Very basic workflow cycles over and over and over

Question

Afternoon all!

I have created a very basic workflow that runs against a custom list when a item is changed.  This workflow is designed to finalise a change request through a column called Change Status (which cannot be edited by the end users):

If 'Documented' = No
Stop workflow and log to history
Else
Set Change Status to 'Completed'
Email assignee with details
Stop workflow and log to history.

'Documented' is a simple drop down choice field with Yes|No as the options.

When I edit an item and select Yes to the Documented field, the workflow kicks in and sends the email.  It then sends another email and another and another............until I manually delete the item by which time, I usually have a hundred or more emails sitting in my inbox.

I would have thought with the lines (Stop workflow...) it would only ever send 1 email but this is not the case.

Any ideas?  I'm probably missing something simple here.

Using: WSS 3.0 and SharePoint Designer 2007

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SharePoint Administrator | SharePoint Fan http://davepyett.wordpress.com - Follow me on twitter: twitter.com/dpyett

Answer 1

You should have another flag in there to signify you already sent the email. What is occuring is when you change the status to Completed, the workflow fires due to the change. And again, Documented is still == No so it fires again. Maybe do If document == no && status == completed.

HTH

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David Lozzi
Delphi Technology Solutions
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Answer 2

Is this is an SPD workflow, please say so somewhere.

It's reasonable to assume this based on the fact that you have WSS 3.0 (which includes only one workflow type) and SPD 2007, but it would be good to have some confirmation of this.

The Title doesn't say and everytime your write workflow in the text there is no "SPD" before it.


(Moderator)

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Answer 3

Is your wf kicking off whenever an item changes?  If so, you have a recursive loop initiated by changing the Status field

Answer 4

Could you not set the WF to start on creation and then use the Action - Wait for Field to change on current item? You then set the value you are waiting for. This way the WF starts only one time and your user only gets 1 email.

Answer 5

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

Indeed I was getting the recursive loop David spoke of a couple of posts earlier and I have marked Stunpals reply as the answer as using his method worked really well for me. 

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SharePoint Administrator | SharePoint Fan http://davepyett.wordpress.com - Follow me on twitter: twitter.com/dpyett