Introduction
Infowise Ultimate Forms is a fantastic tool for turning your regular SharePoint lists into real life business applications. Using no-code approach you can build advanced solutions using nothing but your browser. It contains all the components you need: smart forms, intuitive automation and clear reporting.
Its Actions component makes SharePoint automation fast and easy for everyone. You don't need to be a script wiz! You don't need to memorize JSON formatting, create a flowchart or perform complex deployments.
With 21 (and counting) different action types you can automate almost anything, inside and outside SharePoint. From updating list items, creating sites, managing permissions and even creating users in Active Directory. Unlike traditional workflows, it's easy to configure and run, even for novices.
Sample Solution
In this article I will demonstrate how easy it is to build a project tracking solution. I will base it entirely on SharePoint lists. My solution doesn't use workflows, Power Automate flows or Power Apps.
My goal is to automatically create a predefined set of project tasks whenever a users adds a new project. In my example I will be creating 3 tasks:
- Check resources - set to start on the same day as the project and last for 7 days. The task reminds us to check resource availability for the project.
- Prepare documentation - during the first 30 days of the project prepare the necessary documentation.
- Review project - assign a review task to the manager 30 days after the project starts.
All the users need to do is create the project entry itself, all the tasks are generated automatically. The system will automatically link the newly created tasks to their parent project. That makes it easy to view and modify related tasks directly from within the project itself.
Lists
We start by creating two lists:
- Projects - regular SharePoint list with Title, Description, Start Date and End Date columns
- Project Tasks - regular SharePoint list with Title, Start Date and Due Date columns.
We can also create an Associated Items column in the Projects list. The column will display the related tasks for each project.
Pro-tip: use AI-assisted Form Generator to create the lists for you. You will not find an easier or faster way of creating SharePoint lists. And the best thing is its built-in support for relationships, like the one we use here. You create both Projects and Project Tasks lists at the same time and the tool will ensure the correct configuration of their connection.
Actions
Now we are ready to add our actions that will actually generate the required tasks. On the Projects list's toolbar click on Design, then click on Actions.
We will be creating an action for each task we want to create. Click Add new action to display the action creation pane. The action type we will use is Create list item action.
The actions only need to run when someone creates a new item (project). Give each action a short name and (optionally) a description.
Switch to Action tab. In the List setting select our Project Tasks list. Next specify column value mappings for the generated items. You can use any combination of text, functions and column values from the current list, Projects.
Locate and click on the column name in the Value Picker. It adds the column name surrounded by square brackets.
You can then perform simple arithmetic calculations on the value. In my particular case I'm adding 7 days to the Start Date value. We include a selection of commonly used functions that you can include to manipulate your values.
Note the special column Parent field name we mapped there. This is not an actual column in the Project Tasks list. This way you to specify that you want to establish a connection between this new item and its parent project. Select the Associated Items column from the parent list and the system will establish the relationship automatically.
Do the same for all three task actions. You should get the following result:
Testing
Now when we create a new project, the system will create and link 3 tasks for it.
Save the new project and return to the Projects list view. Allow about a minute for the actions to execute. Then click on Click for details link under our Tasks column (the Associated Items column we created). That will show us the newly generated tasks related to our new project:
Click on the project itself to open it in Display form. You will see all your related tasks and will be able to manage them directly.
You can optionally enable logging on your actions (under the Advanced tab). Then you can click on Action History toolbar button to view your action history.
Summary
In this article I showed how you can create SharePoint tasks automatically. The whole implementation process took about 10 minutes. As you can see, Ultimate Forms has a great potential of saving you time and effort! You can install a 30-day trial of Ultimate Forms to see for yourself.
