mass cancel or removing approver from document approvals

[pco88]

I have users who are approvers on documents that are still pending approval even when the project's is already closed. I want to mass cancel the pending approval for that particular user in order to everything up. I already have a report of all those documents but can't mass update to either cancel the status or remove the user from the approval process. Anybody know a quick way to do this? Polly Co

[VicAl]

I just verified in my site that I can bulk edit the Status (I set them to Closed). Does that not work?

[pco88]

How are you doing this? I have a document report and if I checked at least 2, I can't edit. Then if I go to the documents area, and select 3, there's no editing I can do to remove approval or change status. Polly Co

[VicAl]

Ah, Sorry I was using an Issue Report. We don't do Approvals on Documents (just tasks and issues) so I totally missed that you said Documents. Sorry about that. I'll keep looking though.

[VicAl]

Yeah I'm seeing the same behavior you described. I searched for various fields to at least put them in your report and change them as a line item. But I didn't find anything useful. The only other thing I can think of is to Login as each User and go to their Approvals tab to close these out. I'm not a huge fan of this, but it might be an option. Or if you go to the Documents tab of each project (not sure how many you have). All the Documents from all tasks and issues should reside there. You might be able to churn through them. Sorry I don't have much else.

[pco88]

In the interest of those who may have read this thread and looking for a solution, what I ended up doing is writing code and using API to solve this issue. First API use is to find all pending (NEW) approvals and where the approverID is the user who had pending approvals. yourdomain..docapl/search?status=NEW&approverID=theapproverID&$$LIMIT=2000 fields you want back: ID, documentID Next API to loop to search for projectID -> I just want projects completed. docu/search?ID=documentIDfromfirstAPI fields I want back, projectID Next API to check project status. Next API to cancel the approval request for the approver if the project is CPL. docapl/docaplidfromfirstAPI?updates={"status":"CANCELLED"}&method=PUT Seemed like a lot of effort but I know this user has 1575 pending approvals on complete projects - cluttering up his approvals so clean up was one way we could wipe the slate clean for the user and get him on the right track. Polly Co

[SarahNa]

Hi Polly,

Pulling this old string back up! Did your user get notifications for each approval cancellation? We are looking to implement something like this for all users. We have a marketing policy that they need 2 of the 3 approvers to approve and then they are able to go forward with their product. We have thousands of open approvals in the system and would like to get them cleaned up without spamming everyone.

Thanks!

[pco88]

Wow - this is old.😁 I sort of remember the problem and I think I've also brought it up to support whether I can auto turn off notification for the specific user. I think the answer was no. So since my program will just run for a short time, I disabled the setting for email or pointed it to somewhere else instead of pop.workfront.com or something like that. I couldn't find that setting anymore on Workfront though - not sure if it's still in classic menu. Once I'm done, like I said, just a minute or two to run, I put the notifications back up.

[SarahNa]

Thanks Polly! Appreciate you sharing your code!

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Very nice, Polly! Now that you've sleuthed that out, may I suggest you add an Idea Share item to bake it into Workfront's default logic (e.g. via an Oracle Trigger)? Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[VicAl]

Wow. Super cool.

[JillAc]

I would love a solution for this. My trouble is with Proofs, not sure if they act the same as Documents. We don't use an API so this solution doesn't work for me. My Home screen is clogged with past due Proof Approvals from closed projects and I can't find any way to mass approve them so they will go away. The built-in My Proof Approvals reports shows proofs that have been approved so that isn't helping me either, and even if it did, there is no way to approve a Proof without going into each one individually and making a decision. I couldn't find anything in Idea Exchange that addresses this. Jill Ackerman

[TegwynSt]

I have had this issue for over a year once we realized documents were sitting with designers for approval and we were not using proof tool for decisions. Our approvals take place in WF template - this will hopefully change. so all those conditions for proofs don't matter to us- out for approval - change - decision - approved etc. you can bulk edit in WF in several areas but proofHQ /Viewer will not allow for bulk edits. the approvals tab we have that is realistic are for approvals that are built into templates/ tasks. I have been told the only way to resolve them is to manually go in for each sep document - and we have over 8,000 so prob wont happen without some help from WF. I am going to go into designers user ID's and delegate all their unresolved proofs to myself in the meantime and try and get them to resolve in proofing when an approval in WF is made for now. anyone has more thoughts on this subject I'd be interested as well! Tegwyn Stockdale Production Coordinator / PM BayCare Clearwater, Florida Baycare Health System, Inc.

[Former Community Member]

Yeah, I asked the same question and got the same suggestion: delete those "aged" proofs (as I call them), or change assignee(s), or reject them. One at a time. We have a lot less than you do! William Dodson MaineHealth

[TegwynSt]

.....aaaannnddd - I am not able to delegate back in time (delegate calendar option is today and future).....so I am not even able to move the pending proofs under my name to take care myself as/if time allows .....does anyone have suggestion for this less than ideal workaround? Tegwyn Stockdale Production Coordinator / PM BayCare Clearwater, Florida Baycare Health System, Inc.