How to autfill a column with data from My Site

Question

I would like to create a custom list in SP2013 that would have two People or Group columns. One would display the Name of a user, the other would display his email address of the same user (both information are available in this column type - I assume they are taken somewhere from MySite).

Is there any way how to make the content of the other column display automatically? i.e, When I select User A in the first column, I wouldn't have to manually add his email address to the second column but it would fill automatically?

Answer 1

People normally think of using a Calculated column for such requirement, but that will not work. Instead, you may achieve it using SharePoint Designer Workflow.

Modify your list design as below,

Column Name       |       Type             |          Detail
------------------------------------------------------------------------
User Name         |   People or Group      | To select the required user here
Email ID          |  Single line of text   | Email ID populated automatically

Create a SharePoint designer workflow, which will set the Email ID column once the item is created. The workflow will run whenever an item is added and modified.

Workflow step,

Set Email ID to Current Item:User Name

In Current Item:User Name, set the value as

Data Source        : Current Item
Field from source  : User Name
Return field as    : Email Address

Note: Dont forget to hide/disable your Email ID column from the required forms to avoid confusions for end user.