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Is there a way I can get the OOBE approval workflow installed on my foundation test VM? Thanks

2 Answers 2

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If you are using SharePoint Foundation, there are no out-of-the-box workflows provided except for the three-state Workflow.

You can use sharepoint designer worklows for this.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/sharepoint-designer-help/create-a-workflow-HA010100591.aspx

http://sergeluca.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/step-by-step-tutorial-creating-workflows-for-sharepoint-2010-step-115/

You can also check : http://approvalworkflow.codeplex.com/

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For sites and site collections created in Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, a predefined Three-state workflow is included by default, and is the only predefined workflow available in SharePoint Foundation 2010. The Three-state workflow can be used to manage business processes that require organizations to track a high volume of issues or list items, such as customer support issues, sales leads, or project tasks. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee890119(v=office.14).aspx

So you have to use either SharePoint Designer to create an Approval Workflow or Visual Studio.

Here is designer workflow guide:

  1. Open the site in SharePoint Designer .Create a workflow to associate with the document library .Set the workflow to start when an item is created and when an item is changed .Also allow the workflow to start manually .
  2. Choose ‘Collect Data from a user’ .
  3. Click on the data and give a name to the Task created .
  4. Define the custom form field name as ‘Approve ?’ .Set the information type as Choice .
  5. Set the choices as ‘Approve’ and ’Reject’ .Display as Checkboxes .Uncheck the ‘Allow fill-in values’ and ‘Allow blank values’ .Click finish to save .
  6. Click on users and add the users who will approve the documents .
  7. Keep the output to variable as collect .
  8. Add a new step .Choose ‘If any value equals value ’ .Set the any value ‘Data source’ as workflow variables and parameters .Set the ‘Field from source’ as Variable: collect .
  9. Set the value behind ‘equals ’ as ‘Approve’ .
  10. Add a new action ‘Update list item ’ .Set the item as current item .Add the field Approval status as Approved .
  11. Add an Else-if branch to update the Approval status as Rejected .
  12. Publish the workflow and test in your site .

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/8d6d4cad-78e8-40cc-ad41-6caebbad6bf5/approval-workflow-from-scratch-in-sharepoint-foundation?forum=sharepointcustomizationprevious

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  • Thanks for your help...I guess I should of been more precise in my question. I want to create solution in VS that lists all pending documents in all libraries. This involves querying the lists for Moderation=2 (Pending). on my Foundation dev VM it does not have this approval mechanism so I have no sites or lists to debug against. I have voted your answer though in appreciation.
    – JazzyN
    Jun 19, 2014 at 15:59
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    you dont need the approval workflow? you want to query the list / library and check if their is any document which is pending? if you found those than what you want? I am thinking to write a custom timer job to check this in regular interval and notify you
    – Waqas Sarwar MVP
    Jun 19, 2014 at 16:05
  • Surely my web part would not return anything if there were no lists with moderation=2 so how would I test the solution?
    – JazzyN
    Jun 19, 2014 at 16:36
  • Step 10 causes issues for users because it is not explained well at all. Jan 21, 2016 at 19:23

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