Nintex Connect

I am trying to create a workflow so that when the following listed fields are entered by the User, the length must be checked to see whether it is above the specified number of characters:

• Name of Project – 64 characters
• Summary Description – 255 characters

If the length is too large:

• Truncate the field to the maximum length
• Create an email to the Current Owner  

How do I check in the “Set Condition” if, “Name of Project” or the “Description” are greater than 64 characters and 255 characters respectively? Does their data type have to be converted before doing so?

I’m very new to this and couldn’t find information on this elsewhere, so any help is much appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi Ross,

You would be looking at the following:

1. Build String action to perform a fn-Length inline function call on your field.

2. Store the result in a text variable

3. Add a Convert Value action to convert the text variable into a number and store it in a number variable.

4. Then use the Set a Condition action to do your "greater than" condition check.

For the actual truncation following the 'Set Condition', would I be right in creating a Build String action to perform a fn-SubString inline function call on the field.

For example:

fn-Substring({ItemProperty:Summary_x0020_Description},0,254)

And then finishing the workflow by storing the result in the text variable.

Have I left something out?

Hi Ross,

that would be the way to do it. :)

Thanks for the replies Vadim.

The substring function is not functioning as expected. It does not truncate “Summary Description” at all in the actual SharePoint at the moment.

The substring function is also used within an email notification on “Summary Description” but it is truncating this to various random lengths. In the notification the Summary Description is as follows:

fn-Substring(Summary Description,0,254)

Can you see where I am going wrong? 

Hi Ross,

what exactly are you getting when you make this inline function call?

 eg.

fn-Substring(Summary Description,0,254)

I would expect the output to be :

Summary Description

Are you getting something different?

When the following is typed into Summary Description, the letters at the end from t to e should be truncated:

1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890

1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890

1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890

12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234truncate

For the actual item entry in the SharePoint, the Summary Description does not truncate any of the above at all.

Following the Set Condition to check ‘is greater than 255' I do the following:

Build string, Perform truncation on Summary Description

            fn-Substring({ItemProperty:Summary_x0020_Description},0,254)

            Store Result in: Text

Update Item

            Update-Current item

            Field-Select fields to update

Summary Description-Equals: Value: Summary Description

Send notification:

--- 

The field Summary Description was too long.

It has been truncated to the maximum length:

Text

---

A few different workflow sequences have been tried but I hope this most recent attempt helps explain the general direction currently being taken.

Hi Ross,

I tried a simple NW2010 workflow that did the fn-SubString and it seemed to work and truncate a 262 length piece of text to 254 characters.

Download it here

That helps Vadim.

To expand on my opening post where I am checking two fields (more have since been added) containing User entry, the length must be checked to see whether it is above the specified number of characters:

• Name of Project – 64 characters
• Summary Description – 255 characters
• Cycle Time Improvements for Operations – 255 characters
• ...[Umteen more field names.]

If the length is too large, an email is sent to the Current Owner specifying which fields were truncated - can just one email be created to specify the fields that are too long?

And in the notification, how do I specify which particular fields were too long and have been truncated?

Thanks.

hi Ross,

you'd need to build logic into your workflow to figure out first, which field is too long.

Store the name or some valid information in a text variable.

Then, you could have the one Send Notification action, and into the body, insert your text variable that contains the name of the field that was too long.

I’m not sure about the details here.

For example, where all of the fields which require their length to be checked within “fn-Length” are placed within the Build String function:

fn-Length({ItemProperty:Summary_x0020_Description}, {ItemProperty:Cycle_x0020_Time_x0020_Improveme}, {ItemProperty:Quality_x0020_Improvement}

{etc.}

{etc.}

)

And then convert the value to an integer – fieldInt.

This does not work as it cannot carry all of the values. Surely each Item Property requires its own Build String action in order to use the length function within it??

Hi Ross,

yeah, if you need the length of each one, you'd need to do each one in it's own Build String action.

fn-Substring({ItemProperty:Summary_x0020_Description},0,255, {ItemProperty:Cycle_x0020_Time_x0020_Improveme},0,255{ItemProperty:Quality_x0020_Improvement},0,255

)

And then storing the truncated fields in a ‘result' variable (single line of text). Am I on the right lines here?

I would then create a ‘Log in History' field with the following:

substring = '{WorkflowVariable:result}'

This would then enable me to insert the ‘result' variable into the send notification/email notification which I hope will display ONLY the fields that were too long and have been truncated.

Is my logic above correct?

Hi Ross,

I'm not really sure what you're trying to do with this statement:

fn-Substring({ItemProperty:Summary_x0020_Description},0,255, {ItemProperty:Cycle_x0020_Time_x0020_Improveme},0,255{ItemProperty:Quality_x0020_Improvement},0,255)

 It looks like you are trying to pass 9 parameters to the fn-SubString and that won't work.

Are you trying to get the substring of 3 separate fields and then concatenate them?  If that is it, you'd be looking at something like this :

fn-Substring({ItemProperty:Summary_x0020_Description},0,255)fn-Substring({{ItemProperty:Cycle_x0020_Time_x0020_Improveme},0,255)fn-Substring({{ItemProperty:Quality_x0020_Improvement},0,255)

You can test this out by opening a Build String action, clicking on the Run Now in the ribbon and trying something like this:

fn-SubString(abcde,0,3)fn-SubString(fghij,0,3)fn-SubString(klmno,0,3)

You should see a result of:

abcfghklm

Sorry for my lack of knowledge in my postings, only learnt of the existence of NW recently. I must have picked this up wrong from reading the following post: http://connect.nintex.com/forums/permalink/4119/4899/ShowThread.aspx#4899

I was replicating the example used in this workflow as demonstrated by Peter D, shown below:

fn-SubString({WorkflowVariable:testtext},{WorkflowVariable:sub string index},{WorkflowVariable:characters from the right})

But this probably is not relevant to what I'm doing.

fn-Substring({ItemProperty:Summary_x0020_Description},0,255)fn-Substring({{ItemProperty:Cycle_x0020_Time_x0020_Improveme},0,255)fn-Substring({{ItemProperty:Quality_x0020_Improvement},0,255)

Can you tell my why 2 curly brackets are needed to precede the two fields after Summary Description?

No, not looking to concatenate, just to truncate.

I am using NW2010 but I do not see the "Run Now" option.

Does the second half of my logic in my previous post does not make sense (again I have used some of the logic from the aforementioned post) or do I need to go back to the drawing board?