Scheduling a workflow to start

[vickeybird]

Is it possible to schedule triggering or activation of a workflow in
sharepoint?
Can we start a workflow from using timer job?

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Thanks
vickeybird

[Howard Blackmore]

There may be a way of doing this in sharepoint but if not how about this...
Create a scheduled job on whichever PC you like that runs under an account
that has access to a SharePoint document library. Have the job copy a
document with any content, suggest just a line to say that the document is
being used to trigger a workflow, to a document library that has a workflow
associated with it. The workflow will be the one you want to execute. As
soon as the document is copied to the document library the workflow will
start. Job done.

"vickeybird" <viveks...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:99e77393-ee78-499d...@u69g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

[JD]

One way would be to have a workflow action "Pause until date" as the first
action in the workflow. You can have the workflow hang out there until a
certain date/time, and then proceed.

"vickeybird" <viveks...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:99e77393-ee78-499d...@u69g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

[Howard Blackmore]

Nice one JD, that is the way to do it. Should have thought about that.
Guess I have a liking for sledge hammers and nuts!

"JD" <ya...@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
news:u6DrTjEm...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

[JD]

I will say though that the downside to this method is that there is no way
to change the pause date once the workflow starts.

I wanted to use this method to send out an e-mail notification based on the
value of a date field in a document library. I could set the workflow up to
wait until the date specified in that field, but if the user went back into
the document properties and changed the date, there is no way to stop the
workflow already out there waiting for the original date.

Then you have the problem of Sharepoint not being able to start more than
once instance of the same workflow. So if you have a workflow that executes
automatically on the update of a document (for example, if the user changes
the date) and it does a "pause until", if the user changes the date a second
time it will not execute that same workflow again if it is still pausing.
So it will be pausing on the previous date.

Example:

Document added: Trigger date: 08/01/2008 (pause until August 1, 2008)
Document changed: Trigger date: 09/01/2008 (pause until September 1,
2008, but other workflow is still pausing until August 1, 2008)
Document changed: Trigger date: 07/01/2008 (pause until July 1, 2008 -
will never happen - "add" workflow is pausing until Aug 1 and "update"
workflow is pausing until Sep 1 - July 1 will pass with no workflow
executing)

"Howard Blackmore" <Howard.B...@3GuysOnSharePoint.com> wrote in message
news:DADE1C97-005F-4372...@microsoft.com...

[vickeybird]

Thanks a lot for your inputs.
One more question,
Long standing jobs are handled by Sharepoint workflows with
serialization followed by release of memory. Wouldn't "pause untill
date" method make the workflow stay in memory for so many days,
eventually resulting making the system run out of memory?

vickeybird

if we have "Pause untill date" spanning a couple of days, wouldn't
there be issues related to having a program occupying memory
Won't "Pause untill date" method result in

On Apr 8, 9:43 pm, "JD" <ya...@newsgroup.nospam> wrote:
> I will say though that the downside to this method is that there is no way
> to change the pause date once the workflow starts.
>
> I wanted to use this method to send out an e-mail notification based on the
> value of a date field in a document library. I could set the workflow up to
> wait until the date specified in that field, but if the user went back into
> the document properties and changed the date, there is no way to stop the
> workflow already out there waiting for the original date.
>
> Then you have the problem of Sharepoint not being able to start more than
> once instance of the same workflow. So if you have a workflow that executes
> automatically on the update of a document (for example, if the user changes
> the date) and it does a "pause until", if the user changes the date a second
> time it will not execute that same workflow again if it is still pausing.
> So it will be pausing on the previous date.
>
> Example:
>
> Document added: Trigger date: 08/01/2008 (pause until August 1, 2008)
> Document changed: Trigger date: 09/01/2008 (pause until September 1,
> 2008, but other workflow is still pausing until August 1, 2008)
> Document changed: Trigger date: 07/01/2008 (pause until July 1, 2008 -
> will never happen - "add" workflow is pausing until Aug 1 and "update"
> workflow is pausing until Sep 1 - July 1 will pass with no workflow
> executing)
>

