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Today I found out how to start workflows in JSOM (JavaScript Object Model in SharePoint). Nothing special, but since it is not documented, it took me a while to find a solution. Here is the code which I want to keep as simple as possible.

What you need to start a SP2010 Workflow for a list item or a document in JSOM, you need to load SP.WorkflowServices.js and you need to create the manager and get the service, then you can trigger a workflow using the workflow name, the list guid and the guid of the list item:

var ctx = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
var workflowServicesManager =
	SP.WorkflowServices.WorkflowServicesManager.newObject(ctx,
		ctx.get_web());
var service = workflowServicesManager.getWorkflowInteropService();
service.startWorkflow(workflowName, null,
	listGuid, plainItem.guid, initiationParams);

Here is the code to trigger a workflow for multiple items:

//fire the workflows
function fire2010WorkflowForListItems(ctx, listGuid, plainItems) {
	var workflowServicesManager =
		SP.WorkflowServices.WorkflowServicesManager.newObject(ctx,
			ctx.get_web());
	var service = workflowServicesManager.getWorkflowInteropService();
	for(var i = 0; i < plainItems.length; i++) {
		var plainItem = plainItems[i];
		console.log('scheduling workflow for id: ', plainItem.id);
		service.startWorkflow(options.workflowName, null,
			listGuid, plainItem.guid, options.initiationParams);
	}
	console.log('now executing...');
	ctx.executeQueryAsync(function() {
		console.info('yes, workflows completed for '
			+ items.length + ' items');
	}, function() {
		console.error('it didnt go well');
	});
}

The code above is inspired from this gist and sharepoint stackexchange. It is a simplified version that only works for list item workflows and SharePoint 2010 workflows.
Here is an example how you can get multiple items and batch start a workflow:

//just a couple of variables
var options = {
	workflowName: 'Behörigheter',
	listName: 'Documents',
	initiationParams: {}
};
//load list items
function startWorfklows() {
	//Start 2010 Workflow for a List Item
	var ctx = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
	var web = ctx.get_web();
	var lists = web.get_lists();
	var list = lists.getByTitle(options.listName);
	ctx.load(list);
	var items = list.getItems(new SP.CamlQuery());
	ctx.load(items);
	ctx.executeQueryAsync(function() {
		var listGuid = list.get_id() + '';
		var en = items.getEnumerator();
		var plainItems = [];
		while (en.moveNext()) {
			var it = en.get_current();
			//do not take checked out files, it won't work
			if (!it.get_item('CheckoutUser')) {
				plainItems.push({id: it.get_id(), guid: it.get_item('GUID') + '' });
			}
		}
		fire2010WorkflowForListItems(ctx, listGuid, plainItems);
	}, function() {
		alert('boom');
	});
}

//Load Worfklow Js dependency
var wfScript = 'SP.WorkflowServices.js'
SP.SOD.registerSod(wfScript,
	_spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + '/_layouts/15/SP.WorkflowServices.js');
SP.SOD.executeFunc(wfScript, '', startWorfklows);

Why I needed it

I created a simple workflow that is triggered on Item Added and Item Updated. Unfortunately there are already thousands of items in the document library. To trigger them manually is nothing good. But a simple javascript solution did exactly what I wanted.