Workflow: Pause for Duration SPD Action not resuming WF actions
- Currently, I'm developing a SPOnline workflow trying to automatically assign a task monthly, quarterly, or yearly based on a drop down box value. From what I've been testing, the pause for duration, set at 5 minutes, seems to hang and does not resume the workflow after pausing. I have tried removing the pause for duration action and have had a successful task assignment. Heres how it flows currently with the problem:
Step Action 1 Workflow Initialized 2 Determine Month/Qtr/Year based on drop down list 3 Pause based DDL value (This is where it hangs) 4 Set document approval status to Pending 5 Assign a task 6 Set document approval status to Completed
No matter what time interval I set it to, it seems to hang and not complete the workflow or go to the next task. I've tried the following steps:
- Debugging the workflow by removing pause for duration step
- Changed regional settings to match server
- Broken up workflow actions into multiple steps and vice versa (seeing if pause needs to be seperated out)
- tried 5,10,15,30 min and 1 hour pauses
Any suggestions on what to look at or if Pause for Duration is not working properly? Thanks!!
Answers
I am unable to reproduce this behavior. Step 2 is the only piece that I'm not 100% on how you are doing it so, if anything, I suspect that may be where the problem is occuring.
Here's what I did to try it out. (note: I assume you're using SharePoint Designer.)
1. Created a list with a drop down list for duration (Year, Month, Qtr)
2. Created a new workflow for this list
3. Created a condition - if duration = year
4. Created an action to wait 5 minutes
5. Created an action to assign me a task
6. Created an else if condition of duration = month
7. Created an action to wait 5 minutes
8. Created an action to assign me a task
I then created new list entries with year and month and was assigned both tasks after 5 minutes.- Proposed As Answer byTroy Hopwood [MSFT]ModeratorThursday, April 09, 2009 1:26 AM
- Unproposed As Answer byMatt Huber Thursday, April 09, 2009 8:51 PM
- Marked As Answer byDavid Gorbet [MSFT]ModeratorFriday, April 10, 2009 4:07 PM
All Replies
I am unable to reproduce this behavior. Step 2 is the only piece that I'm not 100% on how you are doing it so, if anything, I suspect that may be where the problem is occuring.
Here's what I did to try it out. (note: I assume you're using SharePoint Designer.)
1. Created a list with a drop down list for duration (Year, Month, Qtr)
2. Created a new workflow for this list
3. Created a condition - if duration = year
4. Created an action to wait 5 minutes
5. Created an action to assign me a task
6. Created an else if condition of duration = month
7. Created an action to wait 5 minutes
8. Created an action to assign me a task
I then created new list entries with year and month and was assigned both tasks after 5 minutes.- Proposed As Answer byTroy Hopwood [MSFT]ModeratorThursday, April 09, 2009 1:26 AM
- Unproposed As Answer byMatt Huber Thursday, April 09, 2009 8:51 PM
- Marked As Answer byDavid Gorbet [MSFT]ModeratorFriday, April 10, 2009 4:07 PM
- Hi Troy,
Thanks for your reply! My step 2 is the same way that your step 1 is laid out.
I created a new document library and followed your steps and am still getting the same result. I also tried a custom list with no success either. I have a VM with MOSS running locally on it and followed the same steps and it worked... So currently the SPOnline one is not firing off correctly. Yours was tested on SPOnline right? Maybe I don't have a setting correct somewhere.
I had the MOSS document library pause for 5 minutes....the Last Run field was actually 8 minutes past the time in which it was started when it completed(I'm thinking the timer job is scheduled to run every 15 min?) What might the SPOnline timer job be set to? I don't think I can set that in the admin console since I don't seem to have access to CA.
- Yes, I tried it on SharePoint Online. It sounds like there may be something unique about your site collection or a timer job isn't running on the farm. I hate to give you the runaround, but at this point, I suggest you open a support ticket (This can be done from within MOAC).
- Proposed As Answer byTroy Hopwood [MSFT]ModeratorThursday, April 09, 2009 10:22 PM
- No problem Troy, I think thats what we are going to do. I'll post here when I get an answer from tech support. Thanks again for your help!
I figured that you did try it on SPOnline, this just seems so odd that I want to make sure all the bases are covered =) - Ok, this is extremely odd. Heres what happened:
Initiator: Matt Huber Document: XXXXXX Started: 4/8/2009 12:54 PM Status: In Progress Last run: 4/11/2009 5:50 AM
4/8/2009 12:54 PM Comment System Account Pausing for 60 minutes 4/11/2009 5:50 AM Comment System Account Pausing complete
Not quite sure what happened there...Any ideas? Is there any access to ULS logs or anything of that nature? - Matt, if you logged a SR for this, can you give us the SR number? I'll follow up. Thx.
David Gorbet, Principal Program Manager, SharePoint Online - Hi Dave,
Here is the SR:090410-000011
Thanks for your help! - Thanks Matt. I'll let you know what I find out.
David Gorbet, Principal Program Manager, SharePoint Online Sounds like we are having a similar issue on our farm..
But it isn't just one workflow... The actual Workflow timer job for our main web app (:80) is Initializing, and thats where it stays..
Workflows still work but if they have delays in them , they simply just don't go.. No errors that I can find in the ULS or event log...
If I restart the the timer service, the job aborts and starts again, but hangs before completing.- I'm still receiving this same issue and haven't heard back from anyone yet. David Gorbet, can you contact me if possible? My email is in my live ID. The WF timer job is not resuming and hangs indefinitely.
- Looking at it again...it appears the WF is not initializing at all. It says "Starting...." and doesn't start. It's been over an hour and still no change.
Hi Matt,
I believe that the issues you are reporting have been fixed in SharePoint Service Pack 2 and .net 3.5 SP1. We are planning to deploy these patches within the next two service release (last quarter of the calendar year).
I apologize for the inconvenience in the meantime - Christoph
- Thanks Christoph,
I'll communicate to my client and once it's been deployed I'll check it again. Thanks for your help!
-Matt - I just updated us to SP2. We were already on .net 3.5 SP1. I'm experiencing the same problem where my workflow timer for my intranet web app is hanging in a state "Initialized". The workflow we're trying to run is a simple one with a 5 minute pause in it. It seems to go into pause and never come out. Any other ideas of things to try?
Thanks!
Jim I am having a similar problem. It seems (I think) to be connected to the minute intervals. It seems to work OK if you use the days pause. I have two exact workflows for two different form lists - one uses days, the other uses minutes. The one using days is working, the one using minutes is very unpredictable.
