Update Column value after current item is Approved and then publish major version using Sharepoint 2013 designer workflow

Question

Hi,
We have a requirement to update a column value once the item has been approved.
Following settings have been made in the publishing articles list:
Require content approval for submitted items : yes
Create major and minor (draft) versions
Who should see draft items in this document library? :Only users who can edit items
Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited? : yes
I have createdatu a Sharepoint 2013 workflow to check if Approval sts of current item = 0 i.e. Approved , then check out and update the item and finally checkin the item. Everything works fine till this point except that the minor version of the item is
checked in. Due to this the updated columns are not published to others.
Also, I created a Sharepoint 2010 workflow to SET CONTENT APPROVAL = APPROVED and started this workflow from my list workflow above, but the item does not get checked-in and always shows "In Progress" status with comment "The item is currently
locked for editing. Waiting for item to be checked in or for the lock to be released.".
Please let me know where I am missing out so that once the item is approved, column value gets updated and current item is still in Approved status.
Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,
According to your post, my understanding is that you want to update Column value after current item is Approved and then publish major version using Sharepoint 2013 designer workflow.
You will get into this kind of Catch-22 situation trying to set the Content Approval Status in SharePoint Designer workflow:
- You must check out the document before you can change the Content Approval Status
         - You can't change the Content Approval Status once the document in checked out
Since you set the Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited=Yes, you will need to check out the document when run the workflow on the item. But you cannot approve a document when it is checked
out. So the logic in workflow conflicts.
As a workaround, you can use the Start Another Workflow action to start the normal Approval workflow on the document.  The built-in Approval workflow can work with a document that’s not checked out.
The designer approval workflow also can work with a document that’s not checked out.
You can create two workflow using SharePoint Designer 2013.
First, create a SharePoint 2010 platform workflow.
Then, create a SharePoint 2013 platform workflow.
Then when the SharePoint 2013 platform workflow start, it will start the SharePoint 2010 platform workflow to set content approval status, then the SharePoint 2013 platform workflow will update current item value.
More information:
SharePoint Designer Workflow Content Approval Issue
SharePoint 2010 Approval Workflow with Content Approval
Best Regards,
Linda Li
Linda Li
TechNet Community Support