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I currently have a form that I created in SharePoint and assigned a 2013 SP Designer workflow to it. Within the workflow, I have 2 task processes that run after each other. The issue I'm running into is that the user is doing too much clicking to review the form data, and then having to go to a different link to approve and/or reject.

Is there a way to add the approve and reject option to the form, so they can stay on one screen?

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I'm assuming you're doing the approvals through a task list? If so, you could just run the approval process through the existing list by creating an approval choice field (approved/denied) and creating a custom workflow in SP Designer to look at the approval field and act accordingly. This would allow the end user to approve the item on the submission form. Alternately you could enable content types and create a content type specifically for approvals with the approval field on it. This would be more for instances when your end user is submitting the item for someone else's approval.

UPDATE: How to embed ID in URL link for approval email:

Click on an existing item in the list and copy the URL. You can also copy the URL in the edit form if you want the item to automatically open in that form. If you are using content types and have a specific form for approvals you can also open it in that form so that it pulls up specifically the form they need and in the content type they need it in. When you are in SP Designer building the email you can insert that hyperlink into the body of the email. Edit the hyperlink and in the string editor find the part of the URL which has the ID (for example: EditForm.aspx?ID=56). Highlight the ID number, in this case 56 and insert a lookup value (button at the bottom left). Select the ID for the current item. It'll now link them back to the item the workflow fired on and open in the desired form so that they can quickly update the item.

-- The current item ID is related to the workflow item ID not to the task ID... it usually match (if one task is created by every workflow) but could be easily desynchronized.

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  • I created a custom list that holds all the data collected from the forms...is that what you are referring to when you ask about the task list? – cbbrown Feb 16 '17 at 19:44
  • When you create a task process it creates a new item in the site's task list for the approval. It'll have a field in the task list which relates it back to the original list. This is why you're having to submit, wait for email, go into the task list and approve, etc. I've always found it to be very clunky and usually just build my approval fields/process in the list where the original data is stored/submitted. – Nate Feb 16 '17 at 19:57
  • Okay. Yes, I understand what you are saying. I just wanted to make sure I did. I am building choice fields for Approved/Rejected into the original form, and then changing the workflow to use those field outcomes. – cbbrown Feb 16 '17 at 20:32
  • I removed my task process from my workflow and added an action to "Send an email". In my email, I have a "click here" link that should take the user to view/edit the current item. However, I can't find a "Current Item URL" when I go to link the data. Is there a standard URL to use? – cbbrown Feb 16 '17 at 21:27
  • Updated my original post to include instructions on how to create the link. – Nate Feb 17 '17 at 14:29

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