How to Create an Employee Birthday Calendar Step-By-Step Did you know one of the most common requests for an Intranet is an employee birthday calendar? Many folks have created custom code solutions in the form of either web parts or Apps to be installed but they don t have to. To show you how SharePoint can be powerful with only out of the box tools, we have put together a set of steps and tasks you will be able to use to create a customized birthday calendar for your organization. At www.sharepointshepherd.com you will find more information about the kinds of support we can offer. Whether it s our books or our content that helps everyone in an organization, we ve got the tools you need to be successful with SharePoint. Another great way to connect with us is to sign up for the monthly newsletter or feel free to reach out to us and see how we can help through our email inbox. Overview Creating an employee birthday calendar consists of three basic steps: The List: Creating and customizing a list to hold all the birthdays. Workflow: The workflow that will be used to automatically increment the next birthday for the employee so that we can use the out-of-the-box list views to show the employee s birthday. Document Retention Settings: The document retention settings will be used to trigger the workflow anytime that the employee s next birthday is in the past. This mechanism will consistently update the employee s next birthday. If this seems like a lot for a simple birthday calendar it is. SharePoint supports recurring events so you can technically create a birthday as a recurring event except that this breaks when you get more than about 100 employees. SharePoint can t process the number of recurring appointments in the calendar and throws an error. In addition, you probably don t want to share the year of birth since this is sensitive information particularly to those of us who are aging. So let s use the out of the box tools in SharePoint to create an employee birthday calendar. Create a Custom List Steps: 1. Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization s SharePoint server. The Start page will open. If you want this custom list to appear in one of your subsites, navigate to that site. 2. Click the Settings menu gear icon. The Settings menu will appear. 3. Click Add an App. The Apps page will appear. Exception: If you don t see the option to Add an App, you do not have specific permissions to perform that function. Check the permissions settings to ensure you have the appropriate access rights. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 1 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 1: The Your Apps Page 4. Click the Custom List icon. The Adding Custom List dialog box will open. Figure 2: The Adding Custom List Dialog Box 5. Click Advanced Options. The Site Contents New page will open. 6. In the Name field enter a title for the new list. This is used to identify the list throughout SharePoint. (Suggestion: Employee Birthday Calendar) Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 2 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 3: The Site Contents New Page 7. In the Description field, enter any notes about the new list. This appears as an information icon next to the list name when your list is open in SharePoint. 8. Click Create. The new list will be created. Figure 1: The New List Now that our Custom List has been created, next we are going to customize the columns to manage the data needed to track the employee s birthdays. We will use the columns to enter the data needed which is limited to the employee s name, their birth month (Month), their birth day (Day), and their next birthday (NextBDay). Customize the Columns of the List Steps: 1. Click the List tab. The List ribbon will open. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 3 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 2: The List Tools Ribbon 2. Click List Settings. The List Settings dialog box will open. 3. In the Column section, click on the Title Column. Change the Column name: Employee Name. 4. Specify Require that this column contains information: as Yes. Specify Enforce unique values: as No. 5. Leave Default value: as Text. Figure 3: The Create Column Dialog Box 6. Click OK. 7. Click on Employee Birthday Calendar. Click the List tab. The List ribbon will open. Click Create Column. The Create Column dialog box will open. 8. In the Column name field, enter a name for the new column: Month. (The person s birth month) Specify the type of information in this list column as Number with no decimal. Specify Require that this column contains information: as Yes. Specify Enforce unique values: as Yes. Specify Min: as 1. Specify Max: as 12. Specify Number of decimal places: as 0. Leave Default value: as Number. Click OK. 9. Click the List tab. The List ribbon will open. Click Create Column. The Create Column dialog box will open. 10. In the Column name field, enter a name for the new column: Day. (The date of the person s birth) Specify the type of information in this list column as Number with no decimal. Specify Require that this column contains Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 4 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
information: as Yes. Specify Enforce unique values: as Yes. Specify Min: as 1. Specify Max: as 31. Specify Number of decimal places: as 0. Leave Default value: as Number. Click OK. 11. Click the List tab. The List ribbon will open. Click Create Column. The Create Column dialog box will open. 12. In the Column name field, enter a name for the new column: NextBDay. Specify the type of information in this list column as Date. Specify Require that this column contains information: as Yes. Specify Enforce unique values: as No. Leave Default value: as Text. Click OK. Now that our list is created and customized, we need to create the workflow. The workflow should run anytime that an item is created. Let s begin creating our employee birthday calendar workflow. Create a Workflow for the Employee Birthday Calendar in SharePoint Designer Steps: 1. Open SharePoint Designer. Open the site where the List was created. Select Workflows (in the left pane). 2. Select drop down for List Workflow. Select the Employee Birthday Calendar previously created. Figure 1: SharePoint Designer Workflow 3. In the dialog that appears, enter a name for the workflow (Next Birthday). Set the Platform Type to: SharePoint 2010 Workflow. Click OK. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 5 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 2: Create List Workflow In the designer we re going to create a workflow that looks something like the following when we re done: Figure 3: Employee Birthday Workflow 4. Create first Set Variable action by starting to type Set Workflow Variable and press Enter. Click on the Workflow Variable highlighted text. Select Create a new variable from the drop down. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 6 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
