How to create a simple approval workflow in SharePoint Designer

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• Synopsis

  This guide will show you how to create a simple approval workflow in SharePoint Designer.

• Applicable to

  All PlexHosted SharePoint 2010 accounts.

• Prerequisite

  • a PlexHosted SharePoint 2010 account
  • a PlexHosted SharePoint 2010 site
  • Microsoft SharePoint Designer program
Introduction: SharePoint Designer is a perfect tool to customize your sites and create the necessary workflows to make the working process more simple and efficient. It contains several workflow templates using which creating the approval one is easy and quick. But if you need to create your own, you may do this using the steps of this guide.



• How to

1. Open the Microsoft SharePoint Designer.
2. Click on File tab and Open your SharePoint site.

3. Go to your Task list (or to the list you need to run an approval workflow) and check the box Require content approval for submitted items.

4. Return to the File tab and click New Item, choose List workflow. Specify the name and the list for your new approval workflow.

5. Click on to the Workflow settings button and check the necessary boxes in Start Options section. You can set the workflow to be manually started or automatically.

6. Return to editing your approval workflow. You will see Step 1, click on Action and choose Set Workflow variable.

7. Click on workflow variable hyperlink and choose create new variable. Type the name of this variable; choose its type from the drop-down menu.

8. Then click on value and define the workflow look up (for example Task type).

9. Add the Condition to this action. (If any value equals value for our example)

10. Define the value of the first hyperlink. For this choose the "Data Source" and "Field from source" from the drop-down menus and click OK (Current Item and Data for the example).

11. Define the value of the second hyperlink and click OK (This in the example - the Data source, Field and Data).

12. Add required action to this condition. (We`ve added Send an Email. If you `ve chosen it – you need to define the message and receivers for this approval email.)

13. Then add Set Content Approval Status action to this current condition. Define the approval status clicking on the status hyperlink and add some comments. The last one is optional.

14. Push the Check for Errors button and if there are no mistakes, you may Save and then Publish your approval workflow.

If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the PlexHosted support staff.

Reference:

http://plexhosted.com/billing/knowledgebase.php?action=displayarticle&id=226&useful=vote