> "Howard Blackmore" <Howard.Blackm...@3GuysOnSharePoint.com> wrote in message

>
> news:DADE1C97-005F-4372...@microsoft.com...
>
> > Nice one JD, that is the way to do it. Should have thought about that.
> > Guess I have a liking for sledge hammers and nuts!
>
> > "JD" <ya...@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
> >news:u6DrTjEm...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> >> One way would be to have a workflow action "Pause until date" as the
> >> first action in the workflow. You can have the workflow hang out there
> >> until a certain date/time, and then proceed.
>

> >> "vickeybird" <viveksisod...@gmail.com> wrote in message

[galvi...@gmail.com]

I'm pretty sure that blocked workflows (via pause, assigns, etc) are
saved to the database. I know that paused workflows survive system
reboots

--Paul Galvin, Conchango
RSS @ http://feeds.feedburner.com/PaulGalvinsSharepointSpace
Web site @ http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com

[HowardBl]

No it will not be held in memory. The workflow gets dehydrated and saved to
the database. The timer service will trigger the re-hydrate.
NOTE: The timing of the re-hydration may not match the timing that you have
set. Do not rely upon fine timings.

Howard

[Zach....@gmail.com]

JD,

I ran into the similar issue with setting a alert trigger. Through
much effort I was able to find a workaround, I will use my own example
which involved an issue list with a reminder for when the item was due
in 3 days and when the item was past due.

Rather than using the pause until date you will want to pause for a
specific amount of time such as 12 hours.

Create the workflow to start for new and updated list items. Set up
your email/alert logic, then make sure the last step is to pause for
your chosen amount of time followed by an update of a field of your
choice. I created a field that was a runcount that just added one to
itself each time the workflow completed.

This will essentially create a loop by constantly updating the item
and restarting the on update workflow. You can add logic to make it
only run when and how you want.

[agor...@gmail.com]

You can take our freeware product HarePoint Workflow Scheduler (www.harepoint.com). With it help you can launch workflows by schedule, for all or for selected items in list, under specified credentials and so on.

WBR, Alexander

[girlach]

You can take freeware workflow schduler:
http://www.harepoint.com/Products/HarePointWorkflowScheduler/Default.aspx

* Starting site and list workflows manually or automatically by schedule.
* Starting list workflow for all documents or list items or for those selected
manually or by CAML query.
* List views support. It is extremely topical for such lists as Tasks where you
may select, for example, &ldquo;Due Today&rdquo; view so that the workflow
would
process only tasks for today, rather than all ones in the list.
* Setting workflow launch parameters, including parameters described in the
InfoPath form linked to the process.
* Adjusting flexibly the autorun schedule: by days of the week, by dates in a
month, daily at a specified time, etc.
* Receiving alerts, daily or weekly summaries by email or via SMS with
workflows
results.
* Specifying accounts under which the workflow can be launched.

WBR, Alexander

[mark...@gmail.com]

A method I have used under the following scenario:
User wanted an email reminder sent out every day at 6:00am to a group of users (sp security group) to log in to report their assigns status for that day.

What I employed was a simple custom list and 2 separate workflows which would trade off in execution. Both WFs would execute when the list item changed. WF1 would start off by querying the value of status_column. If the the status was = to 1 it would then pause until 6:00am the next day. WF2 - same setup, but would be looking for say the value to be = to 2 and do the same set of actions.
Each one had an action in place to change the value of the column for the benefit of the other workflow and update the list item. So in effect WF1 or WF2 would both kick-off on a value change with the either WF1 or WF2 dropping through the logic based on the current value of the column not equaling their execution key value and stopping.

[arnol...@verizon.net]

Mark,
Would you be able to provide some details on your solution? This is what I'm loooking for.
Thanks