well as Active Directory.
- External email address: Enter an external email address manually. Where possible Nintex Workflow will resolve this to an actual user account.
Lookup: Select a property reference to add to the list. These are broken up into common types such as the initiator of the workflow and their manager, as well as properties from the current SharePoint list. The item properties that are included are any column that is of a "Person or Group" type or contains the word "Email" in the name.
Create individual tasks for all group members
In the case when a group is assigned the task and Create individual tasks for all group members checkbox is:
- not selected, all users in that group will receive the task notification. The first respondent will represent the entire group.
- selected, an individual task will be assigned to every member of the group.
Groups will only be expanded to one level. Groups within groups will not be expanded.Users can be entered directly using their username, email address or full name and will be resolved where possible against the SharePoint user list or Active Directory.
When this option is selected the assignee at runtime can delegate the task to another user. For more information, please refer to the Delegating Approval Tasks.
If LazyApproval has been enabled, the workflow can permit the assignees to use LazyApproval. Lazy Approval means that a task response can be registered when the assignee replies to a notification email or an automated OCS / Lync conversation. In a Request Review action, the users response will be used for the task comments. Changing the allow LazyApproval option on the 'Action' ribbon option is the same as changing the 'Allow LazyApproval' option for all assignees on the 'Task Notification' ribbon option. See the 'Task Notification' ribbon option section below for more information.
Allows entry of dynamic text that will display on the task response form. This can be used to communicate additional information about the task to the responding user. The description can be built up dynamically be using the Insert Reference function. For more information see Inserting reference fields.
There are two options that will determine which reviewers are required at runtime in case of multiple assigned users.
- All must review: Each user in the Reviewers list must review the item. The workflow will not proceed until a response has been received from each reviewer or reviewer's delegate.
- First response applies: The first response is registered and enables the workflow to continue. All other review requests will subsequently no longer be required and a no longer required notification will be sent to remaining reviewers if configured.
Allows the title of the task to be defined. This is the title that appears in a SharePoint task list. If left blank, the action title will be used by default.
Allows a task content type other than the default to be used. This option will only display if an alternative content type is available on the site. Alternative content types are primarily used to enable custom task response forms.
Specifies the value that should be assigned to the priority flag for the task.
Set a date for the task to be completed by. Note: When tasks appear in Nintex Mobile Apps, the tasks list will be sorted by this due date.
Choose which form type is presented to Reviewers. Choices are Default, InfoPath, or Custom.
Allows a unique identifier for the action to be stored in an Action ID workflow variable. This identifier can be used to link the action to Delegate Task and Task reminder actions. Please note that the Action ID does not correspond to the ID of the SharePoint task item that is created.
When the workflow runs, the ID given to each task that is created will be stored into an Integer, List Item ID or Collection workflow variable.
Set user permissions to: Sets the user permission on the item.
When task is complete, set user permissions to: Sets the user permission on the item after the task has been completed.
Note: Setting the item permissions could be useful when the task is delegated, this will give the delegated user the necessary permissions to view the item.
When an outcome is achieved, sets the % Complete value for "Not Required" tasks to 100%.
Changing this setting from the default All Reviewers, allows the configuration of unique notification options for each Reviewer in the list.
Unless specifically configured, assignees will use the All Assignees settings. To override settings for a specific Reviewer, select their name from the drop down list.
Changes to All Reviewer will not affect users who are given custom settings.
When this option is selected the assignee at runtime can delegate the task to another user. For more information, please refer to the Delegating Approval Tasks.
If LazyApproval has been enabled, the workflow can permit the assignees to use LazyApproval. Lazy Approval means that a task response can be registered when the assignee replies to a notification email or an automated OCS / Lync conversation. In a Request Review action, the users response will be used for the task comments.
Delivery type is the method of delivering the notification to the recipients.
Available delivery options; None, Email, User preference or Instant Message (if enabled on the server). For information on User preference, please refer to Configuring user preferences.
If Allow LazyApproval is checked and Delivery type selected is IM. The option Send a conversation request to confirm if the user is available to respond will be available. Checking this option will ask the assignee if they are available to respond, if the assignee responds with "No", the Delivery type will be switched to Email and the assignee will receive a notification email instead.
If at anytime the assignee does not respond within 5 minutes to the automated OCS or Lync conversation, the conversation will end and a notification email to complete the tasks will be sent instead.
The CC field sets read only users who will receive the notification. CC recipients are not able to respond to the tasks.
To set the CC field click on to open the Select People and Groups configuration dialog
The BCC field sets read only users who will receive the email. BCC recipitants are not able to respond to the tasks. Other users addressed in the email via the To, CC and BCC fields will not be able to see any addresses in the BCC field. To set the BCC field, enter the account name, or alternatively, select the address book icon for additional options.
The From field sets the user or domain group that will appear as the sender of the message. This setting applies to emails only. If no From user or domain group is specified, the From address configured in Global Settings will be used.
The priority of the notification. This is only applicable when using email notifications.
The Subject is the title of the notification being sent. If an Instant Message is being sent it will be pre-pended to the body of the notification.
The Subject line can be typed manually or built up dynamically at runtime using the Insert reference fields button .
Allows file attachments to be added to the notification. You can specify multiple URLs by separating each URL with a semicolon. You can also specify multiple URLs by referencing a collection variable.
Files will not be received by a user when SMS or IM is selected as the delivery method. For information on User preference, please refer to Configuring user preferences.
This sets the format of the email.
Selecting:
Rich Text enables italics, bold, underline and indenting within the email using simple HTML styles provided by the SharePoint rich text tool bar. Plain Text is simply the text without any stylized formatting.
The body of the notification will adapt depending on whether the Rich Text or Plain Text format is selected. Within the space provided enter the content for the notification as straight text, also available are Insert reference fields from within the workflow.
Use the Not Required Notification area to configure the notification that is sent when the user no longer needs to respond to the task. This can occur when:
This workflow action can be used to retrieve data which has been stored using the Store data workflow action. Using both the Store data and Retrieve data workflow actions, it is possible to pass data between workflow instances.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The instance ID of the workflow to retrieve data from. Select either:
Note: Using the Start Workflow workflow action within the current workflow, a new workflow can be started. The instance ID of the new workflow can then be stored in a workflow variable which then can be selected. This can be used by a parent workflow to start a child workflow and return a value to the parent workflow.
The same value that was specified in the 'Store as' field in the Store data workflow action of the workflow instance to retrieve from.
E.g. If the 'Store as' value specified in the Store data workflow action is 'KeyValue', the Item to retrieve value must be 'KeyValue'.
Select the workflow variable that the data will be stored in.
This workflow action sets a condition to dictate the logic that is processed at runtime. E.g. the workflow actions contained within the Run If action will only execute if the condition evaluates to true.
This action is similar to the Set a condition action.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This condition type evaluates if an individual field of the current item matches or compares to a certain value/column.
This condition allows the use of two fields, two workflow variables or two lookups to compare at runtime.
This condition allows a comparison to be performed that determines if the item's title contains certain specific words.
This condition evaluates to true if the current item is modified between two specified dates.
This condition evaluates to true if the item has been modified by a specific person. The username is case sensitive.
Once the name has been entered click Check name button to validate user.
This condition checks if the specified user is a member of the SharePoint site.
This condition checks if the item was created between the specified dates.
If manually entering information, ensure that the date format matches that used in the SharePoint environment.
This condition checks if an item was created by a specific user.
Once the name has been entered click the Check name button to validate user.
This condition checks if the file type extension of the current item is of the specified type.
This condition checks if the file size of a document is between the specified sizes, in kilobytes.
This condition checks if the permissions of a specified user matches or is higher than the specified permission level provided for an item in a list. It does not check that the users have specific permission levels. A user can be a single user, multiple users or a group. For the condition to evaluate as true, the user/s must have at least the permissions that the permission levels provide.
This condition checks if permission levels of a specified user matches or is higher than the permission levels for an item within this list. A user can be a single user or multiple users but cannot be a group for this condition. For the condition to evaluate as true, the users must have the permission levels specified in the condition.
Multiple conditions can be constructed by using the Add condition option.
Specify And or Or between the condition statements.
Conditions are evaluated in order, from first to last condition (top to bottom). For example, the first two conditions are evaluated, and then that result is evaluated against the next condition. This pattern continues until a final result is reached.
This workflow action runs at least two workflow actions simultaneously.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
There is no configuration required for this workflow action. However, it is important to note that the workflow will not continue until all workflow paths have been completed. To run more than two actions at a time, left-click on the action title and select 'Add Branch'. If a branch is left empty the workflow will continue to run.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
This workflow action will retrieve property values by performing a SharePoint search query.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The search scope to use for the query.
Searches for SharePoint content that has properties matching the criteria. Individual words should be separated by a space character.
Specify a file type filter for the search. A pre-defined file type can be selected, or a custom filter entered into the text input box. To retrieve all file types, select 'all results' or clear the text input box.
Allows further narrowing of the search results by only returning items where the property restriction rules are true.
Determines which property data will be retrieved from the search result. Multiple properties can be selected.
This option specifies whether to return the result set in an XML string. Returning the results as XML allows further processing and styling to be applied with the Query XML workflow action. A text workflow variable must be chosen to store the result if Return as XML is selected.
Specifies the workflow variable to store the search results in. If the workflow variable can only hold a single value, only the first property of the first search result will be returned. If a collection variable is selected, each property of each search result is stored.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only.
This workflow action is used to enable interaction with BizTalk Server 2006. The action can send messages into a BizTalk orchestration and/or wait for a message from BizTalk. The action allows a workflow to interact with any external system with which BizTalk interoperates.
For more information on setting up Nintex Workflow to interoperate with a BizTalk orchestration, please download the Nintex Workflow SDK from http://www.nintex.com.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Specifies whether the workflow is only sending a message to BizTalk, waiting for a message to arrive from BizTalk or both.
A unique identifier that is used by Nintex Workflow when the BizTalk message handler receives a message. Nintex Workflow uses this value to determine for which workflow a message is intended.
The following settings define the web service location where the BizTalk orchestration is published. These items are only required when the action is sending a message into BizTalk. These details are defined when running the BizTalk Web Services Publishing Wizard tool.
The URL of the published BizTalk web service.
The web method of the web service to invoke.
The namespace of the web service.
Username and password, if required, to access the web service.
The following settings define the data that is sent to BizTalk, and the data that is expected in messages from BizTalk.
The XML Namespace for the messages that are generated. This will be reflected in the schema.
This option allows the current workflow item to be sent to BizTalk, instead of defining individual data from the workflow. If this option is used, the schema must be provided by the user.
Allows selection of the data that must make up the message to send to BizTalk. Each data item will be presented as an element in the resulting message.
Allows selection of the data that is expected in a message from BizTalk. Only workflow variables can be selected. After the message has been received, the workflow variables will hold the values that they were mapped to in BizTalk.
Nintex Workflow generates the schema file for both the 'data to send' and 'data to receive' messages. These schema files can be imported into BizTalk to define messages. Each definition contains a header section containing information used by Nintex Workflow for routing the message and a content section containing the data items specified.
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
This workflow action can be used to specify by what method and to which repository or records center a document set is sent.
To be able to define rules and send documents, the Content Organizer site feature has to be enabled in the SharePoint site.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select how the document set will be sent. Select one of the following values:
Enter the URL to the Content Organizer for the destination site. The URL can be found in the Submission Points section of the 'Content Organizer: Settings' page of the destination repository, for example: 'http://mycompany.com/_vti_bin/OfficialFile.asmx'.
This workflow action can be used to specify by what method and to which repository or records center a document is sent.
To be able to set rules and send documents, the 'Content Organizer' SharePoint site feature has to be enabled in the SharePoint site.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select how the document will be sent. Select one of the following values:
Enter the URL to the Content Organizer for the destination site. The URL can be found in the Submission Points section of the 'Content Organizer: Settings' page of the destination repository. For example: 'http://mycompany.com/_vti_bin/OfficialFile.asmx'.
This workflow action will send customizable workflow notifications to users via Email, SMS or Instant Message via Microsoft Office Communication Server or Live Communications Server.
For more information on Office Communication Server, please refer to the Microsoft Office Communication Server website.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Sets the primary users who will receive the customized notification.
To set the primary users click on to open the Select People and Groups configuration dialog.
Send individual notifications
The BCC field sets read only users who will receive the email. BCC recipients are not able to respond to the tasks. Other users addressed in the email via the To, CC and BCC fields will not be able to see any addresses in the BCC field. To set the BCC field, enter the account name, or alternatively, select the address book icon for additional options.
The From field sets the user or domain group that will appear as the sender of the message. This setting applies to emails only. If no From user or domain group is specified, the From address configured in Global Settings will be used. To set the from user click on to open the Select People and Groups configuration dialog.
The priority of the notification. This is only applicable when using email notifications.
The Subject is the title of the notification being sent. Added manually or by clicking on , to use Insert reference fields from within the runtime instance of the workflow. The Subject field can be set within the list or library where the workflow is being used
If an email is sent it will appear as the header or title of the email.
