Re: Sharepoint Workflow column not available

renato — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:24:53 GMT

Using a web service call worked for me, but you will at least need VSTA (Visual Studio Tools for Applications) in order to run some code behind the form. You should be guided to download it if you click on any code editing button associated to a form' control.

Once there you'll need a reference to the "lists" web service on your SP site (http://spsiteserver/spsitepath/_vti_bin/lists.asmx?WSDL), then the code to query your list and retrieve the "Approval" column: some (hopefully helpful) clarifications:

"listsWS" is the web reference name to the "lists" web service;
I'm querying the list using a "projectID" and "GateNumber" keys (select the list item where projectID = X and GateNumber = Y) because this makes sense in my scenario, you'll probably need to define a different criteria to identify the "current" form;
You will need the GUID of both the library and the view you want to query; in my case I had an additional requirement to query one library or another, so the code here down decides which one to query based on the value of the "location" form field;
to retrieve GUID for your list and view, just google the question, there are many different ways (but consider that if you have separate development, test and production environments, those GUIDS are likely to change among them);
the final "decodeApprovalStatus" call just maps integers to strings with the mapping above in this thread

In the form' onLoad method I then call this gatherFormStatus and store the output into a hidden form field; based on that value I then show an "Approved" (or "Rejected", and so on) string/image/whatever you prefer in the form.

Hope it helps,

private string gatherFormStatus()
        {
            listsWS.Lists lists = new listsWS.Lists();
            lists.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials;
            XmlDocument doc = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();
            string projectID = thisXDocument.DOM.selectSingleNode("/my:myFields/my:ProjectSummaryInformation/my:projectID").text;
            doc.LoadXml("<Document><Query><Where><And><Eq><FieldRef Name=\"Project_x0020_ID\" /><Value Type=\"Text\">" + projectID + "</Value></Eq>" +
                "<Eq><FieldRef Name=\"Gate_x0020_Number\" /><Value Type=\"Text\">3</Value></Eq></And></Where></Query><ViewFields/><QueryOptions><IncludeMandatoryColumns>FALSE</IncludeMandatoryColumns></QueryOptions></Document>");
            XmlNode listQuery = doc.SelectSingleNode("//Query");
            XmlNode listViewFields = doc.SelectSingleNode("//ViewFields");
            XmlNode listQueryOptions = doc.SelectSingleNode("//QueryOptions");
            XmlNode res;
            // this method is only invoked when the form is NOT new (i.e. user is opening an already submitted form); hence we do have the
            // location and can use to decide if should query the NdG library or the "regular" library:
            string formLocation = thisXDocument.DOM.selectSingleNode("/my:myFields/my:ProjectSummaryInformation/my:GeneralInformation/my:location").text;
            string library = ("NdG".Equals(formLocation) ? NdGlibraryID : libraryID);
            string viewID = ("NdG".Equals(formLocation) ? NdGsystemViewID : systemViewID);

            try
            {
                res = lists.GetListItems(
                    library,
                    viewID,
                    listQuery,
                    listViewFields,
                    null,
                    listQueryOptions,
                    null);
                // Method signature:
                // lists.GetListItems(String ListName, String viewName, XmlNode query, XmlNode viewFields, string rowLimit, XmlNode queryOptions, String webID);
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                thisXDocument.UI.Alert("There has been an error during data exchange with Sharepoint: \n" + e.Message);
                return "Approved"; // Approved; if status cannot be retrieved, lock the form
            }
            XmlDocument resultsDoc = new XmlDocument();
            XmlNamespaceManager ns = new XmlNamespaceManager(resultsDoc.NameTable);
            ns.AddNamespace("z", "#RowsetSchema");

            XmlNodeList rows = res.SelectNodes("//z:row", ns);
            string statusCode = "0";
            if (rows.Item(0).Attributes["ows_Approval"] != null)
            {
                statusCode = rows.Item(0).Attributes["ows_Approval"].Value;
            }
            return decodeApprovalStatus(statusCode);
        }

Re: Sharepoint Workflow column not available

vindog — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:33:51 GMT

Hi I saw somewhere that a webservice could be used in making a Data connection to the list for this purpose; but I can't find that article or how to do it. Is that what you did? And can you give some more detail if so? I don't have access to SP Designer either..just infopath designer... thank you vin

Re: Sharepoint Workflow column not available

renato — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:00:41 GMT

I didn't want to design a brand new workflow, since the default Approval was fine for me. The only way I found to manage this was by manually calling the Lists.GetListItems web service method and query for the workflow status column. In case you do that, be aware that the value returned is an integer with the following mapping:

2 = In Progress

5 = Completed

15 = Canceled

16 = Approved

17 = Rejected

Nothing (Empty, or no attribute at all) the workflow has not been started yet.

Re: Sharepoint Workflow column not available

kazzius — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:08:02 GMT

i found a way to do this:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointworkflow/thread/e46db7b9-e6fa-4cb2-9b47-6dd44c32aeaf

Re: Sharepoint Workflow column not available

kazzius — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:28:35 GMT

i have the same problem, any suggestions?

Sharepoint Workflow column not available

renato — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:22:59 GMT

I want my forms to react to their workflow status; in order to do that, after defining a built-in approval workflow on the library, I created a secondary data connection to retrieve the workflow status, however the status column is not shown on the data connection wizard among available columns for the library.

Apparently, Sharepoint itself does not show the workflow status column on the library settings page, though it is shown in the library content, and in view definitions. This method seem to be suggested on several forums and articles, and on the microsoft site itself, so apparently there should be a workaround (other than using a web service call, assuming that will work...)

Any help is really appreciated,

Renato

SharePoint Integration

Re: Sharepoint Workflow column not available

Re: Sharepoint Workflow column not available

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Re: Sharepoint Workflow column not available

Sharepoint Workflow column not available