What’s New: Lights! Camera! Actionable Messages!
I’ve been asked this one quite a lot, and I know there are a number of workarounds on the subject, but Lazy Approval and capturing comments through email go together like … bananas and Vegemite! Ain’t nobody got time for that – until now.
First things first. What’s new? Well, the workflow boffins have added some slick new functionality in Nintex Workflow tasks.
Ingredients
- 1 Workflow
- 1 Task action (“Assign a task” or “Start a task” will do just fine)
- A generous measure of Lazy Approval activated on your environment
Method
- Drag-and-drop the task action of your choice to the workflow above.
- You’ll want to configure it with a few outcomes (these become handy buttons in your Actionable Message).
- Go ahead and tick that Allow LazyApproval checkbox. You’ll see a new option: Delivery Method.
- This is the new configuration for Actionable Messages and we have a number of options here:
- Email Only – Still want LazyApproval but no Actionable Message? This is the option for you.
- Email with Actionable Message – All the initial email text with the Actionable Messages window atop, you got it.
- Actionable Message only – this does exactly what it says. All the Actionable Message, none of the Initial Email text.
- You might also notice, snuck in down at the bottom, a Task ID variable option. If you want to Query List the Workflow Tasks list and pull back the Comments value based on the Task ID, you’ll need this.
- Save that, we’re done here.
The Sizzle
My example is a hazard-reporting workflow, which will initiate a task to the Health, Safety and Environment Department based on a risk matrix. If it’s deemed Low Risk, a task gets kicked off to investigate and take action if required.
The email received by my HSE Dept, with Actionable Message configured, is shown below. The Actionable Message is highlighted in red:
In this instance, the hazard was investigated but no action was required. So let’s fill that in and select No action required.
The response and comments are captured and updated in the Workflow Tasks list for that Task. You can then Query List based on the Task ID if you need the Comments pulled back into a response email for the initiator, for instance.
Please note:
You need to have Outlook 2016: Version 17.10 (Build 8210.2193) or Outlook for Office 365 as a minimum version for Actionable Messages to be supported
Actionable messages aren’t available in Conversational View on Outlook
**UPDATE 17TH JAN 2018**
Microsoft Email Product Support Matrix
| Email Product | Channel | Actionable message Support Available Today | Minimum Version Req. |
| Microsoft Office 365 OWA | All | YES | Available to all O365 customers via OWA |
| Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus Subscription Product |
Monthly Channel | YES | 1705 (Build 8201) |
| Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus Subscription Product |
Semi-Annual or Deferred Channel (Targeted)* | YES | 1708 (Build 8431) |
| Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus Subscription Product |
Semi-Annual or Deferred Channel | NO | Office Update estimated January 2018 (Build 8431) |
| Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 | N/A | NO | Feature available for Office 365 clients only |
| Exchange 2016 OWA | N/A | NO | Feature available for Office 365 only |