If an Instant Message is being sent it will be pre-appended to the body of the notification.
Allows file attachments to be added to the notification. You can specify multiple URLs by separating each URL with a semicolon. You can also specify multiple URLs by referencing a collection variable.
Please note: Files will not be received by a user when SMS or IM is selected as the delivery method.
This sets the format of the email.
Selecting:
Rich Text enables italicize, bold, underline and indent information within the email using simple HTML styles provided by the SharePoint rich text tool bar.
Plain Text is simply the text without any stylized formatting.
The body of the notification will adapt depending on whether the Rich Text or Plain Text format is selected. Within the space provided enter the content for the notification as straight text, also available are Insert reference fields from within the workflow.
Specifies whether or not the configured message header and footer template should be used in this email notification. This option is only available when enabled by an administrator.
Delivery type is the method of delivering the notification to the selected users. Available delivery options; Email, User preference or Instant Message (if enable on the server). For information on User preference, please refer to the Configuring user preferences.
This workflow action processes logic within the workflow that will run when a certain condition evaluates to true or false.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
When the action is added to the design canvas there are 2 branches. To the right is the Yes branch which is the path followed if the condition evaluates to true, to the left is the No branch followed if the condition is false.
There are twelve types of conditions that can be used here. These are:
This condition type evaluates if an individual field of the current item matches or compares to a certain value/column.
Please note: When configuring the workflow action, the Where section is case sensitive.
This condition allows the use of two fields, two workflow variables or two lookups to compare at runtime.
Please note: When configuring the workflow action, the Where section is case sensitive.
This condition allows a comparison to be performed that determines if the item's title contains certain specific words.
This condition evaluates to true if the current item is modified between two specified dates.
This condition evaluates to true if the item has been modified by a specific person. The username is case sensitive.
Once the name has been entered click Check name button to validate user.
This condition checks if the specified user is a member of the SharePoint site.
This condition checks if the item was created between the specified dates.
If manually entering information, ensure that the date format matches that used in the SharePoint environment.
This condition checks if an item was created by a specific user.
Once the name has been entered click the Check name button to validate user.
This condition checks if the file type extension of the current item is of the specified type.
This condition checks if the file size of a document is between the specified sizes, in kilobytes.
The following two conditions are available when running the workflow action as the workflow owner (impersonation):
This condition checks if the permissions of a specified user matches or is higher than the specified permission level provided for an item in a list. It does not check that the users have specific permission levels. A user can be a single user, multiple users or a group. For the condition to evaluate as true, the user/s must have at least the permissions that the permission levels provide.
This condition checks if permission levels of a specified user matches or is higher than the permission levels for an item within this list. A user can be a single user or multiple users but cannot be a group for this condition. For the condition to evaluate as true, the users must have the permission levels specified in the condition.
There are many operators that can be used within this condition, e.g. equals, not equals to, greater than, less than, is empty, contains etc.
Enter data manually into the text box or use lookups to dynamically build the values at run time.
Multiple conditions can be constructed by using the Add condition option.
Specify And or Or between the condition statements.
Conditions are evaluated in order, from first to last condition (top to bottom). For example, the first two conditions are evaluated, and then that result is evaluated against the next condition. This pattern continues until a final result is reached.
This workflow action will set the value of a Workflow variable and works in conjunction with Using lookups.
Note: at least one workflow variable needs to be created for this action to be relevant.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This workflow action is used by the workflow to update the built-in SharePoint approval status of the current item.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This mandatory field determines the status attributed to the item. Select a value from the drop-down menu.
The comments entered here will be associated with the update to the status of the item. Enter comments manually, or build up the string dynamically at run time using the Insert Reference.
In order for this workflow action to work properly, the library or list to which the workflow is associated to must have Content Approval activated. To activate Content Approval:
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
This workflow action is used by the workflow to update the built-in SharePoint approval status of the document set.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
This mandatory field determines the status attributed to the document set. Select a value from the drop-down menu.
The comments entered here will be associated with the update to the status of the document set. To insert values to be evaluated at runtime, use the lookups feature.
In order for this workflow action to work properly, the library or list to which the workflow is associated must have Content Approval activated. To activate Content Approval:
This workflow action updates one of the fields of the current item within the workflow.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select the field that the workflow action will set from the drop-down menu. Either specify a value or use the lookups feature to set the value of the field selected.
This workflow action allows the permissions to be changed for an item on which the workflow is running.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select either the Current item that the workflow is running on, or one of the available lists or libraries.
If selecting a library list or library location, the Where selector will appear.
This drop-down is used to break the link to the parent permission set (the permissions used in the library or list that contains the item in workflow). Once the option No is selected, specific permissions for specific users can be set.
When this option is selected, removes existing permissions before adding new permissions that are defined in the action. Existing permissions are those defined for the item before the action is run.
Let’s say that the current permissions inherit from the parent, which is set to Design for all users in the Members group. You configure the action to add Contribute to all users in the Owners group.
Select a user or group to assign access permissions for the item.
The level of permission that can be assigned to a user or group for the item. Unless Remove existing permissions is selected, the permission will be added to the user's existing rights. Choose the Remove option in the drop down list to remove all permissions from a user or group. Permissions are processed in the order that they are configured, therefore permissions can be cleared from a user in the first panel, then a new permission level can be set for the same user in the second panel.
Click this link to add more users or groups to apply permissions to.
Note: if the Initiating user of the workflow does not have read permissions, the workflow may error. This is because the workflow is running as the user and requires the ability to read the list item.
This workflow action updates the status of the workflow instance as shown on the Workflows page. For list workflows, status is also shown in the workflow status column within the list.
You can use this action to track workflow status during the progress of the workflow instance, assigning either standard or custom workflow status values. Standard workflow status values include "In Progress," "Canceled," "Completed," and "Errored."
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Either enter a new status value (Add new status) or select a status value previously used in the current workflow. The specified status value is applied to the workflow instance when the action executes.
You can specify a custom value, such as "Workflow Started," or a standard workflow status value from SharePoint, such as "In Progress," "Canceled," "Completed," or "Errored." For example, you might add two instances of this action to a workflow: one at the beginning, with the status value "Workflow Started," and another at the end, with the status value "Completed."
This workflow action will initiate a site workflow or a different workflow in the current list or library. When designing a site workflow, you can only nominate another site workflow in the same site to use.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
From the drop-down that is presented, choose the title of a workflow to start. In lists or libraries, only published site workflows in the same site or published workflows in the list or library in which the current workflow is operating will be available. When designing a site workflow, only other published site workflows will be available.
If the workflow was created with Nintex Workflow and has start data specified, a form will be displayed to provide values. For a workflow that is provided out of the box, or installed as a Feature, a panel will be provided to edit the association xml.
Set the Start mode with one of the following:
When using the Schedule start mode, select one of the following schedule editor modes:
Note: When a date is typed in, it must be in the ISO8601 format.
Sharing data between workflows
The Store data and Retrieve data workflow actions can be used to transfer values between workflow instances. A workflow that is started by the Start workflow action can store a value with the Store data action, and the parent workflow can later retrieve that value with the Retrieve data action and the value stored from the Store Instance ID in option.
This workflow action provides a construct to define a number of states that the workflow can be in. Each state contains actions that will execute when the workflow is in that state. The workflow moves between states until it is instructed to end the state machine.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Note: The State machine workflow action cannot be copied.
Select a state from the drop-down to determine which will be used first when the workflow is run.
The State Machine supports the configuration of a number of states. States can be added, deleted and renamed. Deleting a state will delete all actions currently added to it.
The state machine construct uses Change State actions to set which state to run next. The actions in a state are repeated until a Change State action is encountered and all actions in the state have completed executing. Workflow execution does not move to the next state instantly when the Change State action is run. The workflow moves to the next state once all actions in the current state have completed executing.
The states can be made to run in any order and conditions in one state can cause another state to be re-run. The workflow continues executing actions in the state machine until it encounters a Change State action set to "End State Machine." The workflow then exits the state machine and continues with any actions defined below the state machine.
Note: To end a state machine, use the Change State action set to "End State Machine." Errors result from attempting to end state machines using End Workflow or other actions.
The following example image shows a state machine containing three states for each group's approval during an advertisement review cycle: Graphics Team for artwork review, Marketing Department for both content and artwork review, and CEO Approval for review of the entire advertisement. The workflow uses the Change State action to determine the next state. If the Marketing department rejects the artwork, the artwork returns to the Graphics department. If the CEO rejects the advertisement then it returns to the Marketing department.
Nintex Workflow state machine construct is very different from a Visual Studio created State Machine. Nintex workflows' are Windows Workflow Foundation sequential workflows. Nintex made the ‘state machine’ by wrapping up loops, parallel branches, if statements and variables to control it. It’s not a real state machine, but rather a construct to provide the ability to jump around between steps and mimic some of the scenarios that a state machine might be used for.
.NET 3.0 workflows come in 2 varieties. Sequential (like a flow chart) and state machines. With SharePoint declarative workflows (like the ones Nintex Workflow designs), these can only be sequential. To achieve the effect of a state machine in a sequential workflow, under the covers there is some clever logic made up of a while loop, parallel actions and various conditions.
With each iteration of the loop, a common workflow variable, used to store the current state, is evaluated to see if it should exit. Otherwise, it begins down each branch of the parallel action. At the top of each branch (state) is a condition to determine if the workflow should process actions in this branch. (if state = current state) The change state action sets the value of the current state workflow variable. Upon the next iteration of the loop, this determines which branch (state) to execute.
Each 'state' may have complex logic within it to determine the next. Using the 'wait for item update' action, or 'request approval', will ensure the state machine wait on user input before deciding which state to process next.
For 'states' that transitioned based on mutually exclusive inputs, it may be better off having several workflows that run when the item is modified. At the start of each workflow, use the filter action to check if the input conditions are met. If it is not, the workflow will end. In this scenario, each workflow essentially becomes a state.
This workflow action can be used to store data which can then be retrieved using the Retrieve data workflow action. Using both the Store data and Retrieve data workflow actions, it provides the ability to pass workflow variables (values) between workflow instances (running workflows).
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The instance ID of the workflow to store data to. Select either:
Note: By selecting a workflow instance ID, the Store data workflow action can store data to the workflow instance. Using the Retrieve data workflow action, the 'Workflow instance to retrieve from' can be set to 'Current workflow' and the 'Item to retrieve value' written to a workflow variable.
This is the user defined value that the data will be stored as.
E.g. If the 'Store as' value specified is 'KeyValue', the Item to retrieve value in the Retrieve data workflow action must be 'KeyValue'.
Select the workflow variable containing the data to be stored.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
* This workflow action applies to Microsoft SharePoint Server only
This workflow action will submit the item that the workflow is running on to the SharePoint Records Center that has been configured in the environment.
Note: This action is only available in workflows being created on document libraries.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The 'Record series' can be used to overwrite the default Record Center behaviour by specifying which routing record this item should follow. If Record series is left empty, the default routing record for the item content type will be used.
When a record is submitted, a status message is returned to describe the result of the submission process. The Record status can be used to select a workflow variable to store the outcome status message.
This workflow action directs the flow of actions based on the value of a single variable. A branch for each possible defined value is used to determine which branch of workflow actions will run.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Each time this action runs, either a single child branch or no child branch will execute - the workflow will continue to follow the main path of the workflow if none of the variables return matching values, bypassing the Switch construct completely.
This is the value that the action will evaluate to determine which child branch to run. Either an item property or a workflow variable that is a number or text value can be chosen.
This section lists the allowed values for the variable. A child branch will be rendered in the workflow designer for each specified value. Each specified value must be compatible with the data type of the selected variable. Only one value is allowed for any single branch.
Click Add switch value to add a new value. Click the button to remove a value. Removing a value will remove any workflow actions configured to run when the variable is equal to the value specified.
Choose this option to add an additional child branch that will run if the variable value does not match any of the listed possible values. Using this option provides an alternative set of actions to the main workflow instead of the Switch construct simply being bypassed.
This workflow action will send notifications to the approvers or reviewers of an outstanding task. This allows for reminder scenarios as seen below.
In this example, an approval task is assigned to a set of users and after a configured delay, if any approvers are still required to respond, they will receive a notification. The approval task will repeat waiting and sending messages 3 times. If the original approval task allows LazyApproval, the reminder notification will include the LazyApproval token in the subject to allow the workflow replies send to it.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Specify this workflow variable to nominate which request approval/review/data action to send reminders regarding.
When configuring a Request Approval, Request Review or Request Data action, nominate a workflow variable of type Action ID to store the assigned workflow action ID.
The action will repeat the delay and notifications this number of times.
The delay the action will wait inbetween sending each reminder.
Specifies whether or not hours outside the work week should be included when counting down to send a reminder.During business days only
The During business days only option will specify that weekends or holidays are not included in the count down, but after hours on a business day are.Example:
- A reminder starts counting down Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day (the work week is defined as Monday to Friday).
- A reminder will be sent Monday morning, weekends are not included in the count down.
