Paused Workflow Prevents 2nd Workflow from Starting

Question

I'm new to SharePoint but have used some info I found on here/other sites to setup some workflows on a site that I own. The site is part of a larger site that I don't own.

I have one workflow that takes an item from the main list and copies it to an archive list then deletes it from the main list whenever the priority level is changed to "Archive". That has been working fine.

When the item gets to the Archive list, I had another workflow setup to add 14 days to the modified date and then pause until that date. Then it will delete the item. This way we don't build up too long of an archive list.

I would like to have the ability to change the priority level on an item in the archive list and cause it to copy back to the original list/remove it from the archive list (basically recover it from the archive list). The problem is that the delete workflow is in progress whenever the priority is changed so the recovery workflow won't start. How can I get around this so that items will still autodelete after 14 days and we can have the ability to recover an item if needed?

I've been using SPD to create the workflows.

Answer 1

SharePoint will not allow you to run a workflow on an item when it has a workflow already running. There are code solutions to this problem which would allow you to cancel the workflow before the change is made to the item (which will start another workflow) and I would be happy to elaborate on this but my impression is that you will not be looking to use a code solution.

A no-code solution to this issue would be to use the Information Management Policy settings. A link to a blog explaining this concept is here.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ecm/archive/2011/10/12/policy-and-retention-in-sharepoint-server-2010.aspx

I would see your solution working as follows, you will need a new field called "archive date" on your content type or list.

Workflow:

-If the tickbox for "send to archive" is ticked, untick the box, send the document to the archive, and set the archive date to todays date.

• else, if the tickbox is unticked and the priority is x, set the archive date to blank and move the document back to a library

You can handle deletion of the document using information management policy, which will allow you to take an action (delete document) x days after a certain date (archive date)

The information management policy is controlled by a timer job so if this timer job runs weekly, it could take up to 21 days for some documents to delete (your administrator can change the policy but by default I think it is set to run weekly).

Please mark as answer if this helped you.

Tal