Configuring Lazy Approval for Nintex Workflow

Configuring Lazy Approval for Nintex Workflow

 

Prerequisites

1. Incoming email settings must be configured in SharePoint. This requires the SMTP service installed.
2. Global Settings for Nintex Workflow must be correctly configured within Central Administration.

Install the SMTP Service (Windows Server 2008)  

The SMTP server is not installed by default. SMTP can be added through the Features Summary area of the Server Manager tool in Windows Server 2008. Please refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772058%28WS.10%29.aspx.

 

Configuring Nintex Workflow Global Settings 

The Email settings within the Nintex Workflow Global settings page must be setup and configured before enabling LazyApproval.

1.       Navigate to Central Administration and select the Nintex Workflow Management section. Click on Global settings.

2.       Configure your SMTP Server, From Address and Reply To Address with appropriate values for your environment.

 

Enabling/Configuring LazyApproval  

1.       Navigate to Central Administration and select the Nintex Workflow Management section.

2.       Click on LazyApproval settings. Then click on Enable / Disable LazyApproval for the current server farm.

3.       Select Enabled and ensure the Email Alias entered is unique.

After successfully configuring LazyApproval, you should see a screen similar to the following (insert screen)

To use LazyApproval immediately;

1.       Perform an IISRESET on all servers in the farm.

2.       Restart all instances of the “Windows SharePoint Services Timer” service on all servers.

a.       From the Start Menu, select Run…

b.      Type services.msc  

c.       Locate the service, right-click the service and restart it.  

Otherwise, it will take about 15 minutes for the changes to take effect.

You can now create a new workflow, or edit an existing one. Include a Request Approval or Flexi Task action on the workflow and open the configuration dialog. You will now see the Allow LazyApproval checkbox in the dialog box. Once checked, this action will allow the use of LazyApproval.   

Troubleshooting LazyApproval  

If LazyApproval is not working, follow the steps below for troubleshooting.

If nothing happens, test the SharePoint incoming email settings

LazyApproval uses the SharePoint incoming email function; therefore this must be running correctly. To test the email settings, open a test library and configure it to accept new items from email.

Complete the following steps to allow a document library or list to accept email.

1.       Navigate to the desired document library or list and click Settings, Document Library Settings, and Incoming E-mail Settings.

2.       Select Yes to allow the Document Library to receive e-mail.

3.       Assign an email address to the document library.

4.       Select an Option for Attachments. You can save attachments in the root folder, in a sub-folder grouped by email subject, or a sub-folder grouped by sender.

5.       Select an option to overwrite files with the same name.

6.       Select an option to save the original email. If you select Yes, and you send a message with an attachment, the message and the document will be stored as two separate items in the document library.

Note: We recommend initially selecting Yes for this option until you verify that the document library is properly accepting emails.

7.       Select an option to save meeting invitations.

8.       Select an Email security policy to accept messages based on document library permissions (recommended) or to accept messages from any sender.

If this does not work, your incoming email settings may not be configured incorrectly.

Please refer to the Microsoft documentation on setting incoming email:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262947(v=office.14).aspx

If incoming mail works, but still nothing happens

Check the application event log on the server for any error messages regarding EmailDropReceiver. Send any messages to support@nintex.com.

You receive the error message “Your email could not be matched to a running workflow”

Check the notification you receive from the approval task has the LazyApproval token in the subject. The LazyApproval token will look similar to [#DD7FGH#]. (The characters inside the square brackets are used by Nintex Workflow to link an incoming email to a task) It is a unique identifier that associates any message with the ID as belonging to a specific workflow. If the identifier is not there or has been modified by somebody, LazyApproval will not work, generating the error message above. The error message will be displayed in the SharePoint ULS logs.