Append changes and send text in a workflow triggered email

Question

I have been struggling to create this workflow.

A list with a multiline text field with append changes needs to trigger a workflow that sends email to the creator.

It does not matter if the workflow sends the latest comment or all comments, I am fine with both.

The workflow is triggered only if the original creator writes the comments and not someone else (which is what I need).

The workflow gives me an error message saying that the message 'Retrying last request... Item does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user. '

It could be because as soon as you type a comment it immediately goes 'outside the box' and leaves the box empty. Still I do not get why it is sent when the author writes the comments.

I have tried to create a variable to copy past the comment in a non-append text field but I get the same result.

Answer 1

If I understand your issue correctly, you'll have to create a workflow that gets triggered when an item is updated. In the workflow you can check if the modified user is the created user, if so send an email.

Answer 2

You can possibly achieve this with the help of some JavaScript.

Method: 1. Add a multiline text field to the list and hide it with css 2. Add a script editor webpart with the following code(replace field IDs with your field IDs!) to the editform.aspx page 3. Use the hidden text field in your email workflow

<script>
window.onload = function (){
var fieldWithAppendedComments = document.getElementById("Notes_94c8569c-e53c-4e64-ba26-c7f7f127d318_$TextField_inplacerte");

fieldWithAppendedComments.onkeyup=function(){
    (document.getElementById("HiddenText_9180d4cc-a635-4631-934e-2437ea5ebc72_$TextField_inplacerte")).innerText=fieldWithAppendedComments.innerText;
};

}

</script>

Answer 3

So it turns out that whatever the problem was I solved it by using a 2010 template and impersonation step. The workflow as it is now works and I do not understand why it was not working before since the people involved all had elevated rights.