In this Nintex workflows tutorial, we will discuss how to use the Nintex workflow for Office 365 in SharePoint Online.
I will be also explaining how to add Nintex workflow for office 365 to SharePoint Online. And then I will explain how to send E-mail with attachments to external users using the Nintex workflow for office 365.
Nintex Workflow for Office 365
Nintex workflow introduces an intuitive drag-and-drop user interface, so the users can ‘draw’ workflows instead of coding them. Once the workflows are ready in place, the real-time metrics take actions to measure business performance.
If you have not signed up for an Office 365, then sign up for an Office 365 Enterprise E5 subscription.
Advantages of Nintex Workflow for Office 365
SharePoint provides various options for designing or developing workflows like SharePoint designer 2013, visual studio 2017/2019, or out of box workflows using a
But there are some key benefits of using Nintex workflows over SharePoint designer workflows.
- Code-free, drag-and-drop workflow design
- Reusable templates and modules
- Real-time status updates and workflow tracking
- Scheduled and timed workflows for repeated processes
- Rich workflow notifications using email, instant messenger, and SMS
- Nintex Workflow provides an intuitive visual interface that makes creating and maintaining workflows much easier.
- Automate business processes quickly and easily.
Nintex provides workflow products for both SharePoint on-premise versions as well as for SharePoint Online Office 365 version.
- Nintex Workflow for SharePoint (On-Premise)
- Nintex Workflow for Office 365 (Online)
Nintex Workflow for SharePoint is for SharePoint on-premise versions:
- Nintex for SharePoint 2019
- Nintex for SharePoint 2016
- Nintex for SharePoint 2013
Everything from the basic business functions can be added to company-wide processes with just a few clicks – not code. Enabling SharePoint to easily build workflows through intuitive browser-based, drag-and-drop featured designer facility.
Forms in workflows can be based on a common template then modified, updated, and deployed in a single step. Nintex forms display only what users need to see.
Nintex Workflow for Office 365 (Online)
Nintex workflow for Office 365 is for Office 365 SharePoint Online version.
Users can automate any business processes using clicks. Easily design and connect powerful workflows that extend the content and data entrusted to Microsoft Office 365.
Users can tap into the full scope of the Nintex Workflow Platform, with features like Nintex forms for Office 365 to conveniently design modern, responsive forms to capture critical information quickly and correctly.
Browsers Required for Nintex Workflows
The good thing about Nintex workflow is that you just need a browser to design and run Nintex workflows. Below are the browsers required for the Nintex
- IE10 and above
- Microsoft Edge (latest version)
- Google Chrome (latest version)
- Mozilla Firefox (latest version)
- Apple Safari (latest version)
Install and Configure Nintex Workflow for Office 365
Before creating any workflows in SharePoint using Nintex, let us see how to install and configure Nintex workflow for Office 365.
Installation and configuration of Nintex Workflow for Office 365 are very easy.
From the SharePoint Store, simply search for Nintex, you will be able to see Nintex Workflow for Office 365 apps will appear.
Step 1: Go to SharePoint Online site’s, Settings menu -> click on Add an app->click on SharePoint Store. Enter the “Nintex Workflow” in the search box then the apps will have appeared as shown below.
Step 2: Click on “Nintex workflow for office 365” then app will be opened as shown below.
Step 3: Next Click on “ADD IT“. It will open “Trust it” dialogue box and click on it as shown below.
Step 4: Once you have added the app to Office 365, it will be available for you to add to your SharePoint sites just like you would add other apps in SharePoint. For Nintex workflow app go to SharePoint Settings menu->click on Site Contents.
Step 5: Go to your SharePoint list/library. A button is added in the ribbon of lists and libraries tab called “Nintex Workflow” which allows you to create and manage Nintex Workflows to act on list or library items.
Create a workflow using Nintex Workflow for Office 365
Now, let us see how to create a workflow using Nintex workflow for Office 365.
Send Email using Nintex Workflow for Office 365 to External Users
Now I will show a Nintex workflow example, where I will show how can I send email using Nintex workflow for Office 365 to external users in SharePoint Online Office 365.
Step 1: I have created a SharePoint Online Document Library known as “Documents”.
Step 2: To Create Nintex workflow, go to library Tab in the ribbon -> click on “Nintex Workflow” button as shown below, which will open Nintex Workflow designer.
Step 3: In Nintex Workflow for Office 365, click on “Create List Workflow” as shown below.
Step 4: See below screen shot of Nintex Workflow Designer. Here, we have actions on the left side and on the center as you can see we can insert an action by clicking on it.