During business hours only
The During business hours only option specifies that only business hours are used in the count down.Example:
- A reminder starts counting down Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours (the work day is defined as Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm).
- A reminder will be sent at 11am on Thursday, after business hours are not included in the count down.
Neither option
If neither option is selected, all hours will be included in the count down.Examples:
- A reminder starts counting down Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day.
- A reminder will be sent Saturday morning, weekends are included in the count down.
- A reminder starts counting down Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours.
- A reminder will be sent at 8pm on Wednesday, after business hours are included in the count down.
The CC field sets read only users who will receive the notification. CC recipients are not able to respond to the tasks.
The From field sets the user or domain group that will appear as the sender of the message.
This setting applies to emails only. If no From user or domain group is specified, the From address configured in Global Settings will be used.
The subject field of the notification.
Allows file attachments to be added to the notification.
This sets the format of the email.
Selecting:
Delivery type is the method of delivering the notification to the recipients.
Available delivery options; Email, User preference or Instant Message (if enable on the server). For information on User preference, please refer to the Configuring user preferences.
Please note: Nintex does not provide support for troubleshooting email, SMS or LCS systems.
This workflow action can be used to terminate any running or errored workflow on the current item.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select a workflow from the drop-down box. Either select a specific workflow that has been associated with the parent list or All except current workflow which will terminate all other workflows except the current.
Note: Only workflow instances on the current item will be terminated.
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
This workflow action can be used to undeclare the current item as a record within the workflow.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Note: There are no Options to configure within this workflow action.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will update the properties of an Active Directory user account.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
To configure the LDAP Path, refer to the LDAP Picker for more information.
The username (sAMAccountName) of the Active Directory entry.
Select fields from the drop down list. At least 1 field must be updated.
If a field to update is not available, select Other, and type the field name, then click the Add button.
Note: The Add button will appear when Other is selected.
The property name entered must be a valid Active Directory schema property. Some properties cannot be set within this workflow action. E.g. 'memberOf' must be updated via the 'Add User to AD Group' and 'Remove User from AD Group' workflow actions.
AD Fields to take note of:
Note: The credentials entered in the Username and Password fields at the top of the page will be used to connect to the new AD location.
Note: Setting this property will only affect the cn, canonicalName, distinguishedName and name properties in AD. Setting the Display Name, Given Name and Last Name properties to complete a rename operation may also be required.
OCS properties such as SIP Address and email will need to be set separately. The 'Rename' field is available from the 'Other fields' drop down menu.
Note: An account can't be locked out. By unchecking Enable, the account is disabled. Leaving it checked ensures it will be left in, or change to an enabled state. Checking Unlock will unlock the account.
Note: Leaving all 3 checkboxes unchecked will remove all options. The only valid multiple selection is User cannot change password AND Password never expires.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
This workflow action will update a record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM v4.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. A record can be updated for any entity, including custom entities.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
PLEASE NOTE: The Word document must be in the docx format (either Word 2007, Word 2010 or Word 2013). Files in the format ".doc" cannot save content controls - it converts them to static content.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The document to be updated. Select either:
This workflow action allows multiple fields in an item to be changed.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select either the Current item that the workflow is running on, or one of the available libraries.
Note: if the filter criteria returns more than one item, only the first item in the collection will be applied.
Select the fields that the action will update. More than one field can be selected. When a field is selected, an input field is added to the dialog to allow a value to be specified. To remove a field click on .
This workflow action can be used to update the fields of multiple items within a library or list in a specified site.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The target site where items that are to be updated reside.
Drop down list containing available Lists at the selected site.
Specify whether to update items within subfolders by checking this option.
The criteria that items in the list must match in order to be updated. Use the Filter to specify the update rules:
Select the fields that the action will update. More than one field can be selected. When a field is selected, an input field is added to the dialog to allow a value to be specified. To remove a field click on
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
* This action requires Microsoft SharePoint Server
This workflow action will update the SharePoint user profile information of a user.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The login name of the user whose profile should be updated. Multiple users can be specified.
To search for users, click on the address book icon to the right of the input box. The Select People and Groups dialog will appear:
An account with permissions to modify user profiles. Click on the padlock icon to get a list of predefined workflow constants which are of credential type.
Select the profile properties that the action will update. More than one property can be selected. When a property is selected, an input field is added to the dialog to allow a value to be specified. To remove a field click on .
The Update XML action is used to alter XML data. It can be used to alter an XML file that the workflow is running on, including InfoPath forms.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Specify the location of the XML to alter. A copy of this XML data is processed by the workflow action. Select one of the following options:
A number of update operations can be performed by a single Update XML action.
The XPath query to the XML nodes that will be altered. The XPath query can resolve to a single node, or a node list. If the result is a node list, the selected change will be applied to each node. Click on the XPath Builder button to use the XML browser to navigate the XML structure and select an element from the XML data.
Note: If the XML source specified for the action is available and all tokens and references are replaced with actual run time values, then the XPath Builder will use the XML source to display the XML structure within the XML browser. Otherwise, sample XML data will need to be provided in order to select the node using the XML browser.
The operation to perform on the selected node. Select one of the following options:
Add XML update: Select to define another update operation.
Specifies where the resulting XML should be stored. Select Workflow variables type or choose from the following options:
This workflow action delays the workflow until a property (list or library column) of the current item meets a specified condition.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
The "Wait for" field allows a column in the list or library where the current item is located to be selected. This column's value will be the one that the following condition needs to evaluate as true against to proceed in the workflow.
The condition contains the comparison that must be true for the workflow to move past this action. A comparison operator and a value must be specified. Refer to Using lookups for more information.
This workflow action can be used to pause the current workflow on a document and wait for the check out status to change before proceeding.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
Select the 'Check out' state that should be monitored for change:
This workflow action performs an HTTP request to a URL. It can be used to perform a variety of HTTP operations.
To use the workflow action:
Alternatively
To change the settings used by the action:
For more information on the other options in the drop-down, please refer to the Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
For more information about web requests, please refer to this MSDN reference.
The URL to which the HTTP request will be made.
The credentials that will be used for authentication to the URL. If no credentials are provided, the request will be made anonymously.
The Web Request action is capable of making many common HTTP calls. GET, POST, SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2 are predefined and Other can be selected to specify another operation. Input fields for headers will be displayed if they are required for the operation.
Specify the headers to be sent with the web request. Multiple headers can be selected by choosing the Add header option.
Specifies the textual data that is sent as the body of the web request. This option is available for all operations except GET. To include a base64 encoded copy of the file that the workflow is running on in the request text, type in [FileData] and it will be replaced at run time (libraries only).
Specifies that the bytes of the file on which the workflow is running should be sent as the web request body. This option is only available for workflows that are created on a document library.
Allows for the Keep alive option to be specified for the request.
Allows for the Auto redirect option to be specified for the request.
The workflow variable of text type in which to store the contents of the response.
The workflow variable text or number type in which to store the numeric http response code.
The workflow variable of collection type in which to store each response header. Each header will be represented by a single item in the collection, and will be formatted as header name=header value.
The workflow variable of collection type in which to store each response cookie. Each cookie will be represented by a single item in the collection, and will be formatted as cookie name=cookie value.
The Access management page is used to allow and disallow access to the services available in Nintex Live. These settings apply to all the SharePoint farms of the organization using Nintex Live.
Private services are specific services that are provided from a specific service provider to a company. Public services are services that are available to all companies.
The Always make new services from this service provider available checkbox will automatically select any new private services added by the service provider and make them available in the Catalog.
New public services are automatically selected by default when they're made available by a service provider.
When a service is allowed:
When a service is disallowed:
Note: Disallowing a service will only disable the service from making requests to Nintex Live. To remove the service (workflow action) from the workflow action toolbox, navigate to the Manage allowed actions settings page and uncheck the particular service.
In the Nintex Live Catalog, the administrator / workflow designer can select the services to be made available as workflow actions in the workflow toolbox.
To add a service into the workflow action toolbox:
The service will now be available in the workflow toolbox.
To remove a service from the workflow action toolbox:
The service will no longer be available in the workflow toolbox.
Note: Removing the service does not delete the service from the list of available workflow actions that are displayed in the Manage allowed action settings page.
If Nintex Live is unavailable and there is a service action on the design canvas, a warning will be displayed below the Ribbon.
When a service is used in a workflow a warning will be displayed on the action when a more recent version of the service is available. To update, open and save the action configuration.
The Catalog Settings page is used to manage the options for the Nintex Live Catalog.
This option determines if workflow designers can browse the Nintex Live Catalog.
When this option is set to Yes, workflow designers can browse the Catalog and add services into the workflow toolbox.
When this option is set to No, this will disable the Catalog button in the workflow designer. The Catalog will only be accessible from the Nintex Workflow Manage allowed actions page.
Note: The Nintex Workflow - Nintex Live Catalog site collection feature must be activated on the site collection(s) for this setting to be effective. If the site collection feature is not activated, the Catalog button will not be displayed at all.
This option determines the type of ratings and comments for services that can be viewed by users in the organization within the Catalog.
This option determines if ratings and comments for services can be added by users in the organization.
Note: The option selections are enabled and disabled based on the Allow comments and ratings to be viewed selection.
Note: When Nintex Live Workflow is disabled, the workflows already published to Nintex Live will remain active.
Use the following as required:
Update Services
Forces an update of all service definitions.
Update request tracking
Updates Live request tracking if a pending service request has become orphaned after a database migration.
The Nintex Live Workflow Settings page has fields in the form of the following section labels.
Selection | Description |
Enable Nintex Live for Nintex Workflow |
Allows workflow designers to add web services from the Nintex Live Catalog to the Nintex Workflow actions toolbox, which can then be used in workflows. |
Enable External Start | Allows workflow designers to create endpoint URLs for use in initiating workflows from external services. Note: Requires Enterprise Edition. For more information, see Managing External Start settings. |
Update services | Forces an update of all service definitions. |
Update request tracking | Updates Live request tracking if a pending service request has become orphaned after a database migration. |
The Nintex Live Catalog displays the list of available services that can be added to the workflow toolbox.
The list of services include a mix of free and paid for services. For example, StrikeIron are a subscription based provider. Most StrikeIron services offer a free trial of a limited number of calls per service. Any further usage will require paid subscriptions to be arranged directly with StrikeIron.
The Service Information (located at the right of the Catalog) will state if the service is free or paid and if registration is required to use the service.
When browsing the Catalog, a number of options are available to help narrow down the services that you may be interested in.
Tabs
Tabs that are located on the top right of the Catalog provide a quick way to change the focus of the Catalog:
Sorting
The services can be sorted in ascending or descending order by the following:
Filtering
The filter option narrows down the list of services that are displayed in the Catalog.
Searching
To search for services, use the search box located on the top right of the Catalog or use the Search tab which provides advanced options to narrow down the search scope. The search query only searches against the service title and description. Searches do not include the comments made for the services.
In the Catalog, ratings and comments of services made by users (within the organization or from outside the organization) may be displayed. The displaying of the rating and comments is set at an administration level. Users browsing the Catalog would be able to:
To view the rating and comments of a service:
Click on the Show most recent ratings and comments link for the service. This will display the three most recent rating and comments that have been made for the service. The View all ratings and comments displays all the ratings and comments of the service, including any ratings and comments made about the previous version(s) of the service.
When posting a rating and comment, the user's domain username will be displayed with the rating and comments made when it is viewed by users within the organization. The option to put an Alias will be available if ratings and comments have been set to all Nintex Live users (includes users outside the organization).
To post a rating and comment for a service:
Click on the Rate and comment link for the service.
A user can only make a rating and comment once. By rating and commenting on the service again, the previous rating and comments that was made will be displayed and the user will be able to modify them.
For help on adding and removing services, please refer to Adding and removing services topic.
The LazyApproval feature of Nintex Workflow enables approvals or rejections of an item to be registered when the approver replies to the notification email or respond to the automated OCS or Lync conversation with a permitted word or phrase. That word or phrase is recognized and interpreted by the system and applied to the item in the workflow.
LazyApproval is not automatically enabled at the time of installation, it has to be manually enabled. For more information, please refer to the Managing LazyApproval settings.
The LazyApproval feature is only available with the Request Approval, Request Data, Request Review and Assign Flexi Task workflow actions.
There are two LazyApproval methods that can be enabled for Nintex Workflow:
Not all workflow actions support both methods. LazyApproval via email is supported by the workflow actions that have been mentioned above. LazyApproval via OCS / Lync is only supported by the Request Approval, Request Review and Assign Flexi Task workflow actions.
At the time of configuring the workflow action, the designer needs to check the box "Allow LazyApproval".
When LazyApproval via email is used, an addition to the standard email template footer is added that explains how to use LazyApproval. When the system receives the return email it will scan the first 20 lines of the reply for a recognized LazyApproval term. It scans from the top of an email downwards and uses the first recognized term it finds that is an exact match for a permitted whole word or whole phrase on a line by itself. Recognized words or phrases that appear with unrecognized words or phrases on the same line will be ignored and skipped.
