Create, Update and Delete List Item Using Builtin Activity in SharePoint 2013 Workflows

This article explains how to Create, Update and Delete a List Item using a builtin activity available in the workflow toolbox for SharePoint 2013 in Visual Studio 2013.

Implementation Procedure

1.  Create a new Empty SharePoint 2013 Project named CreateUpdateDeletListItem
2.  Choose Deploy as sandboxed solution in the next screen and click Finish
3.  Add New Item as Workflow and provide the name as WFCRUDOperation
4.  In the next window provide the name of the Workflow as “WF CRUD Operation” and select the List Workflow option and click Next.
5.  In the next window select List, History List and Task List as shown below and click Next.
   
   
   
   
6.  Leave the default selection (A user manually starts…) and click Finish
7.  Drag and drop the History Activity and change the display name to “Log WF Started”
   
   
   
   
8.  Provide the input Message as “WF Started” in the Expression Editor Window.
   
   
   
   
9.  Drag and drop the CreateListItem activity and Set the ListId property to the List you want to insert the new item in.
   
   
   
   
10.  Click the (…) button next to the ListItemPropertiesDynamic as shown below and provide the value as in the left side window (ListItemPropertiesDynamicValue).
    
    
    
    
11.  Repeat Step 7 and 8. Provide the Display Name as “Log List Item Creation” and provide the input message as “List Item Created”.
12.  Drag and drop the Delay Until activity as below.
    
    
    
    
13.  Click on the (…) button next to the Date properties and provide the value as shown below.
    
    
    
    
14.  Drag and drop the UpdateListItem activity to the designer as below.
    
    
    
    
15.  Click on the (…) button to open the ItemId window and type 1 and click OK.
    
    
    
    
16.  Set the ListId property as WFCodeActivityList and check that the WFCodeActivityList contains the ID 1 as below.
    
    
    
    
17.  Click on the (…) button next to the ListItemPropertiesDynamicValue and provide the value as shown below.
    
    
    
    
    
    
18.  Drag and drop the WriteToHistory activity and provide the display name as “Log Update Item” and set the message to “Item Updated”.
19.  Drag and drop the Delay activity and set the date properties to DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(1).
20.  Drag and drop the DeleteListItem and set the properties as below.
    
    
    
    
21.  Ensure that the WFCurrentContext list has the item ID 4 as shown below.
    
    
    
    
22.  Drag and drop the WriteToHistory activity and provide the display name as “Log Delete Item” and set the message as “Item Deleted”.
23.  Drag and drop the WriteToHistory activity and provide the display name as “Log WF Completed” and set the message as “WF Completed”.
24.  Build and deploy the application.
25.  Add the new Item into the List that the workflow is associated as shown below.
    
    
    
    
26.  Click on the (…) and select Workflows from the menu list.
    
    
    
    
27. Click on the link.
    
    
    
    
28.  Repeat Step 26 and click on started.
    
    
    
    
29.  Refresh the page and you will see the List Item Created Message will be displayed in the Workflow History.
    
    
    
    
30.  Go to the WFSPLIstObjects List and see that the new item is created.
    
    
    
    
31.  Then wait for 2 minutes. In this time Delay the activity will execute.
32.  Again go the History list page and see the Item Updated Message as below and see the time.
    
    
    
    
33.  Let go to the WFCodeActivityList and see the Item has been updated by WF.
    
    
    
    
34.  Then wait for 1 minute. In this time Delay the activity will execute.
35.  Go to the history page and see the result as shown below.
    
    
    
    
36.  Then go to the WFCurrentContext list and see the output as below.