InfoPath Dev

I have an InfoPath form embedded in a MOSS 2007 page. The form is for requesting approval for a project. The submit button submits the form data to a form library. That triggers a workflow to get approval for the request.

So far, my workflow uses the "Collect Data From User" action and the "Send and email" action. I configured data collection option so that there are two inputs: two radio buttons for approve/reject and a comment field. I built the email body and subject using dynamic strings and variables from the form data.

I would like this approval process to be simple for the person that does the approval. Ideally, they could see the information in one webpage, approve or reject it, write a comment explaining why it was approved or rejected and then click some sort of submit button.

I haven't found an easy solution like that, so I went with sending an email and creating a task.

There are a few problems with this method:

 - The email that is sent when the task is assigned to the approver doesn't seem to be editable or have the option of being disabled (I don't want them to have a link to the XML for simplicity sake)
 - The link from the "You have been assigned as task" email is small and does not take you directly to the page where you can click "Complete Task" (you have to click Edit Item from the linked page)
 - The data and approval form are separated

Thanks for any advice you can give. I've hit a wall trying to solve this problem.

Hello Lamouche,

For the e-mail sent when a task is created, you could disable it completely and replace it by an email you will do in a SPD workflow on the task list. For the link to the task, open one of the task to the good page and copy/paste the URL to your email... of course you will need to change the ID in the URL by a lookup to the ID of the current task.

I don't quite understand what you mean by "The data and approval form are separated"... Would you clarify it so I can help you better with this?

So to get rid of the automatic email, I should use something other than "Assign Task" to make the task?

Right now I'm using the "Collect Data From User" action to get approval information. I have two radio buttons with "approve" and "reject" and a comments field. The reviewer fills this out before they click "Complete Task". This form where approval information is collected is separate from the data (from the request), which is sent to the reviewer by email.

 Ideally, here's how the flow would go:

Customer fills out request form
   -> Form data goes to form library
   -> Email sent to reviewer (with just a link to a webpage with the submitted request and approval form and a little information from the submitted request if possible)
   -> Reviewer goes to the linked webpage and clicks "approve" or "reject" and then submit (or complete task the way I have it set up right now)
   -> If project approved, email someone; if project not approved, email someone else
   -> If project approved, create a task with the request information in it (Ideally, but I haven't figured out how to do something triggered after a task is completed)

 Thanks for any possible help. I'm struggling to get SharePoint to do what I need it to.

Ok for your automatic email, you can disable it in the task list. To do so, go to the task list settings, click advanced settings and select "No" at the "E-mail Notification" question. Now the task won't send any email when a new task is added.

But you want the "assigned to" person to know that there is a task assigned to him. To do so, create a workflow with SharepointDesigner on the task list and set it to start automatically when a new item is created. Then put a "Send email" action to the assigned to person with the info you want them to have (it your case the link to the form and a link to the task). Because you have now this workflow on the task list, you do not need to send a notification email to the reviewer in your main workflow.

 Normally, when you create a "collect data from user" action, there is a link to the related form in the task item (same happen with the other actions assigning a task to someone). So i don't think you would need to create a task with the info in it.

If you have any more questions or want me to explain more, don't hesitate.

 Thank you for your help. I'm a bit stuck.

 I turned off the automatic email and I have a "Send email" action, but it won't go until the task is completed due to the sequential nature of the workflow. I have "'Assign task' then 'Send email'". To add a link to the task approval form, I need to use the Task ID in the email. I do this by creating a dynamic string and adding in Task:ID. When I was creating this dynamic string before the Task was created left the ID blank. I assume it's because the Task hadn't been created yet.

So now I want to assign the Task then create the dynamic string using the Task ID then send an email using that dynamic string. I can't get that to happen. One problem was it wouldn't let me "move up" and "move down" on the actions for some reason.

 Any advice? Thanks.

Ok, the e-mail you send to the approvers, you need to put it in a NEW workflow, linked to the TASK list. That way, an e-mail will be sent when a new TASK will be created. The same goes for the dynamic string you want. If you put it in the email body of the NEW workflow on the TASK list, it will be working fine.

 Oh thank you! I didn't think of making a second workflow from there. I'll try that. Thanks a lot for your help.