You can customize the footer text from the Managing LazyApproval settings in Central Administration.
If a term is not found, a return email will be sent to the user informing him/her that their response was not able to be interpreted. The user can then reply to that email with a recognized term for the 'approve' or 'deny' to take effect.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When LazyApproval emails are sent, a specific piece of identification code is appended to the email subject. Do not edit or remove the identification code as any change to it will mean that the LazyApproval thread cannot be traced and approval by email will not be possible for the user involved. That user will have to approve the item by navigating through the SharePoint library or list where the item and workflow are being used. For more information, please refer to the Approving, Rejecting and Reviewing Items.
A system administrator can edit or add to the list of acceptable and recognized terms. For more information, please refer to the Managing LazyApproval settings. LazyApproval terms are not case sensitive. The default set of terms is: "approve", "approved", "decline", "declined", "no", "ok", "reject", "rejected" and "yes" as seen below:
During runtime, when a user interaction task is created as part of a workflow, tasks will be assigned and the notification message(s) sent. The task(s) assigned to a user can be seen at any time via the My Workflow Tasks web part or the Nintex workflow task list setup within the site.
To process an assigned task, click the item's hyperlink (if configured and allowed) within the notification email or on the hyperlink within the Item column of the My Workflow Tasks web part web part. This will open the 'Approve Reject' page ready for the user's response.
When a task is generated by the 'Request approval' action, the user can choose to approve or reject the item in the workflow. The selection made will determine the path followed by the workflow.
When a task is generated by the 'Request review' action, there is no response to process as the item is deemed satisfactory when the user is finished with it.
Depending on the configured workflow action, the user may be given the option of Delegating Approval Tasks the task to another user.
Use this field to enter any comments about why the item was approved or rejected.
Listed in the Item Properties section is the meta data related to the item in the workflow. To view the full details of the item click the hyperlink next to the Item property heading. Similarly, to view the status of the workflow graphically, click on the View link provided.
The Item Properties panel also displays the field values of the item the workflow is running on (not shown in this screenshot). You can determine which fields are displayed by creating a view called 'Workflow Task View'. The name of the view to use is configurable in the Global settings in SharePoint Central Administration.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
Use the Nintex Chart Viewer web part to display a Nintex Workflow report in graph/chart view on a page within a site.
To use the Workflow Chart Viewer web part:
Note: This list is configurable by the Administrator in SharePoint Central Administration.
Note: If Enable Silverlight is checked, ensure that users have Microsoft Silverlight installed in order to view the Workflow Charts.
Note: The first column displayed in the list becomes the x-axis value. The remaining columns become the y-axis. For example: To chart the number of tasks for each approver, add the "Approver" column as the first column and place the numerical value columns below the "Approver" column.
Note: Not all reports accept filter values.
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only.
Use the Nintex Report Viewer web part to display a Nintex Workflow report in tabular view on a page within a site.
To use the Workflow Report Viewer web part:
Note: This list is configurable by the Administrator in SharePoint Central Administration.
Note: Not all reports accept filter values.
Delegation is processed from the Approving, Rejecting and Reviewing Items task pages when the user interaction task is configured to allow delegation.
To delegate a task:
A user can delegate their tasks to another user for specified duration, or may delegate their tasks due to absence within the organisation.
To set your personal preferences:
Note: Task delegations done through Task Delegation feature are only used when a task is initially assigned to a user. If a task is reassigned via the 'Delegate workflow task' action, or by another user manually, the task will be assigned to the specified user, even if they have long term delegations defined.
The Nintex Workflow InfoPath Forms feature allows workflow designers to edit start and task forms using Microsoft InfoPath 2013.
InfoPath forms can be defined for the following:
Nintex Workflow supports the use of either the Default form (which is an .aspx form provided out of the box and is not editable by end users), an InfoPath form (which is editable in Microsoft InfoPath 2013) and Custom (pre-developed .aspx) forms.
To assign the form type:
Edit a Microsoft InfoPath 2013 form
When a workflow action using InfoPath is copied and pasted, the form will be shared by both actions by default.
Nintex Workflow will automatically attempt to update fields in the InfoPath form when the action configuration changes. However, if the Cancel button within the form is modified, the form fields will no longer update automatically but can still be added manually in InfoPath.
The InfoPath forms contain a data source called NWContext which provides additional information relevant to the current item, list and user permissions. A developer or designer can use this information to extend the functionality of the form.
To access the data source:
These fields can be used to extend the functionality of the form. Some examples are:
When the Workflow Change Approval is enabled on a site, all workflows will need to be approved before the workflow can be used.
The workflow status page displays the workflows that are currently awaiting approval, have been approved, cancelled and errored.
When new and existing workflows are published, the workflow must be approved by the assigned 'Approvers group' before it can be used on items.
If the workflow is started on an item before the latest version is approved, the current live version (most recently approved) of the workflow will still be used.
To view the changes made to the workflow:
To approve or reject the changes to the workflow:
In the Workflow details section:
The Manage workflow history lists provides the ability to create new SharePoint workflow history lists and enable existing SharePoint workflow history lists for use with Nintex Workflow within a team site.
A SharePoint workflow history list stores messages generated by a workflow. Everything from approval activity (approve/reject), updates to a workflow, comments, cancellations and even workflow errors.
By default Nintex Workflow creates a SharePoint workflow history list that is enabled for Nintex Workflow. The enablement deploys event receivers into the list for workflow reporting. The standard SharePoint workflow history list cannot be used with workflows in Nintex. To use a standard SharePoint workflow history list it must first be enabled for Nintex Workflow.
To manage the history lists for use with Nintex Workflow:
To create a new history list for use with Nintex Workflow:
Note: To edit the Title and Description of the history list, navigate to the Lists Settings and under the General Settings, click on the Title, description and navigation link and make the required changes. To delete the list, navigate to the Lists Settings and under the Permissions and Management, click on the Delete this list link.
To enable an existing history list to be used with Nintex workflows:
Note: All history lists that are enabled for Nintex Workflow can be selected in the Workflow Settings when designing a workflow within the site.
The Manage workflow history lists also provides the option to delete workflow history messages from the workflow history list on a site. This option is also available as an NWAdmin operation. This option can be used for maintenance on the history list to prevent the number of history items exceeding 2000 which can have performance implications. Deleting history messages does not affect the operation of a running workflow.
To remove/purge items from a history lists:
The My Workflow Tasks web part is used to display a list of workflow related tasks that have been assigned to the user currently logged on. The web part is used on a page within a site.
Note: Tasks that are no longer valid due to missing information will display a link to remove the entry from the web part.
To use the My Workflow Tasks web part:
A resusable workflow template allows the workflow to be used on a content type, list, or library through the default SharePoint Workflow settings option.
Reusable workflow templates can be created for use within a single site or an entire site collection.
To manage reusable workflow templates:
To create a site collection reusable workflow template:
In the Settings Icon , select Nintex Workflow 2013, click on Create Site Collection Reusable Workflow Template. Refer to Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer on how to create a workflow.
To manage site collection reusable workflow templates:
To use a reusable workflow template for a content type:
To use a reusable workflow template for a list or library:
Workflows can be configured automatically to run at a certain time.
A library or list item can be regularly subjected to a workflow. This might be useful for running recurring checks on items.
To schedule a workflow for an item:
Note: Workdays are set by the Administrator via the 'Site Settings > Site Administration > Regional settings' section. Public holidays and any other special occasions are set using the 'Site Settings > Nintex Workflow > Manage Holidays' page.
To configure an existing schedule, click the hyperlink of the schedule in the list and edit the settings in the same manner as above.
Note: If you make a change to a schedule it will take effect immediately. If the item is currently in the workflow, changing the schedule will not disrupt it, the schedule will be updated once the workflow has been completed.
Site Workflows can also be set up to run according to a schedule.
To schedule a site workflow:
When creating a reusable workflow template, the reusable workflow template can be associated to a specific content type.
To associate a reusable workflow template:
A site workflow is attached to the site rather than a list or library.
The creation and management of site workflows is the same as for workflows that are attached to a list or library.
Note: Actions specific to lists and libraries are not availalbe for site workflows in the Nintex Workflow Designer.
To create a site workflow:
To manage site workflows:
To view the site workflow history:
To schedule site workflows:
There are three options to start a workflow. How the workflow starts is dependent on how the workflow is configured.
Following are the various ways to start a workflow:
Note: For list and library workflows, folders and sub-folders are subject to the same workflows as the parent library. Therefore, if you set a workflow to start when items are created or modified, any item, regardless of how many folders or sub-folders the item is stored within, it will trigger all the workflows that are set to start automatically. That behavior is governed by SharePoint.
Starting a workflow manually
To start a workflow manually:
For List/Library Workflows
For Site Workflows
Published workflows that use a User Defined Action must be republished whenever a change is made to the instance of the UDA. Until the published workflow is republished, it will continue to reflect the last published version of the UDA when it was used and published in the workflow.
When republishing a UDA, an option is available to analyze the UDA (Analyze UDA function) to show all instances of the UDA in published workflows and republish the workflows.
To update all instances of the UDA in published workflows through the workflow designer:
Note: This is the same function as clicking on the Analyze UDA through the Manage User Defined Actions function.
If the current published workflow has a minor version, the workflow will not be republished. In the Republish results of the Analyze UDA, the Republish Status will be Not republished - Minor version exists.
If required, manually republish the workflow to ensure that the workflow has no minor version. Click on the Workflow name and republish. The current opened Analyze UDA dialog will need to be closed and reopened to reflect the latest changes.
User Defined Action Parameters can be defined to obtain and supply information when using the User Defined Action within a workflow.
Managing User Defined Parameters
To manage a workflow parameter:
Alternatively:
To create a new workflow parameter:
To modify an existing workflow parameter:
To delete an existing workflow parameter:
:
Use the User Defined Action Settings dialog to set the User Defined Action (UDA) title and description, workflow variables, parameters and options.
User Defined Action options:
Ribbon menu buttons:
User Defined Actions (UDA) provides the ability to string together a predefined set of multiple workflow actions for workflow designers to use when creating a workflow. The UDA feature is similar to using workflow snippets, however a UDA will allow for Input and Output parameters to be defined which can then be used as a single action within a workflow.
An example of when a UDA might be useful is preconfiguring a web request workflow action and saving it as a UDA which a workflow designer can then drag and drop into their workflow without having to configure any of the settings within the web request workflow action. In addition to that, an input parameter can be defined for a user to provide their credentials for the web request and the output parameter for any values that might be returned by the web request.
Note: Only Site Administrators, Site Collection Administrators and Farm Administrators can manage User Defined Actions.
A UDA can be defined globally for the farm in SharePoint Central Administration, for a specific site collection or for individual sites.
Note: UDAs must be initially created at a Site level. They can then be used at the:
To manage UDAs for a site:
To manage UDAs for the site collection:
To manage User Defined Actions for the web farm:
Things to note when using UDAs:
To create a UDA for a site:
To create a UDA for a Site Collection:
To create a UDA for a Web Farm:
UDAs for a Site and Site Collection level can be modified. However, UDAs on the web farm level will need to be modified at the site level and re-imported at the site collection level.
To modify a UDA:
UDAs can be removed from a site, site collection or web farm level.
To delete a UDA:
UDAs can be exported and imported.
To import a UDA:
To export a UDA:
This will move the UDA to be managed from the parent scope. To promote a UDA:
This function displays all workflows that currently use the UDA. It provides information such as the Workflow name and Workflow Version that uses the UDA and the version of the UDA it's using.
A history of the various workflows ran on an item are kept. The workflow history provides a trail on how many workflows have been completed on the item or how many workflows have been cancelled or errored in relation to the item.
To view the item's workflow history:
Note: In the Completed Workflows and Cancelled & Errored Workflows sections there could be multiple identical titles, this means the item has been through the same workflow a number of times before. Ensure that the relevant workflow instance is clicked on. Use the Started date to help differentiate workflows.
When an item is in a workflow, it may be is necessary to know what stage the item has reached in the workflow.
To view the item's workflow status:
Note: In the Completed Workflows and Cancelled & Errored Workflows sections, there could be multiple identical titles: this means the item has been through the same workflow a number of times before. Ensure that the relevant workflow instance is clicked on. Use the Started date to help differentiate workflows.
Note: Clicking the Click here to show detail view will display the workflow history in text format. For more information, please refer to the Viewing workflow history.
This page is used to configure a change approval workflow for when users modify Nintex Workflows for the current site.
To configure a Workflow Change Approval for a Site:
To enable workflow change approval:
Once configured, a standard change approval workflow will be displayed and links will appear allowing the user to View approvals in progress and Edit workflow.
Use the Workflows I've started web part to display a list of workflows that have been started by the user that is currently logged in on a page within a site.
To use the Workflows I've Started web part:
To create a workflow support package
You can monitor error-containing workflows on the site using Nintex Workflow Support Console.
To access Nintex Workflow Support Console
Support packages are used to collect key diagnostic information about Nintex products and their configuration for troubleshooting purposes.
