Infopath "save and update form" causing problems with workflows kicked off by edit item?

Question

I've done a bunch of IP forms when we were on IP 2007, and now that we have rolled out IP 2010 I'm getting complaints from users about redundant emails.  As I play with this I think the problem is occurring when someone makes a change to an IP form and then republishes it back to the library.  Then the next person comes along to update a form and gets the message saying "You do not have the latest version of the form.  Click here to save and update".    They then click that button to update their form, which I believe is kicking of a workflow that is tied to that library that says any time this form is modified, send out these emails.  Then the user does whatever edits they were planning, submits the form, and the emails get sent off again.

I think that's whats happening, but I'm not 100% sure yet.  If someone could confirm or deny that that is how the functionality would work I'd appreciate it.

If this is true I'm not sure what to do about it.  Can I have any more workflows tied to forms libraries that have "on edit" triggers tied to them if every time a change is made to the IP form every user is going to "save and update" and kick off a new batch of emails?

Thanks.

Ted

Answer 1

This depends on what's sending the emails - it could be workflow, or it could be alerts that users have placed on the form library themselves.  

If it's alerts - I suggestion approaching the problem by having summary emails sent once per day/week.

For workflows, you can try publishing a date field on the InfoPath form - this field is only updated with the current date if the user clicks the submit button.  Within your workflow, check the date is at least a day before today, before you sent out that email.

So workflows continue to run, but the logic in the workflow is skipped unless this date is modified from within the form.

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jliu - http://johnliu.net - http://sharepointgurus.net