SharePoint: Extending the DVWP – Part 23: Creating Title Based on Other Fields with a Workflow

Author: Jim Bob Howard

When working with cascading dropdowns and the Relationship lists that accompany them, the important part of the Relationship list is that the site columns we’re relating are set. The Title of the list time doesn’t matter to the cascading process.

However, from a human maintenance standpoint, that Title can make things a whole lot easier. Last time, we automated its creation using jQuery. I know not everyone enjoys jQuery as much as I do. But, I have good news for you…

You can do almost the same thing with a workflow.

Creating a Title Within a Workflow

Of course, you’ll need SharePoint Designer to create the workflow. So, launch that and open your site:

Site opened in SharePoint Designer

1. Click the arrow next to the new document icon and choose Workflow:

Site opened in SharePoint Designer


You may see this message:




…if so, just wait and then you’ll see the Workflow wizard



2. Give it a name


3. Choose the list


4. Uncheck "manual start" and check "on create start"


5. Click Next


6. Then click Actions and choose Build Dynamic String


7. Click on dynamic string


8. Click Add Lookup


9. Leave Source as Current Item, and set Field to the first field you want to be part of the Title. In mine, I want Date of Incident:


10. Click OK

Type a space, a dash, and another space (or whatever naming convention you want):



11. Click Add Lookup again

This time, choose the second field you want to use (I’ll use Type of Incident):



12. Click OK twice
13. Click on Variable: variable 1



Then click on Create a new variable…



14. Name it


15. Click Actions and choose Update List Item


16. Click this list


17. Click Add and choose Title under Set this field


18. Click the fx button

Change the Source to Workflow Data and Field to txtTitle



19. Click OK three times
20. Click Finish

Now you have a "dynamic" Title.

Caveats

The downsides to using a workflow are irritating, but not necessarily show-stoppers.

1. The most obvious downside is that the Title is not set immediately. The workflow takes a little time to process. In the meantime, it will be blank and could confuse users, mess up sorting on that field, and generally look less than optimal.
2. Any field used in the Title must either be required or you must check for it in the workflow and give a default if not found. If you’ve worked with workflows for any time, you’ll know that using conditionals and branching is non-trivial.
3. If the workflow ends with an error, your Title may never be set.
4. If the fields used to set the Title change, it’ll be out of sync. To get it back in sync, you’ll have to write a WF that runs on create AND change, but you’ll have to keep track of the fields and check to see IF they changed before changing the Title.
5. If you’re keeping track of versions, you’ll have a new version every time the Title gets set or reset.
6. Showstopper: If the creator doesn’t have Edit permissions (e.g. Contribute w/o Edit), this WF will fail because the workflow runs under their ID so Update List Item will be denied access.

Next time: We’ll look at creating list items with SPServices next.

Author: Jim Bob Howard

Jim Bob Howard is a web designer / webmaster in the healthcare industry. He has been working with SharePoint since March 2009 and enjoys sharing what he has learned. He is a moderator and frequent contributor to Stump the Panel, and answers SharePoint questions on Twitter (@jbhoward) and via email ([email protected]).