Create SharePoint Site Using SP Designer Workflow

Some of us want to create a SharePoint site when an item is added to a SharePoint list. For SharePoint on-premise, we can achieve this using the event receivers and with SP online we can use designer workflow with REST API calls to achieve this.

Introduction to Designer Workflows

• SharePoint Designer is one of the best tools for creating workflows.
• A lot of activities, actions, and conditions are available in Designer. We can create rules that associate conditions and actions with items in SharePoint List and Libraries.
• We can use the workflow for the business process and approval process.

Below are the workflow start options for SharePoint List & Libraries.

• Allow workflow to be manually started.
• Start workflow automatically when an item is created.
• Start workflow automatically when an item is changed.

Steps to Create a Site Using Workflow

In a previous article, we have seen how to create a list workflow using SP Designer.

Once you have created the list workflow using the above article follow the below-listed steps to create a site using designer workflow.

Note. You need to activate the “Workflow can enable app permission” feature to enable the app step in the designer. Inside the app step only we will add the logic (REST API call) to create a site. The user performs the below step to activate the feature.

Go to site - settings - Manage site features - “Workflow can enable app permission” - Activate.

After activating the feature get the app identifier.

Go to site - settings - App permissions

On the site app permission page, you can see the workflow and then get the workflow ID as shown below.

App Permissions

Then go to the appinv.aspx page using the below URL,

Append /_layouts/15/appinv.aspx to the site URL to see the hidden App Permissions page

Enter the selected workflow App ID and click the pop-up

Provide below XML on the Permission Request XML Textbox as shown below and click on the Create button.

<AppPermissionRequests>
   <AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/content/sitecollection" Right="FullControl"/>
</AppPermissionRequests>

App Step will be enabled on the designer after you do the above steps. Then follow the below procedure.

Step 1. Create variables in workflow,

• Title: New Site Title
• Description: New Site Description
• SiteURL: New site URL name
• SiteTemplate: it may be a team site, blog, project, etc.
• RequestURL: URL of Where the site has to be created

Here is the Workflow screenshot for your reference.

Step 2. Build a dictionary value for the REST API call, below dictionary values need to be created.

RequestHeaders
 

Name	Type	Type
Accept	String	application/json;odata=verbose
Content-Type	String	application/json;odata=verbose

Metadata
 

Name	Type	Type
Name	String	SP.WebInfoCreation

Parameters
 

Name	Type	Value
__metadata	Dictionary	Variable: MetaData
Url	String	Variable: SiteURL
Title	String	Variable: Title
Description	String	Variable: Description
Language	Number	1033
WebTemplate	String	Variable: SiteTemplate
UseUniquePermissions	Boolean	False

RequestDictionary
 

Name	Type	Value
parameters	Dictionary	Variable: Parameters

Step 3. Once the variables have been created add the app step to the workflow as shown below,

Step 4. Then add the HTTP call activity inside the app step,

Step 5. Then right-click on the activity and click the advanced properties from the top ribbon,

Step 6. Set the properties & create a new variable for responsive content.

Step 7. Then save the workflow and check for errors,

Finally, publish the Workflow.

When you create an item in the list the site will be created successfully.

Summary

In this article, we have explored how to create a site using SharePoint designer workflow.