Approve Issues list item - stuck in "Pending"

Question

Non-programming steps:

• Create a new "Issues Tracking" list on a Publishing Site
• Enable Content Approval on the list
• Create new item that defaults to "Pending"
• Open the "Manage Content and Structure" tool
• For the list, select the "Pending Approval" view
• Select item(s) and select "Approve" from the Actions menu.
• Item remains stuck in "Pending". 

Programmatically (PS):

$s = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite]("http://site")
$w = $s.OpenWeb()
$l = $w.Lists["IssueList"]
$l.Items[0].ModerationInformation #Should be Pending
$l.Items[0].ModerationInformation.Status = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPModerationStatusType]::Approved
$l.Items[0].ModerationInformation.Comment = "Test"
$l.Items[0].Update()

... item remains stuck in "Pending".

What am I missing here?

Answer 1

Note: the above PowerShell is wrong.

You need to set a variable to the item - e.g. $i = $l.Items[0]  and then operate on the variable (or use $_ in a foreach loop). This now works.

Not sure why the "Manage Content and Structure" tool doesn't work.