Note: Support package information may include configuration information about the SharePoint farm, Nintex products including license details, workflow designs, workflow configuration, and log extracts. Please consider the contents of each support package carefully before passing to a third party.
The following types of support packages are available:
Each support package type contains the following information.
Information | Farm support package | Workflow support package |
SharePoint farm | X | X |
Nintex configuration | X | X |
ULS logs | X | X |
Workflow instance | | X |
Nintex SharePoint Feature | ID |
---|---|
NintexLiveAdminLinks | 29e9a673-31a4-46a3-b0d2-d8e1db1dbd92 |
NintexWorkflow | 0561d315-d5db-4736-929e-26da142812c5 |
NintexWorkflowAdmin | f7937973-0cf9-4f2d-a549-be2d3c25b772 |
NintexWorkflowClaimsMigration | 4db97f4c-e643-4b1b-9f6a-43a9d817e6a2 |
NintexWorkflowContentTypeUpgrade | 86c83d16-605d-41b4-bfdd-c75947899ac7 |
NintexWorkflowEnterpriseAdmin | aa61ef91-ee2b-42d5-9911-7c6557ad90c2 |
NintexWorkflowEnterpriseWeb | 2fb9d5df-2fb5-403d-b155-535c256be1dc |
NintexWorkflowEnterpriseWebParts | 53164b55-e60f-4bed-b582-a87da32b92f1 |
NintexWorkflowInfoPath | 80bf3218-7353-11df-af9f-058bdfd72085 |
NintexWorkflowLiveAdminWeb | 485f5158-4b8a-453f-9eeb-7b33f5112adf |
NintexWorkflowLiveSite | 54668547-c03f-4bb5-aaab-d9568ebaf9c9 |
NintexWorkflowWeb | 9bf7bf98-5660-498a-9399-bc656a61ed5d |
NintexWorkflowWebParts | eb657559-be37-4b91-a369-1c201183c779 |
Column | Description |
Site | Site corresponding to the endpoint URL. |
Workflow name | Workflow corresponding to the endpoint URL. |
Internal URL name for reference | Optional name specified for the endpoint URL. |
Endpoint URL | Full address of the endpoint URL. Example: https://run.nintex.io/x-start/weuyj1TkGD |
Status | Endpoint URL enabled/disabled status. |
Calls | Number of calls to the endpoint URL. |
Last called | Date and time of last call to the endpoint URL. |
Created by | Username used to create the endpoint URL. |
Created | Date and time when the endpoint URL was created. |
Configure | Configure button to access the Manage External Start configuration page for the workflow corresponding to the endpoint URL.For more information about this configuration page, see Manage External Start configuration page. Note: Requires an account with full control permission on the related SharePoint site (noted in the Site column). |
Link | Description |
Licensing | Displays the Nintex Workflow Licensing page. For more information, see Licensing settings. |
Database setup | Displays the Nintex Workflow Database Setup page. For more information, see Database settings. |
Web Application activation | Displays the Web Application Activation page. For more information, see Web Application activation settings. |
Manage allowed actions | Displays the Manage Allowed Actions page. For more information, see Managing workflow actions. |
Global settings | Displays the Global Settings page. For more information, see Global settings. |
LazyApproval settings | Displays the LazyApproval Settings page. For more information, see Managing LazyApproval settings. |
Message templates | Displays the Message Templates page. For more information, see Defining message templates. |
Manage workflow constants | Displays the Workflow Constants page. For more information, see Workflow Constants. |
Manage user defined actions | Displays the Manage user defined actions page for the farm. For more information, see User Defined Actions. |
External start URLs | Displays the External Start URLs page for the farm. For more information, see External Start URLs page. |
Manage context data | Displays the Manage Context Data page. For more information, see Manage Context Data. |
Manage holidays | Displays the Manage Holidays page for the farm. Use this page to define public holidays and other special occasions. |
Manage workflow reports | Displays the Manage Reports page. |
Administration reports | Displays the Administration reports page. |
Workflow error notifications | Displays the Workflow Error & Cancellation Notification Settings page. For more information, see Managing workflow error notification settings. |
Purge workflow data | Displays the Purge workflow data page. For more information, see Purge workflow data. |
Support console | Displays the Nintex Workflow Support Console page. For more information, see Monitoring workflow errors. |
Workflow inventory | Displays the Farm Workflow Inventory page. For more information, see Workflow inventory. |
Live settings | Displays the Nintex Live Workflow Settings page. For more information, see Nintex Live Workflow Settings. |
Live catalog settings | Displays the Nintex Live Catalog Settings page. For more information, see Catalog Settings. |
Note: Configure licensing before configuring database settings.
Section | Selection | Description |
Database Name and Authentication | Database Server | Name of the database server containing the new or existing database that you want to use as the configuration database. |
Database Name and Authentication | Database Name | Name of the new or existing database that you want to use as the configuration database. |
Database Name and Authentication | Connect to an existing database | When selected, uses an existing database. When cleared, creates a new database. |
Database Name and Authentication | Database authentication | Select one of the following options.
|
Failover server | Failover Database Server | Name of the database server to use for failover. |
On the Add Configuration Database page, when the default server name of "LOCALSERVERNAME\Microsoft##SSEE" is used, the following error message is displayed.
An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error:40 - Could not open a connection to SQL server).
Nintex Workflow uses a license file (.nlf) for server licensing. A single license file is used to store information about all servers in your organisation that are licensed for Nintex Workflow.
Nintex Workflow 2013 is available in three editions – Workgroup, Standard and Enterprise.
A license is required for each SharePoint front-end server where user interaction with Nintex Workflow 2013 components occurs.
Please contact our sales team if you need advice at sales@nintex.com.
This license covers a single SharePoint front-end server environment with up to five team sites. Only one Workgroup Edition license can be purchased. If more than five site activations or multiple front-end servers are required, a Standard or Enterprise Edition license is required.
Note: Administrators are able to manage which sites Nintex Workflow has been activated on and deactivate Nintex Workflow on sites that no longer require Nintex Workflow functionality.
Please contact our sales team if you need advice at sales@nintex.com.
Valid Software Assurance is required in order to update to the latest version of Nintex Workflow.
This help topic provides instructions for administrators to view and configure database settings for Nintex Workflow. It also describes selections on related pages.
This section provides instructions for viewing current database settings.
To view current database settings:
This section provides instructions for adding Nintex Workflow content databases.
For instructions on mapping SharePoint content databases to Nintex Workflow content databases, see Manage content databases.
Section | Selection | Description |
Configuration Database | Create | (Available when the configuration database has not yet been defined.) Displays the Add Configuration Database page. See Manage the configuration database. |
Configuration Database | Edit | (Available when the configuration database has already been defined.) Displays the Change configuration database page. See Manage the configuration database. |
Content Databases | Content Database | Lists Nintex Workflow content databases. |
Content Databases |
Connection String | Lists the connection strings for the Nintex Workflow content databases. Parameters are listed here. For instructions on setting parameters of content databases, see Manage content databases. |
Content Databases | Add content database | Displays the Add content database page for adding Nintex Workflow content databases. |
Content Databases | View database mappings | Displays the View Database Mappings page that lists the Nintex Workflow content databases mapped to the site collections. |
Content Databases | Manage database mappings | Displays the Manage Database Mappings page for mapping Nintex Workflow content databases to SharePoint content databases. |
Section | Selection | Description |
Database Name and Authentication | Database Server | Name of the database server containing the new or existing database that you want to use as a content database. Default value: The name of the default SharePoint database server. |
Database Name and Authentication | Database Name | Name of the new or existing database that you want to use as a content database. |
Database Name and Authentication | Connect to an existing database | When selected, uses an existing database. When cleared, creates a new database. |
Database Name and Authentication | Database authentication | Select one of the following options.
|
Failover server | Failover Database Server | Name of the database server to use for failover. |
Service account access | Grant service account access | When Yes is selected, grants access to all content web application service accounts. When No is selected, web applications do not have access to the content database until access is granted using the Web Application activation page. |
Note: Configure licensing before configuring database settings.
For instructions on adding content databases, see Database settings.
Note: You can also add Nintex Workflow content databases from the Manage Database Settings page. See the previous section.
You can set parameters of Nintex Workflow content databases, including the MultiSubnetFailover parameter for AlwaysOn, using the NWAdmin operation UpdateContentDatabaseParameters. For more information on this and other NWAdmin operations, see the NWAdmin Guide at https://community.nintex.com/docs/DOC-1026.
To set parameters for a content database
Section | Description |
Site |
Lists SharePoint site collections. |
Workflow Database | Lists the Nintex Workflow content database that are mapped to the SharePoint site collections. |
Section | Selection | Description |
SharePoint Content Database |
(N/A) | Lists SharePoint content databases. |
Map to Workflow Content Database | Any available workflow content database | Maps the SharePoint content database to any available Nintex Workflow content database. Note: Availability of this selection is controlled by Global Settings. |
Map to Workflow Content Database | Add content database | Displays the Add content database page for adding Nintex Workflow content databases. |
Map to Workflow Content Database | (existing Nintex Workflow content database) | Maps the SharePoint content database to the selected Nintex Workflow content database. |
The Web Application Activation page provides the option to activate the Nintex Workflow solution on the web farm. These settings must be configured after importing the Nintex Workflow license and configuring the database settings.
To activate Nintex Workflow on the web farm:
It is now best to configure the email-related Global Settings.
This page is used to manage the Nintex Workflow actions that are available to workflow designers for the current farm, site collection or site. Workflow actions can either be restricted by permissions or not be made available at all to all users by unchecking the workflow action.
To modify the settings for the web farm:
To modify the settings for a site collection or site:
Note: If an action is not checked it will not be selectable in the workflow designer. If an imported workflow contains an action that is not allowed, the workflow cannot be saved or published.
The Enforce allowed actions at run time option is available in the Global Settings from the Nintex Workflow Management section in Central Administration. When this option is enabled, a workflow that contains an action that is not marked as Allowed will cause the workflow to error. However, not all actions are affected by this option. Actions that don't apply to this option are actions that are native within Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013.
The Global Settings page is used to set Nintex Workflow settings including email, verbose logging, allowed actions, and other application options for the web farm.
Configuring Global Settings
Prerequisites: Import Nintex Workflow licensing, configure database settings, and configure web application activation.
To configure the Global Settings:
It is now possible to Activate Nintex Workflow.
The Global Settings page has fields in the form of the following section labels and selections.
Section | Selection | Description |
Email settings | Outbound SMTP Server | Name of outbound SMTP server for sending emails from workflows. |
Email settings | SMTP server requires authentication | Passes the specified username and password to the SMTP server. |
Email settings | Username | Username to pass to the SMTP server. (Available when the option SMTP server requires authentication is selected.) |
Email settings | Password | Password to pass to the SMTP server. (Available when the option SMTP server requires authentication is selected.) |
Email settings | From Address | Email address to use as "From" address in emails. |
Email settings | Reply To Address | Email address to use as "Reply To" address in emails. |
Email settings | Character Set | Character encoding to use in emails. Example: 65001 (Unicode UTF-8). |
Email settings | Specify different encoding for plain text emails | Character encoding to use in emails that are plain text format. |
Email settings | Specify different encoding for SMS messages | Character encoding to use in SMS messages. |
Email settings | Use css styles in HTML emails | Uses styles from Cascading Style Sheets (CSSs) in emails that are HTML format. |
Email settings | Location of stylesheet containing email styles | Path (after "/_layouts/") to Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) used in HTML emails. Default: NintexWorkflow/htmleditorstyles.css |
Instant messaging settings | When OCS/Lync is selected, provides the following settings.
Configure the server settings to allow Nintex Workflow 2013 to integrate with OCS/Lync. Enabling OCS/Lync integration allows the Get user status action, the Get users by status action and LazyApproval via instant messaging to be used. Upgrade note: If the Nintex Workflow 2013 OCS Integration component is installed and configured for the web farm, the Instant messaging settings section will be configured to use LCS by default. If Office Communication Server 2007 is used, select the option OCS/Lync to enable the new functionality. If Live Communications Server 2003/2007 is used, leave the setting as LCS. The Get current status action, Get users by status action and LazyApproval via instant messaging is not compatible with Live Communications Server 2003/2007. | |
Allow automatic mapping of Nintex Workflow Content Databases | Enable automatic database mapping | When enabled, displays the option “Any available workflow content database” on the Manage Database Mappings page; when this option is selected on the Manage Database Mappings page, the system automatically maps the indicated SharePoint content database to any available Nintex Workflow content database the first time a workflow is run. When disabled, requires explicit selection of a Nintex Workflow content database for mapping to each SharePoint content database. |
Conditional workflow settings | Allow "System Account" to trigger conditional workflows | When enabled, allows the SharePoint Runtime account "System Account" to initiate workflows that have conditional start configurations. For more information on conditional start configurations, see Workflow Settings. Default: Enabled. |
Enforce safe looping |
Enforce safe looping |
Helps prevent excessive looping iterations by automatically adding a hidden delay at the end of each iteration of the action Loop. For more information, see Preventing excessive looping iterations. |
Enable maximum loop threshold |
Enable maximum loop threshold |
When enabled, stops workflow instances containing loop actions (Loop or State Machine) that iterate beyond the specified threshold. For more information, see Preventing excessive looping iterations. |
Enable maximum loop threshold |
Maximum loop iterations per action instance per day |
Number of loop iterations to use as threshold. |
Enforce allowed actions at run time |
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Executes actions only if they are marked "Allowed" (if the action has this option). When the Enforce allowed actions at run time option is enabled, a workflow that contains an action that is not marked as Allowed will cause the workflow to error. However, not all actions are affected by this option. Actions that don't apply to this option are actions that are native within Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013. Global settings are cached and refreshed automatically every 15 minutes. For changes take effect immediately, perform an IISRESET and restart the Windows SharePoint Services timer service. |
Allow the Execute SQL action to impersonate the application pool identity |
Allow Execute SQL action to use the application pool identity |
Allows the workflow action Execute SQL to connect to the database as the application pool identity. |
Allow workflow schedules to impersonate the system account |
Allow workflow schedules to impersonate the system account |
Allows workflow schedules to execute using a system account identity. |
Allow entry of user credentials |
Allow entry of user credentials in |
Allows entry of manually defined credentials in the indicated areas.
