SharePoint Workflow Not Starting

For one reason or another, SharePoint Designer Workflows are not always starting when an item is added to a library.  This happens with document libraries and InfoPath form libraries.  I’ve seen this happen with SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010.

What I’ve created is a way to identify, monitor, and start workflows.

Create two lists:

Workflow Monitor

Fields:

Site URL, List Name, Workflow Name

Workflow Monitor Logging

Fields:

Site URL, List Name, Workflow Name, List Item ID

All of the field types are the default single line of text.

Workflow Monitor will be populated with the site url, list name, and workflow name of the workflow you want to monitor.

Place the script in a folder on one of your SharePoint server. Then setup a scheduled task to run the script as needed.

<#
 loop though workflow monitor list
 get workflow item
 query associated list by created date between yesterday and today AND workflow field is empty
 if item is returned, start workflow on item.
 log item that was not started
 if there are any errors send email to DL SharePoint
#>

if ((Get-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null) 
{
    Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell"
}

$cSite = Get-SPWeb "http://sharepointed.com"
$cList = $cSite.Lists["Workflow Monitor"]
$cListLog = $cSite.Lists["Workflow Monitor Logging"]
$errorCount = 0
$errorString = ""

foreach($config in $cList.Items)
{
	try
	{
		$fSite = Get-SPWeb $config["Site URL"].ToString()
		$wfManager = $fSite.Site.WorkFlowManager
		$fList = $fSite.Lists[$config["List Name"].ToString()]
		$fWFfield = $fList.Fields[$config["Workflow Name"].ToString()].InternalName

		#Get the list workflow
		$wfAssoc = $fList.WorkflowAssociations.GetAssociationByName($config["Workflow Name"].ToString(),"en-US")
		$wfData = $wfAssoc.AssociationData

		$sQuery = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPQuery 

		#Get all item that were created in the past day and a workflow has not ran.
		$caml = '<Where><And><IsNull><FieldRef Name="' + $fWFfield + '" /></IsNull><Geq><FieldRef Name="Created" /><Value Type="DateTime"><Today OffsetDays="-1" /></Value></Geq></And></Where>'
		$sQuery.Query = $caml
		$fItems = $fList.GetItems($sQuery)

		foreach($lItem in $fItems)
		{
			#Start workflow
			$wf = $wfManager.StartWorkFlow($lItem,$wfAssoc,$wfData,$true)

			#Create Log entry
			$newLogItem = $cListLog.Items.Add()
			$newLogItem["Site URL"] = $config["Site URL"]
			$newLogItem["List Name"] = $config["List Name"]
			$newLogItem["List Item ID"] = $lItem["ID"]
			$newLogItem["Workflow Name"] = $config["Workflow Name"]
			$newLogItem.Update()
		} 
	}
	Catch
	{
		#string.format
		$errorMessage = $_.Exception.Message.ToString()
		$errorString += $config["ID"].ToString() + " " + $errorMessage + " --- "
		$errorCount++
	}
}

#If there are any errors send email 
if($errorCount -gt 0)
{
	$errorString = $errorString.TrimEnd(" --- ")
	
	$emailSubject = "Workflow Montior Script Error"
	$emailBody = "Error running the Workflow Monitor script. <br><br> <b>Error: </b>"
	$emailBody += "$errorString <br><br>"
	$emailBody += "<a href=$cList.URL.ToString()>Workflow Monitor List </a>" 
	$emailsmtpServer = "mail.doman.net"
	$emailTo = "you@sharepointed.com"
	$emailFrom = "alerts@sharepointed.com"

	Send-MailMessage -From $emailFrom -To $emailTo -Subject $emailSubject -BodyAsHtml $emailBody -SmtpServer $emailsmtpServer
}

This script will inventory your entire farm and output workflows that have failed to start int the past 59 days. *You can adjust the 59 day setting, but my farm is setup to truncate workflow history every 60 days.*

$contentWebAppServices = (Get-SPFarm).services |
? {$_.typename -eq "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application"}

$stringBuilder = New-Object System.Text.StringBuilder
$list = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.List[System.String]
$counter = 0

foreach($webApp in $contentWebAppServices.WebApplications)
{
	$webApp = Get-SPWebApplication $webApp.Url

	if($webApp -ne $null)
	{
		foreach($siteColl in $webApp.Sites)
		{
			if($siteColl -ne $null)
			{
				foreach($subWeb in $siteColl.AllWebs)
				{
					if($subWeb -ne $null)
					{
						foreach($list in $subWeb.Lists)
						{
							foreach($wf in $list.WorkflowAssociations)
							{
								if ($wf.Name -notlike "*Previous Version*")
								{
									$subWeb.Site.WorkflowManager
									$wfManager = $subWeb.Site.WorkFlowManager
									$fWFfield = $list.Fields[$wf.Name.ToString()].InternalName

									#Get the list workflow
									$wfAssoc = $list.WorkflowAssociations.GetAssociationByName($wf.Name,"en-US")
									$wfData = $wfAssoc.AssociationData

									if($wfAssoc.AutoStartCreate -eq $true)
									{
										$counter++
										
										$sQuery = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPQuery 

										#Get all item that were created in the past day and a workflow has not ran.
										$caml = '<Where><And><IsNull><FieldRef Name="' + $fWFfield + '" /></IsNull><Geq><FieldRef Name="Created" /><Value Type="DateTime"><Today OffsetDays="-59" /></Value></Geq></And></Where>'
										$sQuery.Query = $caml
										$fItems = $list.GetItems($sQuery) 
										
										$null = $stringBuilder.Append($subWeb.URL)
										$null = $stringBuilder.Append(",")
										$null = $stringBuilder.Append($list.Title)
										$null = $stringBuilder.Append(",")
										$null = $stringBuilder.Append($wf.Name.ToString())
										$null = $stringBuilder.Append("`r`n")
									
									}
								}
							}

						}

						$subWeb.Dispose()
					}
				}
				$siteColl.Dispose()
			}
		}
	} 
}

if($counter -gt 0)
{
	out-file -filepath C:\WorkflowOutput.csv -inputobject $stringBuilder.ToString()
}