As you can see below, you can insert actions from:
- Integration
- Libraries and Lists
- Logic and flow
- Operations
- Provisioning
- Social
- User Interactions
- Utility
Step 5: Go to the “User Interaction“, drag and drop the Action “Send an Email” on Nintex workflow Designer as shown below.
Step 6: click on more(…) option -> Next click on Configure as shown below.
Step 7: “Send an Email” dialogue box will appeared now.
- Enter E-mail Address whom to send mail for external users. As per your
requirement , you can add. for example, - To – [email protected] (external user), CC- internal username (as your wish), BCC: [email protected] (external user).
- Subject: you can add “Name” from the “INSERT REFERENCE” panel as shown below.
Subject: You can also add item properties from “Advanced Lookup“.
- Click on “Advanced Lookup“.
- In Equals, Select “List Lookup” from the drop-down.
- In Source, select “Current Item” from the drop-down.
- In Field, select “Name” from drop-down.
- Next click on “Insert” Button as shown below.
- E-mail: select “External email and attachment” ( Send emails to anyone, using an external email service configured by Nintex. Attachments are supported.) as shown below.
- Reply-To: The email address the recipient responds to. Enter the username here.
- Sender display Name: If you want to display your name for the external user, you can add “Initiator display name” from the “INSERT REFERENCE” panel.
- Email attachments: If you want to send file attachments to the external users, check on “Attach file from workflow“.
- Add your document path URL which you want to attach and send to the external users like “Shared%20Documents/Document retention.docx” as shown below.
- Click on “Include attachment” button now the Document added as shown below.
- Body: Enter your text here. Next click on Save button.
Step 8: Now Publish the workflow. Click on the Publish button on the Designer tab as shown below.
Step 9: Publish the Dialogue box will be opened now. Here enter the Name of the workflow, Description, Task list and History list by default are there. Following below Workflow Start Options:
- Start manually.
- Start when items are Created .
- Start when items are modified.
In this example, I have enabled the option “Start when items are created“.
Step 10: Click on Publish button. Nintex Workflow will be published now.
Step 11: Go to your library and upload a file in your SharePoint Document Library. If you find in the list your workflow “Send Mail Workflow” added in the list as shown below.
Step 12: Now the external user will get mail with attachments as shown below. One document is newly uploaded in the Sharepoint Document library and second one is we attached the document to “Email Attachment” in “Send Email” action.
Get reply from external users in Nintex Workflow
Step 1: External users can also send reply to users as shown below in Nintex workflow.
Step 2: User received the mail from external users in Nintex workflow.
Step 3: If Workflow start manually, then the External user will get the mail without user name as shown below.
Send Notifications to external users Failed in Nintex Workflow
We configured workflow for send email to external users like Gmail, Hotmail etc. the workflow is completed but email notifications are not sent.
Step 1: Go to the Office 365 Home -> Admin -> Admin Centers -> SharePoint -> Sharing. Please check on “Allow sharing to authenticated external users and using anonymous access links“.
Step 1: Create a SharePoint Document Library, creating Nintex workflow, and add Send an Email action to Nintex Designer follow the above steps from Step 1 to Step 6.
Step 2: “Send an Email” dialogue box will opened now.
- To: Enter the username.
- Subject: Enter the name of the subject like “{Current Item:Name} Document – uploaded by {Workflow Context:Initiator display name}”
- Select “Name” and “Initiator display name” from “advanced lookup” or “INSERT REFERENCE” panel.
- Email service: Internal email(Send emails to accounts inside your tenancy, using the email service native to Microsoft Office 365. Attachments are not supported.)
- Body: Enter your text here.
Step 3: Click on the Publish button then the “Publish” dialogue box will appear as shown below.
- Name: Enter the name of the workflow.
- Description: Enter the description of the workflow.
- Task List: Workflow Tasks.
- History List: Workflow History.
- Start Options: Enabled “Start when items are created”.
- Click on the “Publish” button.
Step 4: Go to your SharePoint Document Library and upload the files into it.
Step 5: User will get mail, who is uploaded a file into the Sharepoint Document library as shown below.
You may like the following Nintex tutorials:
- Nintex forms for Office 365 – How to use in SharePoint Online
- Cascading dropdown in Nintex Forms + Responsive Forms
- Nintex form rules + validation examples
- Nintex forms lookup function example
Conclusion
In this
After working for more than 15 years in Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Office 365, and Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), I thought will share my SharePoint expertise knowledge with the world. Out audiences are from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. For my expertise knowledge and SharePoint tutorials, Microsoft has been awarded a SharePoint MVP(8 times), check out My MVP Profile. I have also worked in companies like HP, TCS, KPIT, etc.