For more information, see Workflow Constants. |
Allow sending notifications on behalf of another user |
Allow sending on behalf of another user |
Allows configuration of "From" field in actions that send emails. |
Allow 'Run now' on actions that interact with external data |
Allow 'Run now' on actions that interact with external data |
Makes "Run now" feature available in actions that interact with data or systems outside of the workflow. |
Allow 'Run now' on actions that interact with external data |
Allow on sites that use workflow change approval |
Allows "Run now" on sites that use workflow change approval. |
Allow verbose workflow logging |
Allow verbose workflow logging |
Provides option to enable verbose workflow logging to assist with debugging workflows. |
Allow verbose workflow logging |
Number of days to keep verbose logs |
Number of days to keep verbose logs. |
Enforce message header and footer |
Enforce message header and footer |
Includes the configured header and footer in all email notifications. |
Specify a default task list name |
Default task list name |
Name for the default task list used with Nintex Workflow. Default value: Workflow Tasks. |
Specify a default task list name |
Edit the default task list name for other languages |
Displays the Manage the default task list name page for editing names by language. |
Long term delegation |
Allow long term task delegation |
Allows users to set tasks to be delegated for a time period. |
Site administrators long term delegation |
Allow site administrators to set long term delegation for other users |
Allows site administrators to set tasks to be delegated for a time period for other site users. |
Notification preferences |
Allow user notification preferences |
Allows users to set their message notification preferences. |
Workflow schedule permissions |
Require designer permissions to work with workflow schedules |
Requires Web Designer permissions to modify or create a workflow schedule. If disabled, only contribute permissions are required. |
Task form properties view |
View name for the task page to use |
Name of view for the approval and review task pages to use when displaying item properties. |
Default workflow start page |
Default start workflow page URL |
URL of page to use for starting workflows. |
Default task edit page |
Default task edit page URL |
URL of page to use for editing workflow approval and reviewing tasks. |
Default task view page |
Default task view page URL |
URL of page to use for viewing workflow approval and reviewing tasks. |
Default task edit page for Flexi tasks |
Default task edit page URL |
URL of page to use for editing workflow Flexi tasks. |
Default task view page for Flexi tasks |
Default task view page URL |
URL of page to use for viewing workflow Flexi tasks. |
Workflow statistics permissions |
Who can see workflow statistics |
Allows the selected type of user to view workflow statistics.
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This page is used to manage the LazyApproval feature of Nintex Workflow. It provides the options to edit the current list of recognized terms or add others, edit the LazyApproval notification footer and set phrases to ignore. LazyApproval must first be enabled for the system. Please refer to the About LazyApproval for more information.
There are two LazyApproval methods that can be enabled for Nintex Workflow:
To enable LazyApproval for the farm:
Note: If the link Configure server incoming mail settings is shown in the Enable or disable LazyApproval via email option then those settings are not configured for SharePoint. Please configure them according to your SharePoint configuration documentation. Return to this page after completing your configuration. If those settings are configured, the link Enable / Disable LazyApproval which be shown instead.
To configure LazyApproval via email:
Note: If the Enable or disable LazyApproval via instant message option is not available, please ensure that Instant messaging settings have been configured in the Global Settings.
To configure LazyApproval via instant message:
A list of allowed words will appear which are those that will be recognized by the LazyApproval process. Phrases or terms can be added or removed as required.
To create a new phrase:
To edit or delete an existing phrase:
By creating a phrase to ignore, the LazyApproval will discard email messages that contain the phrase in the subject line. This is useful for out of office and automated replies that an approver may have. If this is not configured, when a automated reply is sent to the LazyApproval alias it will cause the LazyApproval feature to go into a loop where the LazyApproval alias will send a response to the sender each time the sender sends an automated reply.
To create a phrase to ignore:
To delete an existing phrase to ignore:
Message templates used by the 'Request approval' action can be defined globally for the farm in SharePoint Central Administration, for a specific site collection or for individual sites.
To change the Message Template for the Web Farm:
To change the Message Template for the Site Collection:
To change the Message Template for a Site:
The Message Templates page displays:
Note: Changes made to the message templates will not affect workflows in progress. Changes will only be seen when new instances of the workflow are started.
In order to design workflows and interact with Nintex Workflow the product needs to be activated in the site where the functionality is required.
The first step is to activate the product for the Site Collection (see Step 1 below) and the second step is to activate Nintex Workflow per site (see Step 2 below).
To activate Nintex Workflow in a site collection:
It is now possible to activate Nintex Workflow 2013 features in the sites within this site collection.
Nintex Workflow must be activated at the site collection level before it can be activated on the site level.
To activate Nintex Workflow in a site:
It is now possible to start using Nintex Workflow within this site.
Nintex Workflow notifications can be sent via email, Office Communication Server (OCS) or SMS, depending on how the SharePoint environment is configured. Each user can then set their preferred method of notification for both business hours and after hours.
To set your personal preferences:
According to how a user is required to interact with Nintex Workflow there are different security considerations to be made. The table below outlines the minimum permissions required to perform the actions described. In general, the runtime permissions can be inherited from the site or the parent site but must be the effective permissions for the given user at the list level.
Nintex Role | Required "SharePoint Permission Level" | Note |
Approver/Reviewer | Contribute (at the item level at least) | This role includes all users who will be able to perform their assigned human task as part of the workflow from the SharePoint site. Users may be assigned tasks even without these permissions. |
Lazy Approver | None | This role includes all users who will be able to use LazyApproval to respond to their assigned task. The user however will need at least "Read" permissions if they wish to visit the site. |
Workflow Designer | Design | This role includes all users who are responsible for creating and maintaining workflows. With these permissions the user can use the Nintex Workflow designer as well as the related tools and pages. In order to be able to publish a workflow, the user will need to be configured as a Workflow Designer. |
Site Administrator | Full Control (on the site) | This role is responsible for activating and configuring the site level Nintex Workflow settings from the "Site Settings" page. |
Server/Farm Administrator | Full Control (on the central administration site and across site collections) Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition is required. |
This role is responsible for the installation and the server level configuration of Nintex Workflow. |
Site Collection Administrator | Full Control (on the site collection) Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition is required. |
This role is responsible for managing workflows that exist within the site collection and from each site and list. |
Workflow user | Contribute | Can start workflows, add schedules, view history and progress reports. |
Configuring Allowed Workflow Designers
There is a known permissions quirk with SharePoint 2013 workflows created using either Nintex Workflow or SharePoint Designer (SPD).
A Workflows list is used to hold all defined workflows for a team site. Upon creating your first workflow in SPD or activating the "Nintex Workflow 2013" feature, this list is given unique permissions, which copies the current permissions assigned within the site. As a result, the only people who will be able to modify permissions on this list are site owners or those who were given explicit 'Full Control' access before the list was created.
Nintex have exposed the list through the user interface to work around the permission quirk described. To add/remove users as designers, the user assigning the permissions must be a site owner or have Full Control access to the Workflows list.
To add a user or group to the Workflow designers group:
From the permissions page the members can be maintained by adding them in the standard SharePoint manner. Ensure that users who require full access to the designer have "Full Control" set for their permissions.
Configuring Workflow Action Security
Permissions for each workflow action can be configured in the Manage workflow actions page.
The Purge workflow data provides the option to delete historic data from the Nintex Workflow database. This option is also available as a NWAdmin operation. Reasons that data may need to be removed:
Workflow data can be purged globally for the web farm, a specific site collection or individual sites.
To purge workflow data for the web farm:
To purge workflow data for the site collection:
Navigate to the top level site home page.
To purge workflow data for a site:
To purge workflow data:
Note: Once data has been purged, it cannot be recovered without restoring a backed up version of the Nintex Workflow content database.
The Workflow error notification settings provides the options to specify to whom workflow error and cancellation notifications are sent.
Workflow error and cancellation notification can be set globally for the web farm, a specific site collection or individual sites.
To set the workflow notification settings for the web farm:
Note: By default the settings will inherit from the parent settings. A site will inherit its settings from the site collection and a site collection from the farm. If the setting is changed at a specific level, it will no longer inherit the settings from the parent.
To set the workflow notification settings for the site collection:
To set the workflow notification settings for a site:
The Send notifications to the workflow initiator option notifies the user who started the workflow if the workflow errors or is cancelled.
For additional users to be notified when a workflow errors or is cancelled, specify the email address of the user in the Specify other email addresses that will receive the notifications text field.
Notifications can be turned off by selecting No for Send notifications to the workflow initiator and leaving the Specify other email addresses that will receive the notifications text field empty.
Getting started with the Nintex Workflow designer.
A workflow can be created in one of two ways.
To create a new workflow from within a Document Library:
To create a new workflow from the Workflow Gallery:
Note: If the Show template page when creating a new workflow box ix checked (the default setting) the template selector will appear. To design a new workflow on a blank canvas, select Blank, or alternatively select a template from one of the categories.
The Nintex Workflow designer will open in the current window.
The Nintex Workflow designer page has three main areas; the Workflow Actions toolbox on the left, the Ribbon at the top and the design canvas in the center.
The Workflow Actions toolbox lists the actions that can be used in the design canvas to create workflows. The actions are divided into groups of related actions. Click the heading of a group to view the actions in that group. The default groupings are:
The names of workflow actions and the groupings can be edited by the Administrator. For more information please refer to the Managing workflow actions.
To resize the toolbox: Click and drag on the expander bar on the inside edge of the toolbox.
To design a workflow, add the desired actions onto the design canvas and configure each action. An action can be placed onto the design canvas by one of two methods:
To configure an action, select the drop-down menu in the title bar of the workflow action once it is on the design canvas.
Configure: Open the action settings dialog to configure the settings of an action.
Copy: Select to copy an action (includes all its configuration settings) and paste in to another location on the design canvas. Once the action has been copied, find the desired location on the design canvas, right-click on a drop zone and select Paste.
Note: The configuration of the pasted action can then be modified independently of the original.
Delete: Select to remove the action and any modifications made to it from the workflow.
Disable: Select to disable the action from the workflow. Once the action is disabled it will be omitted when the workflow is run and hidden from status views. The action will appear dimmed when it is disabled.
Note: When an action is disabled, its child actions are also disabled.
The workflow action can also be disabled from the Actions dialog box. To do this, click Common in the Ribbon and check the Disable box.
The Ribbon menu can be found at the top of the design canvas. The options and related Help files are all listed below.
The Association Columns feature is used to associate site columns with the workflow definition. Association columns are useful where you may need to reference columns for the 'current item' from within a reusable workflow. Association columns are automatically added to a list or library when a reusable workflow is associated to that list or library.
To create a new site column and associate it with this workflow, click the New Site Column button in the Ribbon.
Set the column properties as described below:
Once the workflow is published, the new site column will be created.
The Connection Manager dialog box allows you to manage connections to external providers, such as DocuSign, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Salesforce. This dialog box contains the following buttons in the ribbon.
Button | Description |
Close | Closes the dialog box. |
New | Displays the Create Connection dialog box. For more information, see Create Connection dialog box. |
Delete | Deletes the selected connection. |
Help | Displays the Help. |
Related topics
Create Connection dialog box
Managing connections to external providers
The Create Connection dialog box allows you to create connections to external providers, such as DocuSign, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Salesforce. This dialog box contains the following buttons and fields.
Button or field | Description |
Save | Saves changes to the current connection. |
Cancel | Cancels changes and closes the dialog box. |
Help | Displays the Help. |
Scope | Select one of the following options.
|
Provider | Select one of the following options.
Additional fields are displayed for the selected provider. |
Connection name | Name of this connection to be displayed for selection when configuring workflow actions associated with the provider. |
Related topics
Connection Manager dialog box
Managing connections to external providers
The error handling panel is available in some actions. It allows the workflow designer to capture errors that occur during the execution of the action and create custom logic to handle it.
