Check for field value before continuing with closing form

Question

I have a listview that is filtered for values that are populated by a workflow that starts when an item is created or edited. The problem is that by the time the form is closed and the parent page reloaded, the workflow has not had time to complete. This causes the user to believe that the action they just completed did not save. However, if they refresh the page a second time the new/edited data is there. The workflow is taking between 0-2 seconds to complete.

Originally, I had these fields set as calculated columns, but changed them to data entry columns, because I needed to use them as an index field, which do not support calculated columns.

Is there a way to check if a value populated by a workflow is not empty before the new/edit form is closed?

Is there another solution?

Answer 1

If these forms are InfoPath... you can actually create a button on your form that says 'Submit' and have it just open another view of the form with the information you would want them to double check, on this second form make the fields mandatory so they can't continue unless they populate them, then have a button on this form that says 'Back' and another button for 'Continue With Submission' its really easy to switch views with buttons in InfoPath. ( http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath-help/add-a-button-for-switching-views-HP010211230.aspx )

If these are the default SharePoint forms, and if the columns are just manual data entry columns, just make them mandatory, then they can't close or save the form until they are filled in, no WF needed.

As far as the refresh thing, if you are comfortable with javascript, you could have an item submission produce a pop up window saying their submission was successful, thereby giving the workflow a few precious seconds to finish. I found this article which may help ( https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/Pages/sharepoint-2010-pop-up-dialogs.aspx )

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Whay you don't use default value for the field that change by WorkFlow. By this way you can Filter Items that have this default value and then users can see their created item over there.

Also you can create a view that show for example all Item that created by me [Current User] which column related to WorkFlow has value equal to "not completed" (There is a column corresponding to each Workflow which show its status). You can descend this view by creation time an make it default. Then user can see that Item is over there and did not go anywhere.