Send reminder e-mail with Sharepoint Designer

We  have requirement to send e-mail on the specific date, for example, notification for Project Timeline or Report Submit, or yearly clearance of assets, documents, or whatever else. SharePoint designer has action "Pause until date", and we can send reminder e-mail when the specific date comes.


Below we demonstrate how to create such reminder e-mail.


Lets see wee have [Attention time] field in [Time reminder] List. [Attention time] should be date field.

Open SharePoint Designer, choose Time reminder list and choose create new workflow.

Insert Action of [Pause until Date]

You choose [Current Item] - [Attention time] for the date to pause. 

 

Just save and publish the workflow. Then you will receive e-mail on the time specified in [Attention Time]


This workflow, however, has several restrictions.






Restriction 1. Configuration is all included in SharePoint designer workflow configuration.


Email body, chosen list, etc.. all only seen in SharePoint designer, so other people who do not familiar can not find what kind of reminder workflow is set on the list.






Restriction 2. Workflow will send the date specified the field when the workflow start.


Workflow only checks the date on the field when we create the item, or manually start the workflow. This is because it will calculate the time duration from now to the specified time,  and pause the workflow for that time. It can not automatically detect the time change later.






Restriction 3. Repeating E-mail not be easily created.


In addition to this item specific reminder, sometimes there are requirement to send specific e-mail on every Monday, for example, remind for weekly report submit. We only can create list and create dozens of items and set date for every Monday.








There are Sharepoint add-in product to cover these restrictions. MoriApps also releases the e-mail assistant add-in with free usage of basic function. Please consider visit our website and download.

Calculation field formulas on Sharepoint

Sharepoint can use calculate formula like as Excel, so that field value can be calculated with other field values. Using formula, calculation of date, string, numbers and logics are all possible. For example, with two fields as start date and end date, duration can be automacally calculated and displayed in calculated field.

About Formula

Formula for calculated field can be entered within field configuration. Same as Excel, the formula start from equal character (=). As Excel's A1, B2, other fields can be referenced with field name.


Functions can be also used same as Excel. For example, [IF] for determin by field value, [Date] to transform to string to Date or [Substitute] to crop the part of text string.


[SUM] function, which is most frequently used in Excel, can be used for calculated field as well. But it can only refer to values in same item ("row" in excel) and can not refer to other items ("column" in excel), so it might not be useful as excel.

 

Example of formulas which results in Yes/No (Boolean)


MoriApps Simple Workflow also uses calculation field for conditional approval tasks to determin whther the approval task is required or not. It uses the calculation field to result in Yes/No value (Boolean). We here explain three example.

Example One

Thare are [Category] field and if [Category] is [Computer] or [Keyboard], the field [Requre IT approval] become [Yes].

1. Create [Category] field with Choice type, and add choices like  [Computer], [Keyboard], [Desk] and [Chair].
2. Create [Require IT approval] field as calculated field and enter the formula as below.

=OR(Category="Computer",Category="Keyboard")

Example Two

Thare are [Price] field and if [Price] is more than 50000, the field [Requre IT approval] become [Yes].

1. Create [Price] field with Number or Currency.
2. Create [Require IT approval] field as calculated field and enter the formula as below.

=Price > 50000

 

Example Three

Thare are [Category] field and [Price] field and if [Category] is [Computer] or [Keyboard] and [Price] is more than 50000, the field [Require IT approval] become [Yes].

1. Create [Category] field with Choice type, and add choices like  [Computer], [Keyboard], [Desk] and [Chair].
2. Create [Price] field with Number or Currency.
3. Create [Require IT approval] field as calculated field and enter the formula as below.

=AND(OR(Category="Computer",Category="Keyboard"),Price > 50000)