This option specifies whether or not to turn on the capturing of errors. If this option is set to 'Yes', an error in the action will no longer cause the workflow to fail. Instead, the values described in the next two sections will be populated. Apart from using the values provided in the drop-down, a Yes/No workflow variable can be used.
Specify a Yes/No workflow variable that will store whether or not an error has occurred. The variable will be set to Yes if an error occurred and No if the action execution completed.
Specify a text workflow variable that will store the details of an error if one occurs. This value will be set to empty if no error occurs.
Note: The Store error occurrence in and Store error text in workflow variables will not be modified if Capture Errors is set to No.
Nintex workflows can be imported and exported to the local file system as .nwf files. Use this feature to copy workflows from one server to another or in other file transfer scenarios.
Note: External Start endpoint URLs are not included in exported workflows. To use External Start with imported workflows, generate new endpoint URLs after import.
To export a workflow (.nwf)
To export a workflow to a Visual Studio 2012 solution file (.wsp)
To import a workflow
In any text input that supports Inserting reference fields, an inline function can be entered that will be resolved at workflow run-time.
A number of functions are provided out of the box, and additional functions can be added with the NWAdmin.exe tool.
Functions can also be used as arguments for other functions.
The parsing engine first replaces any inserted reference tokens, and then the resulting text is evaluated for functions.
If a function contains another function as an argument, the inner most function will be evaluated first.
As reference tokens are replaced first, the reference token can also contain function syntax that will be evaluated.
If text used for a function argument contains function syntax (i.e. a brace or comma character) wrap the argument with {TextStart} and {TextEnd} to indicate a block of text that should not be parsed further.
Returns the absolute value of a number.
Example
fn-Abs({WorkflowVariable:Number})
Arguments
- Number The number to return the absolute value of.
Represents a numeric value as a currency formatted text.
Example
fn-Currency({WorkflowVariable:Cost})
Arguments
- Number A variable containing a numeric value.
Determines the number of days between two dates. The result can be a decimal value including partial days.
Example
fn-DateDiffDays({WorkflowVariable:StartDate}, {WorkflowVariable:EndDate})
Arguments
- Start date The starting date and time to calculate the difference between.
- End date The end date and time to calculate the difference between.
Determines the number of hours between two dates. The result can be a decimal value including partial hours.
Example
fn-DateDiffHours({WorkflowVariable:StartDate}, {WorkflowVariable:EndDate})
Arguments
- Start date The starting date and time to calculate the difference between.
- End date The end and time date to calculate the difference between.
Determines the number of minutes between two dates. The result can be a decimal value including partial minutes.
Example
fn-DateDiffMinutes({WorkflowVariable:StartDate}, {WorkflowVariable:EndDate})
Arguments
- Start date The starting date and time to calculate the difference between.
- End date The end and time date to calculate the difference between.
Determines the number of seconds between two dates. The result can be a decimal value including partial seconds.
Example
fn-DateDiffSeconds({WorkflowVariable:StartDate}, {WorkflowVariable:EndDate})
Arguments
- Start date The starting date and time to calculate the difference between.
- End date The end and time date to calculate the difference between.
Represents a date time value in text of a specific format.
Example
fn-FormatDate({WorkflowVariable:MyDate}, d)
Arguments
- Date A variable containing a date value.
- Format string Text describing how the date time value should be formatted. Information on how to format the value can be found on this page: Standard Date and Time Format Strings and this page Custom Date and Time Format Strings.
Adds text in to a larger string.
Example
fn-Insert({WorkflowVariable:Text}, 4, {ItemProperty:Title})
Arguments
- Text The text to modify.
- Start position The character position to insert the new text at. The first character in the string is at position 0.
- New text The additional text that will be added at the start position.
Returns the number of characters in a string.
Example
fn-Length({WorkflowVariable:Text})
Arguments
- Text The string to count the characters of.
Returns the greater of two numbers.
Example
fn-Max({WorkflowVariable:Number1}, {WorkflowVariable:Number2})
Arguments
- Number 1 The first number to compare.
- Number 2 The second number to compare.
Returns the lesser of two numbers.
Example
fn-Min({WorkflowVariable:Number1}, {WorkflowVariable:Number2})
Arguments
- Number 1 The first number to compare.
- Number 2 The second number to compare.
Generate a globally unique identifier.
Example
fn-NewGuid()
Returns the provided string right aligned and padded to the total length with a specific character.
Example
fn-PadLeft({WorkflowVariable:Text}, 6)
fn-PadLeft({WorkflowVariable:Text}, 6,-)
Arguments
- Text The string to pad.
- Length The target total length of the padded result.
- Character Optional. The character to pad the original string with. A space character is used by default.
Returns the provided string left aligned and padded to the total length with a specific character.
Example
fn-PadRight({WorkflowVariable:Text}, 6)
fn-PadRight({WorkflowVariable:Text}, 6,-)
Arguments
- Text The string to pad.
- Length The target total length of the padded result.
- Character Optional. The character to pad the original string with. A space character is used by default.
Raises a number to the specified power.
Example
fn-Power({WorkflowVariable:Number}, {WorkflowVariable:Power})
Arguments
- Number The number to raise to the power.
- Number The power to raise number to.
Removes a section of text in a larger string.
Example
fn-Remove({WorkflowVariable:Text},0,3)
Arguments
- Text The text to modify.
- Start position The character position from which to remove the following characters. The first character in the string is at position 0.
- Length Optional. The number of characters from the start position to remove. All remaining characters will be removed by default.
Replaces a section of text in a larger string.
Example
fn-Replace({WorkflowVariable:Text},abc,{ItemProperty:Title})
Arguments
- Text The text to modify.
- Old value The text to search for and replace.
- New value The text to replace Old value with.
Rounds a decimal value to the nearest integer.
Example
fn-Round({WorkflowVariable:Number})
Arguments
- Number The decimal number to round.
Extracts a portion of text from a string.
Example
fn-SubString({WorkflowVariable:Text},5,10)
Arguments
- Text The text to extract a value from
- Start index The position in the text of the first character to retrieve. The first character in the string is at position 0.
- Number of characters The number of characters to retrieve from the start index.
Formats text in a string to all lower case.
Example
fn-ToLower({WorkflowVariable:Text})
Arguments
- Text The string to convert to all lower case.
Formats text in a string to title case.
Example
fn-ToTitleCase({WorkflowVariable:Text})
Arguments
- Text The string to convert to title case.
Formats text in a string to all upper case.
Example
fn-ToUpper({WorkflowVariable:Text})
Arguments
- Text The string to convert to all upper case.
Removes leading and trailing whitespace from a string.
Example
fn-Trim({WorkflowVariable:Text})
Arguments
- Text The text to remove leading and trailing whitespace characters from.
Encodes a string to make it safe for viewing in html.
Example
fn-XmlEncode({WorkflowVariable:Text})
Arguments
- Text The text to encode.
Decodes a html safe string to regular text.
Example
fn-XmlDecode({WorkflowVariable:Text})
Arguments
- Text The text to decode.
By using references, content containing context specific information pertaining to the list item and this instance of the workflow can be constructed for use within workflow actions.
To insert a reference:
Reference information is divided into different categories:
Note: Available tabs on the Insert Reference dialog may change depending on the options available within the workflow action from which the Insert Reference link was clicked.
The following are references available in the Common tab:
The following references are available from within request approval notifications:
When inserting a reference into a Rich Text box, the reference can be inserted as a hyperlink.
To insert a reference as a hyperlink:
Note: By placing the cursor in either Address or Hyperlink text to display textboxes, a combination of lookup data and manually typed plain text can be used.
Other uses for inserting a hyperlink using the reference:
Some workflow actions require connection information to lookup Active Directory.
To configure the settings for the LDAP Path, Primary home server or Mailbox Store, click on .
Workflow actions such as 'Query LDAP' and 'Create AD User' require an LDAP address in order to connect to an Active Directory data store.
When the LDAP Picker is initially opened, it will attempt to connect to Active Directory using the information in the workflow action's dialog 'LDAP Path' text box. An error will occur if further credentials are required.
To configure the Active Directory details for the LDAP Path:
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
The Enable OCS workflow action requires an LDAP address in order to specify the Primary Home Server. Generally, this will be an object called 'LC Services'.
When the Home Server Picker dialog is initially opened, it will attempt to connect to Active Directory using the information in the workflow action's dialog 'LDAP Path' text box. It will then attempt to find any available 'LC Services' folders. An error will occur if further credentials are required.
To configure the Active Directory details for the Primary Home Server:
* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only
The Provision User in Exchange workflow action requires an LDAP address in order to specify the Mailbox Container (or Exchange Database if provisioning an Exchange 2007/2010 mailbox). Generally, this will be an object called 'Mailbox Database', residing under a 'Storage Group' object
When the MailStore Picker dialog is initially opened, it will attempt to connect to Active Directory using the information in the workflow action's dialog 'LDAP Path' text box. It will then attempt to find any available 'Mailbox Database' folders. An error will occur if further credentials are required.
To configure the Active Directory Details for the Mailbox Store:
An LDAP path specifying the Active Directory location. E.g. LDAP://MyPortal.com/DC=nintex,DC=com
If the domain name is MyCompany.com, then the LDAP Path will be LDAP://MyCompany.com/DC=MyCompany,DC=com
Containers or Organizational Units (OU) may be specified by adding "CN=" or "OU=". E.g.:
Note: To access 'Exchange MailStore' objects, it must be connected to a Configuration Container. E.g.:
A username with the required permissions to access the LDAP Path entered.
A password for the above username.
Click on the padlock to select from a list of Credential Workflow Constants.
Column | Description |
Internal URL name for reference | Optional name specified for the endpoint URL. |
Status | Endpoint URL enabled/disabled status. |
URL and security key | View details button to display the endpoint URL and security key for viewing and copying. |
Calls | Number of calls to the endpoint URL. |
Last called | Date and time of last call to the endpoint URL. |
Created by | Username used to create the endpoint URL. |
Created | Date and time when the endpoint URL was created. |
Delete | X (Delete) button to permanently remove the endpoint URL from storage. |
Button/link | Description |
Enable selected | Enables all selected endpoint URLs (rows). |
Disable selected | Disables all selected endpoint URLs (rows). |
Delete selected | Deletes all selected endpoint URLs (rows). |
Add URL | Generates a new endpoint URL for the workflow. |
Save | Saves changes to endpoint URL configuration. |
Column | Description |
Workflow name | Workflow for which External Start functionality is available. |
Endpoint URLs | Number of External Start endpoint URLs defined for the workflow. |
Calls | Number of calls to endpoint URLs for this workflow. |
Last called | Date and time of last call to an endpoint URL defined for this workflow. |
Configure | Configure button to access the Manage External Start configuration page for the workflow. For more information about this configuration page, see Manage External Start configuration page. |
You can add, test, select, and delete connections to external providers, such as DocuSign, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Salesforce.
To access the Connection Manager dialog box:
To add a connection:
For more information about these fields, see Create Connection dialog box.
The connection is now available for selection when configuring actions associated with the selected provider. For example, if you added a Salesforce connection, then the new connection is available when configuring the action Salesforce change user status.
To test an existing connection:
The message "Testing connection" appears briefly, and then an image representing the test results is displayed to the right of the Test button for the selected connection.
: Connection is working
: Error encountered during test; hover over image for more details
To select a connection for use during action configuration:
To delete a connection:
Related topics
About connections
Connection Manager dialog box
Create Connection dialog box
The list of workflows are divided into workflows that are published (available for selection by users) as well as those which are unpublished (saved but unavailable for selection by users).
Click the Workflow Settings button, then select Workflow Settings from the menu options.
Note: When removing a workflow, it is not removed from the system, only from the list of workflows available to users (published workflows).
This help topic describes how to open and save workflows. For information about making a workflow available to users in libraries and lists, please refer to the Publishing a workflow.
There are two ways to open an existing workflow:
1. Using Workflow Designer:
2. Existing workflows can also be opened from the Manage Workflows page. For more information, please refer to the Managing Workflows.
The Open Workflow dialog supports opening a previous version of a workflow. To see the available versions click the plus symbol (+) located to the left of the workflow title. A minor version is created every time the workflow is saved and a major version when published. Double clicking the workflow title will open the latest version, which may not be the current published version. To open a previous version, select one of the versions from the list and click the Select button (or double click the version row). The version selected will open in the workflow designer. If this workflow is then modified and published, a new version will be created and this new version will be the current version that is used when a workflow is started.
A workflow can be saved at any point in the design process and edited again at a later time.
To save a workflow:
The workflow Title will default to New Workflow, and a warning message will appear if a workflow with the same name already exists. To overwrite an existing saved workflow, check the Overwrite existing version checkbox.
The Description field can be used to add comments about the workings and purpose of the workflow. These comments are displayed in the Open Workflow dialog, and on the Manage Workflows page.
The Change comments field can be used to add comments about the changes made to the latest saved version of the workflow. These comments are displayed in the Open Workflow dialog as a tooltip, and displayed to the Approver of a Workflow Change Approval process.
