SharePoint 2010 approval workflows: how to pull data from against a different list

Question

I'm adding an Approval workflow to an SP2010 list. The list will record change requests for certain items. There is a second list that tracks, for each item, which SharePoint group should be notified when a change is requested.

e.g.

• List 1 will contain:

  ID = 123
  Current value = "Hello"
  Requested value = "Goodbye"

• List 2 will contain:

  ID = 123
  Name = "Greeting"
  Approvers = "IT_Management"

Here I want the workflow to look in List 2 for an item with ID 123, pull from the value in the Approvers field and email that group.

Is this possible? Are there any tutorials that show you how to do this?

Answer 1

Misunderstood your question. I would create a variable in SharePoint designer and use the "Set Workflow Variable" action.

Click "value" and choose the list you want to pull from. Click the small "fx" button to open the Define Workflow Lookup Dialog.

Choose the list you want to pull from as the Data Source. You can choose your Person field on top. In the "Find the list Item" section you can set your filter. Choose the ID field. The value should be the Current Item ID.

Let me know if you need more clarifciation.