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PDF Converter for SharePointQuestions, answers and general discussions for the PDF Converter for SharePoint
Forums > PDF Converter for SharePoint > PDF Converter from Sharepoint Workflow   View modes:
michael.urdiales@dtc-houston.com-(6/29/2011, 2:27 PM)
PDF Converter from Sharepoint Workflow

Hello all,

I have a trial version of PDF Converter for Sharepoint installed on a stand alone Sharepoint 2010 Standard server.  I was going through the steps for 'Using the PDF Converter from a Sharepoint Workflow', but I get stuck on the last step on updating the list.  I insert the action 'Update List Item' and I can select my document library from the 'List' dropdown.  I then click 'Add', but 'Approval Status' is not one of the choices in 'Set this field'.  In fact none of the read-only columns are available.  Am I doing something wrong on this part?  Thank you for any suggestions!
jritmeijer@muhimbi.com-(6/29/2011, 2:47 PM)
RE:PDF Converter from Sharepoint Workflow

Hello Michael,

 

I assume you are talking about the example at http://blog.muhimbi.com/2009/04/using-pdf-converter-from-sharepoint.html.

 

A couple of questions

 

1.       Can you select the ‘Approval Status’ column in the ‘condition’ at the beginning of the workflow to check if the document is approved?

2.       Is this a re-usable workflow or a workflow directly attached to a document library? When using re-usable workflows the list of fields is retrieved from the content type, not the document library.

3.       Are you writing the PDF file to the same Document Library as the source file?

 

Best regards,

 

Jeroen Ritmeijer

Muhimbi
michael.urdiales@dtc-houston.com-(6/29/2011, 2:55 PM)
RE:PDF Converter from Sharepoint Workflow

Yes, that is the example.  Also I didn't have any issues with the previous steps.  I was able to select 'Approval Status' at the beginning.  This is a list workflow associated to the document library.  The PDF will go to the same document library, just a different folder.

 

Thanks!
jritmeijer@muhimbi.com-(6/29/2011, 3:54 PM)
RE:PDF Converter from Sharepoint Workflow

Hi,

 

That example was originally written for SharePoint 2007. It appears that things have changed in SP2010 as this field is not listed in the box when I just tried it (The field is not listed as a column on the Document Library settings screen either). Other custom fields created on the list do show up. Also the ‘Set Content Approval Status’ workflow action only works on the ‘current item’.

 

I can see 2 workarounds.

 

1.       Try modifying the existing approval workflow to integrate with the PDF Conversion Process, see http://sergeluca.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/sharepoint-2010-changing-the-approval-workflow-status-when-a-document-is-deleted-and-restored/

2.       Split the workflow up in 2 steps. I haven’t tested it, but should work roughly as follows:

a.       Create a new column named ‘shadow approval’

b.      Set this field to ‘approved’ on the PDF file using the ‘Update List Item’ action

c.       This will trigger the workflow again as the PDF file has changed

d.      Check the value of the ‘shadow approval’ column

e.      As the ‘current list item’ is now the PDF file you can use the ‘set content approval status’ to set the status of the PDF file.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeroen Ritmeijer

Muhimbi
michael.urdiales@dtc-houston.com-(7/5/2011, 6:21 PM)
RE:PDF Converter from Sharepoint Workflow

Sorry for the late reply.  I did get it working, but I basically used three workflows.  The first one is the standard "Approval - Sharepoint 2010" globally reusable workflow.  After it gets approved here, I have the conversion workflow kick in.  I have that one as:

 

Wait for 'Approval Status' to equal '0;#Approved'

If 'Current Item:Approval Status' equals '0;#Approved'

and 'Current Item:File Type' not equals 'pdf'

Convert 'Current Item' to 'this url' using 'the same file name'...

 

Once the conversion process completes I have the third workflow setup to run when a new item is created to approve the pdf:

 

If 'Current Item:Approval Status' equals '2;#Pending'

and 'Current Item:File Type' equals 'pdf'

Set content approval status to 'Approved' with 'comments'

 

I tested on a couple documents, and everything was converted and approved.  I haven't done any detail testing.  Is there anything you can see that I would need to change?  I know I'll need to tweak it if we ever add pdf documents, but I don't see us doing that any time soon.

 

Thanks!
jritmeijer@muhimbi.com-(7/12/2011, 10:51 AM)
RE:PDF Converter from Sharepoint Workflow

Thanks for sharing Michael,

 

Apologies for the late reply, we have now updated the original blog post with a link to the forum thread.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeroen Ritmeijer

Muhimbi
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