Trigger SP2010 Workflows using JSOM

Anatoly Mironov

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.

Comments from Wordpress.com

Anatoly Mironov - Oct 3, 2016

As far as I know, there is no js api for Workflows in SP2010. :(

Hi, Anatoly! great post! It’s really work on SP2010? Could you help me? I even can’t find and load SP.WorkflowServices.js (( Is there it in free access? Thank’s!