Is it required to setup custom workflow to automatically start when using Information Management Policy?

Question

Hi all,

I have a configuration question which didn't show in any of the TechNet articles or blogs.  All have shown how to configure the Information Management Policy to use date property to trigger a workflow.  My further question is about the workflow configuration.  We have a custom workflow with very simple logic

step 1: add a date to modified date

step 2: compare it to today's date and see if it's expired or not

Step 3: when it's expired, start an approval process

For a non-OOB workflow attached to a document library and used by IMP, should I set the workflow to run "automatically start this workflow when a new item added" or the default "manually start" is fine?  I was told by someone talked to MS support that when use a custom workflow that checkbox needs to be checked in order for IMP to work properly.  Can't find any explanation for this.  Can someone help me out here?

Thanks in advance.

Sally    

Answer 1

Hi Sally.

If what you are looking for using IMP is to have the workflow do this action as a part of your retention plan, then you should not have it set to automatically run. That would start the workflow when an item is added or edited, not when it has reached it's constipulated(!) retention policy value.

So, without beeing able to verify my statement 100%, this is what I think is right. Setting the workflows startup option to automatically run will cause the IMP settings to be obsolete.
Set your workflow to 'Allow this wf to be manually started' and you should be fine.

Regards

---

Thomas Balkeståhl - Technical Specialist - SharePoint - http://blog.blksthl.com
Download the SharePoint Branding Project here