Update item using Workflow 2013 when "Require Check Out" is enabled

Question

Since the new workflow in SharePoint 2013 are missing some of the features (impersonation, etc) from 2010 workflow I have had some issues with finding good solutions for workflows.

We have a document library with this enabled

• "Require content approval for submitted items"
• "Create major and minor (draft) versions"
• "Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited"

We need a workflow with 3 stages (each stage creates a user task which when completed updates the item status). The (minor) version should remain the same until the final stage which creates a new major version. Is this possible using SharePoint Designer and workflow 2013?

Answer 1

I don't know about SharePoint designer, but as far as I know with a declarative, visual studio, sharepoint 2013 workflow there is an activity that lets you change or get the item version. If you can't find one, try the UpdateSPListItem activity which gives you a list of item properties you can change, maybe it's possible to change the version from there. If all else fails you can write your own code activity to change the version to X when given a specific list item and then you can use that code activity in your workflow (be it sharepoint designer or visual studio workflow, you can use code activities in both).

Answer 2

IF your versions are changing from WF updates, keep the WF statuses in a different list. Never update the main item until the final approval. If you need to show the status in the main list you can easily use JSLink to do the trick.