Start a SharePoint Designer Workflow on Multiple List Items

Introduction

This script can start a SharePoint Designer workflow on Multiple List Items in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

Scenarios

In a real world, you may need to start a workflow on multiple list items. It will be a heavy task if you do it manually, so you are looking for a script to complete this task.

Script

This script contains the following advanced function:

Start-OSCSPWorkflow

You can use this script in the following way.

1. Open SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

2. Run Import-Module cmdlet to import this module file.
Import-Module filepath\scriptname.psm1

Here are some code snippets for your references. To get the complete script sample, please click the download button at the beginning of this page.

PowerShell

Edit|Remove

foreach ($spListItem in $spListItems) {
    $verboseMsg = $Messages.StartingWorkflow
    $verboseMsg = $verboseMsg -f $WorkflowName,"$($spListItem.Title)(ID:$($spListItem.ID))"
    $pscmdlet.WriteVerbose($verboseMsg)
    Try
    {
        $spWFInstance = $spWeb.Site.WorkflowManager.StartWorkflow($spListItem,$spWorkFlow,$spWorkFlow.AssociationData,$true)
    }
    Catch
    {
        $pscmdlet.WriteError($_)            
    }
}

foreach ($spListItemin$spListItems) { 
    $verboseMsg = $Messages.StartingWorkflow 
    $verboseMsg = $verboseMsg-f $WorkflowName,"$($spListItem.Title)(ID:$($spListItem.ID))"$pscmdlet.WriteVerbose($verboseMsg) 
    Try 
    { 
        $spWFInstance = $spWeb.Site.WorkflowManager.StartWorkflow($spListItem,$spWorkFlow,$spWorkFlow.AssociationData,$true) 
    } 
    Catch 
    { 
        $pscmdlet.WriteError($_)             
    } 
}

Examples

Example 1: How to display help about Start-OSCSPWorkFlow.
To display help about Get- OSCSPWorkflow, please run this command.
Get-Help Get-OSCSPWorkflow -Full

Example 2: How to start workflow on a list item with specified ID.
To start workflow on a list item with specified ID, please run this command.
Start-OSCSPWorkFlow -SiteURL "http://server_name/sites/sitename" -ListName "ListName" -WorkflowName "WorkflowName" -ItemId 53 -Verbose

Example 3: How to start workflow on multiple list items.
To start workflow on multiple list items, please run this command.
Start-OSCSPWorkFlow -SiteURL "http://server_name/sites/sitename" -ListName "ListName" -WorkflowName "WorkflowName" -ItemId 53,55,58,62 -Verbose

Example 4: How to start workflow on multiple list items that meet specified condition.
To start workflow on multiple list items that meet specified condition, please run this command.
Start-OSCSPWorkFlow -SiteURL "http://server_name/sites/sitename" -ListName "ListName" -WorkflowName "WorkflowName" -Query 'CAML Query' -Verbose

Note Please enclose your query with single quote (') and don’t include the <Query></Query> tags.

Additional Resources

Technical Resources:
Windows PowerShell Advanced Function
Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb class
Microsoft.SharePoint.SPList class
Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager class
Microsoft.SharePoint.SPQuery Class

Forum Threads:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/36837cf2-f742-4404-a0df-80009463bc71
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010setup/thread/121d94a4-2202-4c19-823f-242c9328e6f3