How to update approval comments of a SharePoint task list

Question

I am trying to perform an approval using REST API in SharePoint 2013. I am able to successfully Approve/Reject but unable to read or save approval comments.

I couldn't figure out what is the column name. When I try to read all columns of a task list, I do not see any comments column.

How can I get/set the comments of a SharePoint task, while approving (using RSET API)?

Answer 1

Internal Name of Approver Comments column is _ModerationComments. Try using this name in REST endpoint to get/set the approver comments.

Generally, you can get the internal name of any of your SharePoint list columns by following this article: How to find the Internal name of columns in SharePoint Online?

Try below endpoint to get all the details of comments field:

<siteUrl>/_api/web/Lists/getbytitle('ListName')/fields?$filter=InternalName eq '_ModerationComments'

Here is the sample result of above endpoint:

<m:properties>
    <d:AutoIndexed m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:AutoIndexed>
    <d:CanBeDeleted m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:CanBeDeleted>
    <d:ClientSideComponentId m:type="Edm.Guid">00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</d:ClientSideComponentId>
    <d:ClientSideComponentProperties m:null="true" />
    <d:ClientValidationFormula m:null="true" />
    <d:ClientValidationMessage m:null="true" />
    <d:CustomFormatter m:null="true" />
    <d:DefaultFormula m:null="true" />
    <d:DefaultValue m:null="true" />
    <d:Description></d:Description>
    <d:Direction>none</d:Direction>
    <d:EnforceUniqueValues m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:EnforceUniqueValues>
    <d:EntityPropertyName>OData__ModerationComments</d:EntityPropertyName>
    <d:Filterable m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:Filterable>
    <d:FromBaseType m:type="Edm.Boolean">true</d:FromBaseType>
    <d:Group>Custom Columns</d:Group>
    <d:Hidden m:type="Edm.Boolean">true</d:Hidden>
    <d:Id m:type="Edm.Guid">34ad21eb-75bd-4544-8c73-0e08330291fe</d:Id>
    <d:Indexed m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:Indexed>
    <d:IndexStatus m:type="Edm.Int32">0</d:IndexStatus>
    <d:InternalName>_ModerationComments</d:InternalName>
    <d:IsModern m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:IsModern>
    <d:JSLink>clienttemplates.js</d:JSLink>
    <d:PinnedToFiltersPane m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:PinnedToFiltersPane>
    <d:ReadOnlyField m:type="Edm.Boolean">true</d:ReadOnlyField>
    <d:Required m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:Required>
    <d:SchemaXml>&lt;Field ID="{34ad21eb-75bd-4544-8c73-0e08330291fe}" ReadOnly="TRUE" Type="Note" Name="_ModerationComments" DisplayName="Approver Comments" Hidden="TRUE" CanToggleHidden="TRUE" Filterable="FALSE" Sortable="FALSE" SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3" StaticName="_ModerationComments" FromBaseType="TRUE" ColName="ntext1" /&gt;</d:SchemaXml>
    <d:Scope>/sites/SPConnect/Lists/OrderTasks</d:Scope>
    <d:Sealed m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:Sealed>
    <d:ShowInFiltersPane m:type="Edm.Int32">0</d:ShowInFiltersPane>
    <d:Sortable m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:Sortable>
    <d:StaticName>_ModerationComments</d:StaticName>
    <d:Title>Approver Comments</d:Title>
    <d:FieldTypeKind m:type="Edm.Int32">3</d:FieldTypeKind>
    <d:TypeAsString>Note</d:TypeAsString>
    <d:TypeDisplayName>Multiple lines of text</d:TypeDisplayName>
    <d:TypeShortDescription>Multiple lines of text</d:TypeShortDescription>
    <d:ValidationFormula m:null="true" />
    <d:ValidationMessage m:null="true" />
    <d:AllowHyperlink m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:AllowHyperlink>
    <d:AppendOnly m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:AppendOnly>
    <d:IsLongHyperlink m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:IsLongHyperlink>
    <d:NumberOfLines m:type="Edm.Int32">6</d:NumberOfLines>
    <d:RestrictedMode m:type="Edm.Boolean">true</d:RestrictedMode>
    <d:RichText m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:RichText>
    <d:UnlimitedLengthInDocumentLibrary m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:UnlimitedLengthInDocumentLibrary>
    <d:WikiLinking m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:WikiLinking>
</m:properties>