Tell me more ×
SharePoint Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for SharePoint enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 6 down vote favorite
4

As I understand WF are triggered with events (or event). I have a expiration column and I need to send notification 45 and 30 days prior to the expiration data. What are my option?

share|improve this question

4 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Have a look at my answer over on StackOverflow.com - Dated Reminders in SharePoint ...

Its basically the same problem - that poster is looking to remind people of upcoming calendasr events but this is no different to your use case of emails before expiery dates.

The post talks about a few different ways to do this

  • Workflow
  • Timer Jobs
  • Open source solutions
  • Commercial Solutions
share|improve this answer
2  
IRM is another possibility in conjunction with workflows – PirateEric Nov 10 '11 at 18:36
up vote 5 down vote

You can trigger the workflow when the item is created, then pause it until you reach the expiration date minus 30 (or 45) days. This can easily be done with SharePoint Designer.

This could become tricky if the expiration date is modified later. If it is the case you'll need to rely on more advanced solutions (e.g. recurring workflows that poll the item at regular intervals).

share|improve this answer
+1. To add: no "tricks" needed, since parallel blocks are avaliable in SharePoint 2010. Have just implemented this and tested - works like a charm. – Andrey Markeev Nov 10 '11 at 21:32
2  
Blogged about the solution, have a look: amarkeev.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/… – Andrey Markeev Nov 10 '11 at 22:07
up vote 0 down vote

The best solution is to use Alerts. If I'm not wrong in ItemAdded event of List item receiver you can create Alert, set AlertTime to needed time, set AlertFrequency to Immediate.

share|improve this answer
1  
This won't work either - SharePoint Alerts are triggered in response to user actions (like adding/editing a record) and you can't use that Schema to schedule an alert for a specific time in the future – Ryan Nov 10 '11 at 17:44
@Ryan As I know the alerts are started by timer job. This job selects alerts that have alert time less then current time and sends notification. Then it increase time to interval for weekly and daily alerts. So in my schema alerts are not set by the system, the code sets alert in event handler. Am I miss something? – Alexander Nov 10 '11 at 17:54
Thats not how I understood AlertTime to work. Have you actually got this working? – Ryan Nov 10 '11 at 18:26
1  
I have never used this idea. Thus I use "if I'm not wrong" phrase... I hope that I will have a time to check this solution tomorrow. – Alexander Nov 10 '11 at 18:38
1  
My solution is wrong. There are each item should have its own alert. But it is not possible. Thanks that you corrected me. – Alexander Nov 11 '11 at 6:15
up vote 0 down vote

Create views with the specified criteria, then subscribe alerts to the views.

UPDATE

Thanks to Ryan's poking and my desire to prove myself, I did discover this isn't as straight forward as I thought. You need to create a view with no date filtering, but you need some kind of filtering, like Title does not contain [blank]. Then subscribe to that view, then change the filter to your desired date filter. This works for me. I'm curious to see if it does for you.

share|improve this answer
1  
You won't be able to set an alert on a view with a filter containing Today (needed for the 45/30 day expiration) – Ryan Nov 10 '11 at 17:43
Sure you can, i do it all the time. – David Lozzi Nov 10 '11 at 17:45
1  
I'll bet you a pint you can't ;) – Ryan Nov 10 '11 at 17:52
tryin it right now ;) I've done it before, lets see if i can again – David Lozzi Nov 10 '11 at 17:59
1  
what the crap! Tried on Sp2010, I got this to work before on a WSS3 view, a few times... i think... I owe you one, next time you're in town! – David Lozzi Nov 10 '11 at 18:09
show 3 more comments

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.