Collect data into Sharepoint List for approval workflow

[Eric6]

Hi,

I have a case of SharePoint list items in which users fill in about 15 fields, including text for a business case description. This then triggers an approval workflow with multiple approvers.

The challenge is that users may want to save a draft of the item before submitting. Realistically they will not have all the data at hand the minute they create the form. They should come back to it later, but how do I then trigger the flow? I tried triggering it with JSON on a "submit" button in the list, but it is strange for the users that they have to run a flow on their computer and confirm this twice... For some of my users the technology should work more in the background.

So now I'm thinking of using the Survey App to collect the data, rather than editing the list. Is this a good idea? Is there a "submit" event that I can use to trigger the flow which only fires when the user is done, but not when they are saving a draft?

Kind regards,

Eric

[SamPo]

@Eric6 I would advise using the MS Forms app.

https://forms.office.com

You can then use the 'forms' trigger and actions in Flow to get the results of your submitted form.

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Thanks

Sam

[CollabTechie · Accepted solution]

Hi  , 

you could use the action When an item is created or modified triggerwith a condition on it to start the approval if, say, a checkbox on the form is checked for complete or something to this effect.

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[Eric6]

Hi @CollabTechie !

Thanks, with a check box it is going to work directly with the list.

Of course, it is possible that a user misses the check box, but saves an otherwise complete request. I'm just going to let that trigger an email "Thanks for saving a draft of your request" pointing out that they should tick this check box and save again when they are ready.

[Eric6]

@SamPo- Thanks. I think Forms an be a useful approach for many applications. It seems that they do not allow a draft, either, and there is the complication that I would still need to transfer the data between the form and the SharePoint list.

All in all I think I stick with the other solution that is directly working with the SharePoint list.

I recently found out that the edit form can now also be customized with PowerApps which makes the list itself more attractive for data collection

Best regards,

Eric

[SamPo]

Yes, if you need to use a true draft then the forms option would not work but you can leave the form submit page open for a few hours so this would be a good option if the time between the initial creation and final submitting of the form is fairly short (say, within the same day)

If you need something more then yes you can use a powerapp.

In terms of the sharepoint list, you can use a flow to get results from a form and save it to Sharepoint using the "create item" activity.
If you go down the PowerApp route then you can write directly to a Sharepoint list from there.