Workflow in 2013 will not start when an item is created

Question

I have a list WF called Submissions that is associated with List A. The desired scenario is described below:

• Users go to List A to enter information and Submit
• Once submitted, the WF in List A kicks off
• List A's WF has logic that will add the newly submitted information from List A to List B
• Information entered in List A is then added to List B as a newly created item
• List B has a WF called Review that starts a Task Process for Administrators and notifies them

On both of the WFs I have the Start Option as "Start workflow automatically when an item is created".

When a user enters information in List A the WF kicks off no problem. But when the information from List A is added to List B, due to the WF logic in List A, the WF in List B does not kick off at all to start a Task Process for Admins.

The logic is sound but I don't have any idea why the WF in List B is not kicking off when a new item is added from List A.

Can someone enlighten me on how this is not working and advise on a fix?

Answer 1

This is because the system account, by design, can't start a workflow. You need to do the create new item in list B inside an impersonation step. I use a service account named sp_workflow to publish the workflow so that it doesn't look like I created all of the items in list B.

Answer 2

You are correct and this is a known issue and was included as functionality within an update in SharePoint 2013 to prevent an infinite looping workflow. There is a workaround procedure to manually call the 2nd workflow from within the 1st workflow.

Just a heads up on a 'gotcha' regarding the workaround. If you are creating/assigning a Task item to kick off workflow B, by default the workflow will pause until the Task has been marked as Completed (Approved/Rejected). This is a problem because then the code to manually start workflow B will not run until after the Task is completed. There is a setting in the task itself you can uncheck so the workflow does not pause until the task is completed, and that will resolve the issue.

Answer 3

Two approaches I use for this kind of requirements;

1. You can use 2010 workflows if all the functionality you need is included.

2. Alternatively most of these kind of requests can be reduced to single workflow. In your example, it is most likely to be possible to have the workflow in List A to do whatever needs to be done for the item in List B. Once you create the object in List B, it returns a Created variable which references the new Items ID. This allows you to access its columns for read/write purposes.