When all of the desired information is complete, click the Submit button to save the workflow. A progress indicator will display while the saving process occurs, and then the following message will be displayed:
A workflow can be saved for different usages.
To save the workflow with a different name:
Save As Snippet: see Workflow Snippets
Save As Template: see Workflow templates
Use the Print button on the main ribbon toolbar to print the workflow design.
Note: the Print feature prepares the workflow design page for printer-friendly viewing in the web browser. The browser's standard printing function is then used to send the page to the printer.
The Print button contains two menu options:
Click the Print icon on the page to launch the browser's standard print functions.
Before a workflow becomes available to users within SharePoint lists and libraries it must be published.
To publish a workflow:
Note: Not all users have permission to publish workflows. For information about which users can publish workflows, please refer to the Security Settings.
The process of validation and publishing may take a few seconds before the published message is shown:
If there are errors in the workflow, including actions that are not configured, the workflow will not publish, and the following message is displayed:
Use the Run Now button to test an action without republishing the whole workflow design. Click on the Run Now button in the action Ribbon to open the Run Now dialog.
Note: Run Now is not a simulation, any executions such as create, query, update and delete that are made will be committed when executing the Run Now. Use this page to temporarily change parameter values and test the configuration settings of the action.
The Run Now dialog shows the current configurations for the action and allows reference tokens to be replaced before the Run Now dialog is executed.
By default, the Run Now dialog will:
Note: The replacements and changes made to parameter values used in the Run Now is only temporary; these parameter values are not saved to the action once the Run Now dialog is closed.
Parameters
The parameters will reflect the available configuration settings of the action the Run Now dialog is launched from. Test connection This will verify that the connection details to an external system are correct. This option appears on selected Run Now dialogs depending on the action it is launched from. Result Displays the output of the action once the Run Now has been executed. Some actions with Run Now, interact with data or systems outside of the workflow. By default, the Run Now feature is allowed on all sites that do not have workflow change approval enabled. To change the Run Now preferences: Actions that support Run Now and only operate on workflow context data will always have the Run Now feature available.
The text displayed around an activity can be configured. Adding labels to a workflow action provides a user with more context around what the action is doing without the need to see the workflow action configuration.
There are two ways to edit the labels for a workflow action.
1. To edit the label in-line on the workflow action itself:
2. To edit the label within the 'Configure action' dialog:
The action notes are displayed in the print with notes view.
Notes to display:
User defined notes
The textbox is only enabled when the Notes to display selected is User defined or System generated and user defined. Entering a value will display the custom notes in the print with notes view and when a user hovers over the workflow action.
This section provides information for troubleshooting unavailability of External Start.
· Do you have the required license? Your license must be enabled for Enterprise Edition and Nintex Live.
· Are both Nintex Live and External Start enabled? To enable Nintex Live and External Start, go to the Central Administration Home page, click Nintex Workflow Management, click Live settings, and then click Enable for both settings.
· Was the workflow last published before External Start was enabled? External Start options continue to be unavailable for existing published site workflows. To make External Start options available for these workflows, republish them after enabling External Start.
· Did you update the workflow recently without publishing? If you recently updated variables for the workflow, make sure you republish. External Start is available for published site workflows only.
If the workflow didn’t start after you ran a service pointed to the External Start URL, review the possible causes below.
Cause |
Resolution |
Workflow error. The External Start URL was successfully called and the workflow started, but the workflow ran into issues before expected actions completed. |
See External Start URLs page. An incremented value in the Calls column indicates that an External Start URL for this workflow was called. You can also check workflow history for workflow errors. |
Service monitoring frequency. The External Start URL is not yet called because the service is subject to a monitoring frequency. |
See the service documentation on monitoring frequency. For example, some Zapier plans monitor every 15 minutes. |
Service connection issue. The External Start URL was not called because the service could not connect. |
See the service logs and documentation. |
Service configuration variable mismatch. The variables specified in the service configuration do not match the variables configured in the workflow. This issue can occur when you update the workflow after configuring the service. |
Compare the service configuration to the workflow configuration to ensure that variables match. |
Required service not running. The Windows service Nintex Workflow Start Service is not running on the Central Administration server. |
On the Central Administration Home page, click System Settings, and then click Manage services on server. Ensure that the status for the service Nintex Workflow Start Service is Started. |
In many workflow actions within Nintex Workflow, values can be set at run time with lookups. A lookup provides the ability to reference and use a value within the workflow action. When the option to select a lookup is available, four options will be presented in a drop down menu.
The Value option allows a literal value to be entered, or use Insert Reference to build the value dynamically at run time.
The Workflow Data source allows a workflow variable to be referenced.
Click the button to set the return type for the Workflow Data.
The Select return type dialog will appear:
Select the Return type for the workflow data from the drop down provided.
When all settings have been made, click the OK button.
The List Lookup source allows a reference to be made to any property of the current item or any item within a list or library in the current site. When List Lookup is selected, additional options are provided where the Source and Field of the List Lookup will need to be set.
The default source is set to use the current item. All available properties that are defined for the Source will be listed in the Field list.
Alternatively, a property on another item in any list within the site can be set. After selecting a Source, select a Field containing the value to be used. Using the When and Equals options, an item in the source list can be located.
E.g. In the Shared Documents library, select the ID of an item where the Name of the item is Finance Jan 2012.
Note: Using a List Lookup is a useful solution for solving the problem of environment-specific configuration values. By creating a list to hold the configuration variables, lookups can be used to retrieve the settings at runtime that may differ between the different environments such as 'Development' and 'Production'. This helps to avoid hard-coding these settings into the workflow templates and having to change them as they are deployed between the environments.
For information about lookups used in the Nintex Workflow Message Templates, please refer to Defining message templates.
The User Profiles source allows a reference to be made to a user profile property of the specified Account Name. When User Profiles is selected, additional options are provided where the Source and Account Name value will need to be set.
The Source is the value that will be retrieved based on the value of the Account Name. All available user profile properties will be listed in the Source field.
E.g. John Smith has the Account Name of 'jsmith'. The following example will return John Smith's department value specified in his SharePoint user profile property.
The Workflow Constant option allows a value that has been set globally either at the Farm, Site Collection or Site level to be used within the workflow action.
Verbose logging adds increased context data when viewing the history of a workflow instance. The value of all workflow variables and item properties are stored before and after each workflow action, along with additional diagnostics information such as the process the workflow was running in and the server which was executing the workflow.
Verbose logging must first be enabled in the farm before it can be enabled in a workflow.
To enable verbose logging:
Note: A workflow with verbose logging enabled will add more data to the workflow database than one without, therefore there is an automatic purge process to remove verbose information after a number of days.
Global settings are cached and refreshed automatically every 15 minutes. For changes to take affect immediately, perform an IISRESET and restart the Windows SharePoint Services timer service.
Once verbose logging is enabled on the web farm, it can be enabled on a workflow.
To enable verbose logging for a workflow:
Verbose information is available from the Viewing workflow status of a workflow. If the instance is run with verbose logging enabled, and the verbose data has not yet been cleared, a message in the workflow information panel will state that verbose logging information is available. If verbose data is available, each workflow action can be clicked on to bring up the verbose information panel. The panel shows each data item available to the workflow, with the values before and after the action executed. If any value changed, it will be highlighted.
There are options to export the verbose information for a particular action or the entire verbose log to an xml file.
Verbose logging adds a significant amount of data to the Nintex Workflow database. The data is not intended to be kept for a long time. The verbose logging feature is intended as an assistant for workflow development and testing, and is not intended to be left on in production.
Note: The Run as workflow owner option will only appear when the action is in the root level of the workflow. If it is embedded in a "Run If" action, a branch of a "State Machine", a "Parallel" action, "Flexi Task" action or "Loop" action, this option is not available. This is due to a limitation in SharePoint, all actions inside a parent action must run using the same user.
Workflow Constants are globally set values available to all workflows at the specified level (web farm, site collection, or site). Use workflow constants to store credentials, URLs, LDAP paths, SQL connection strings, and any other values that need to be used in multiple workflows.
Inserting workflow constants into workflow actions
You can insert credentials and other defined workflow constants into workflow actions. During workflow design, the values contained within a workflow constant are not visible; only the name of the workflow constant is shown.
To insert a credential into a workflow action:
To insert a defined workflow constant into a workflow action (any type other than credential):
As an administrator, you can enable or disable entry of manually defined credentials when defining constants or when configuring workflow actions. This setting affects the entire web farm.
To enable or disable entry of manually defined credentials:
Managing workflow constants
As an administrator, you can create, edit, and delete workflow constants using the Manage workflow constants settings page for the specified level (web farm, site collection, or site). Credentials can be defined through either manual entry (if enabled on the web farm) or the Secure Store Service on SharePoint. For more information about Secure Store Service on SharePoint, see the Microsoft article Configure the Secure Store Service in SharePoint 2013.
To create, edit, and delete workflow constants:
You can edit permissions for workflow constants to allow only specified users and groups to see and use the workflow constant when designing a workflow. Permissions are checked when the workflow is published.
Note: If an existing workflow is modified by another workflow designer who does not have permissions to see and use a workflow constant being used in that workflow, then the workflow will save; however, republishing of the workflow will not be allowed. Only workflow designers who have been granted permission to see and use the workflow constant will be able to publish the workflow. Because this security check is performed when the workflow is published, no currently published workflow using workflow constants can be re-published by someone without permissions to the referenced workflow constants. Therefore, if the permissions for a workflow constant are changed, a workflow that is already using the constant will continue to use the value successfully.
Field | Description |
Name | The name of the constant to display for insertion into the workflow action. |
Type | The data type of the workflow constant. Select one of the following options.
|
Description | Additional notes about this constant. |
Sensitive | (Available for the workflow constant types String, Number, and Date.) When this check box is selected, the value of this constant is encrypted, the value is masked to the workflow designer, and the constant is available only in workflow actions that use sensitive values. For example, sensitive constants are supported in the connection string field of the action Execute SQL but not the body and subject fields of the action Send a notification. |
Use the Workflow Settings dialog to set the workflow title and description, workflow start options, workflow variables and start data, association columns, and select a custom start form.
Note: Workflows are associated with a library or a list. Folders and sub-folders within libraries are subject to the same workflows as the parent library. Therefore, if a workflow is set to start when items are created or modified, any item, regardless of how many folders or sub-folders down it is stored, will trigger all the workflows that are set to start automatically.
The Snippets feature provides the ability to reuse a predefined set of actions in the same sequence easily. For a set of actions which may be reused frequently, the user can choose to save the set of actions as a snippet. The saved snippet can then be used within the current workflow or in other workflows within the same site collection.
There are two ways to create a snippet.
1. To save an entire workflow as a snippet:
Note: This will save the entire workflow as a snippet.
2. To save an 'Action Set' action as a snippet:
Note: This will save the workflow action including its nested workflow actions as a snippet.
In both ways when a snippet is saved, the Save as Snippet dialog will be displayed.
Once a snippet has been saved a new section will appear in the Workflow Actions toolbox called My snippets. It is from here that a snippet with all its preconfigured settings can be used in the workflow.
To add a snippet to the workflow:
Note: When the snippet is released onto the drop zone, it will be rendered as a set of workflow actions - the snippet icon will not appear on the workflow canvas.
To delete a snippet:
Start data is data that must be collected when the workflow is started. When a user starts the workflow, they will be presented with a form requesting this information.
Note: Start Data will only appear if the workflow is set to start manually, if the workflow starts automatically, the start data fields will not appear and if default values are set, they will be used for the variables.
Start data is configured by creating workflow variables and setting the Show on start form option to 'True' for the variable to be shown.
For more information please refer to the Workflow variables.
Workflow templates provides the ability to create a new workflow using the basis of a saved workflow template. By using workflow templates, workflow designers are able to save a considerable amount of time without the need to build a similar workflow already in existence from scratch.
Workflow templates are associated at a Site Collection level. Saved workflow templates will only be available for reuse within the site collection the workflow was saved from. In order to use a workflow template from a different site collection, use the export workflow and import workflow features. Refer to Importing and exporting workflows.
To create a new workflow based on a workflow template:
Note: Templates shown may differ from those available. Also, depending on what version of Nintex Workflow installed, pre-loaded templates may differ.
Only an Administrator can delete workflow templates.
To delete a workflow template:
Workflows retrieve data from a data source at run time, workflow variables provides the ability to store data somewhere in order to use it in the conditions and actions within the workflow. Different types of data can be stored in a workflow variable. A workflow variable can also be used to get data from users on workflow start.
Some examples of when workflow variables are useful:
It is not always appropriate or possible to store some of these values as meta data of the item attached to the workflow. To provide the means and flexibility to handle these kinds of scenarios Nintex Workflow provides workflow variables.
Managing Workflow Variables
To create or delete a variable attached to a workflow:
Alternatively:
To create a new workflow variable:
To modify an existing workflow variable:
To delete an existing workflow variable:
Note: Workflow actions that use workflow variables are restricted to specific variable data types. For example: