Fill field by default with current user ~ IT Pro Ramblings

08 April 2008

Fill field by default with current user

by Patrik Luca 3 comments

Business requirement: how to fill a field by default with the current user?

Having set up the Help Desk template (one of the 40 application templates), my end-users asked if the field Customer could be filled up by default with the user creating the service request. The Customer field should only be filled up by default if the creator of the service request didn't fill out a value himself. The option should left open for the end-user to create a service request for somebody else: in such a case the end-users still needed to be able to fill out a value themselves (being the login of the colleague for whom they were submitting a service request).

Solution: use a workflow to set the default user to the current user

Part 1: Set customer column not required

Set the column setting Require that this column contains information to No.

Part 2: Create a workflow to set the default user to the current user

Create a new workflow in Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007: File->New->Workflow.

Give a name for the workflow, attach it to the Service Requests SharePoint list and check the option Automatically start this workflow when a new item is created.

Check for the condition If Customer is empty

As Action choose Set Field in Current Item
1. Choose the field Customer.
2. For the value, choose User who created current item (it will be translated by Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to Service Requests:Created By.

Click Finish

Comments 3 comments

Brent said...: Someone sent me to your Blog to view your steps based on a submission I posted in a Forum, and your steps worked Great!; 18 February, 2009 15:46
Patrik Luca said...: Hi Brent,

glad to hear my post could help you out!; 18 February, 2009 15:53
Nilesh Vasave said...: Or alternately, you can create a Customer column as calculated field and in the formula for that calculated field write =[Me] and it will give you the same value as createdBy.

Regards,
Nilesh Vasave; 07 May, 2009 15:34

08 April 2008