How can I initiate a publish workflow within another workflow?

Question

I am in my noob road to learn more for the Designer and the workflows. Now, I would like to know how could I initiate a 2010 publish workflow within another "Collect Signatures" 2010 workflow.I have created a copy from the out-of-the-box "Collect Signatures" 2010 workflow and added "Start Approval process" command. The below screenshot show the basic logic in the Designer:

As I see it, the "Parameter:Signers" is taken from the workflow parameters defined within the library. But what should I enter in "this column"? I would prefer to be able to enter the participants when I create a workflow from within the library instead to hard code them via Designer.

I hope I am clear enough to what I need to do. All feedback is welcome

Answer 1

Hi Kiri V,

You could initiate a 2010 publish workflow by changing the parameters after copying the workflow in the SharePoint designer.

For more detailed information, you could refer to the article below.

SharePoint Designer Walkthrough: “Copy & Modify” Publishing Workflow.

https://roykimsharepoint.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/sharepoint-designer-walkthrough-copy-modify-publishing-workflow/

You could enter the approvers during the approval process in the “this column” in the approval workflow.

Actions available when your SharePoint site is running Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Workflow-actions-in-SharePoint-Designer-2010-A-quick-reference-guide-5a7ad276-0ed7-49b0-b652-e56a77dd96c6#__toc260924449

Best regards,

Sara Fan

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Answer 2

Sara,

The solution worked but I want to add a condition to the workflow, to start publish only when the "Collect signatures" is successfully completed. 

I used the workflow variables "IsItemApproved" and "IsItemApproved1" but both return value "false". Also at the workflow history the internal status show "Completed" and all tasks signed!

What did I do wrong? Which variable should I use to check that?

Thank you,

Kirk

Answer 3

OK, I have made some progress. I use a new workflow variable to trigger the publish workflow if the collecting signatures is successful. Here is my workflow:

But for some reason does not initiate the "Publish" workflow and I get the following log error:

What am I doing wrong? I followed the guides you have provided.