5. Name: as Today. Type: as String. Click OK. Figure 4: Create a new variable 6. Click on Value and then Fx button. Figure 5: Edit Variable Figure 6: Define workflow lookup 7. Select Data Source: as Workflow Context. Field from source: as Date and Time Started. Return field as: as Short Date. Click OK. Figure 7: Lookup for String 8. Begin typing in the Step 1 box: Extract Substring from End of String when it appears press Enter. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 7 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 8: Create a date 9. Click the 0 (zero) characters and change it to 4 (since years are 4 digits). 10. Set the output variable by selecting Create a new variable. Name: as Year. Type: as String. Click OK. 11. Select the String and click the Fx button. Data source: as Workflow Variable and Parameters, the Field from source as Variable: Today, and the Return field as.. As String. Click OK. Figure 9: Lookup for String 12. In Step 1: start typing Set Workflow Variable and press enter. Click on Workflow Variable. Select Create a new variable. Name: CurYearBDayStr. Type: as String. Click OK. Figure 10: Create New Variable - CurYearBDayStr 13. Click Value and click the (Ellipsis button, not the Fx button). Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 8 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 11: Blank String Builder 14. Click the Add or Change Lookup button in the lower left. Select Data source: as Current Item. Field from source: as Month. Return field: as As String. Click OK. Figure 12: Lookup for String, Month 15. In String Builder: Add a forward slash. Click Add or Change Lookup button. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 9 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 13: Lookup for String, Day 16. Data source as Current List. Field from source: Day. Return field as: As String. Click OK. Figure 14: Lookup for String, Year 17. In String Builder: Add another forward slash at the end of the string. Click Add or Change Lookup button. Data source as Workflow Variable and Parameters. Field from source as Variable: Year. Return field as: As String. Click OK. Click OK again on the String Builder window. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 10 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 15: String Builder 18. In Step 1: start typing set workflow variable and press enter. Click on Workflow Variable. Select Create a new variable. Name: as NextBDate. Type: as Date/Time. Click OK. Figure 16: Create a new Variable 19. Click the value and the Fx button. Select Data Source as Workflow Variables and Parameters. Select Field from source as Variable: CurYearBDayStr. Select Return field as As Date/Time. Click OK. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 11 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 17: Lookup for Date/Time 20. In Step 1: start typing If any value equals value and press Enter. Click the first Value in the statement. Click the Fx button. Select Data Source: as Workflow Context. Select Field from source: as Date and Time Started. Click OK. Figure 18: Define Workflow Lookup 21. Click the second Value and click the Fx button. Select Data Source as Workflow Variables and Parameters. Select Field from source as Variable: NextBDate. Click OK. Figure 19: Variable NextBDate 22. Select Equals in the middle of the statement. Change it to is greater than. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 12 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 20: Equals Selection 23. Click in the area below the statement and start typing set workflow variable and select it. Select Workflow Variable. 24. Select Create a new variable from the drop down menu. Select name as YearNum. Select Type as Integer. Click OK. Figure 21: Workflow Variable 25. Click Value. Click Fx button. Select Data source as Workflow Variable and Parameters. Select Field from source as Variable: Year. Select Return field as As Integer. Click OK. Figure 22: Lookup for Integer 26. Click in the area below the statement and start typing Do Calculation and select it. Click the Output to Variable:calc and selecting Variable: YearNum. Click on the first Value and the Fx button. Select Data Source as Workflow Variables and Parameters. Select Field from Source as Variable:YearNum. Click OK. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 13 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 23: Lookup for YearNum 27. Click second value, type the number 1 in the textbox and press enter. Click in the area below the statement and start typing set workflow variable and select it. Click Workflow Variable text. Select the Create new variable item from the drop down list. Select variable Name as NextBDayYearStr. Select Type as String. Click OK. Figure 24: Edit Variable 28. Click Value and the ellipsis button (this reveals the string builder). Click Add or Change Lookup button. Select Data source: as Current Item. Select Field from Source: as Month. Select Return field as As String. Click OK. 29. In String Builder: Add a forward slash. Click Add or Change Lookup button. Select Data source as: Current Item. Select Field from source: Day. Select Return field: as As String. Click OK. 30. In String Builder: Add another forward slash at the end of the string. Click Add or Change Lookup button. Select Data source as: Workflow Variable and Parameters. Field from source: as Variable: YearNum. Click OK. Click OK again on the String Builder window. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 14 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 25: String Builder 31. Start typing Set Workflow Variable and enter. Select Workflow Variable. Select Variable: NextBDate. Click Value. Use Fx button. Data source: Workflow Variables and Parameters. Select Field from source: Variable: NextYearBDayStr. Select Return field as: As Date/Time. Figure 26: Variable: NextYearBDayStr 32. Click in the area below the box that contains the statement and start typing Update List Item action and select it. 33. Click the this list text to display the Update List Item dialog. Click the Add button then select the drop down for Set this field: and select the NextBDay field. In the To this value: field, click the Fx button. Select Data source: as Workflow Variables and Parameters. Select Field from source: as Variable: NextBDate. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 15 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 27: Update List Item 34. Click OK, three times. Go to the ribbon and click the Publish button. We have created our customized list and the workflow for our employee birthday calendar. Our final step will be to get our employees birthdays updated each year by using SharePoint s document retention settings to cause our workflow to run every year, six months after their birthday. Set Up the Document Retention Settings Steps: 1. Go back to your Employee Birthday Calendar. Select List tab. Select List Settings button. Select Information management policy settings. Figure 1: Information management policy settings 2. Select Content Type - Item. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 16 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 2: Retention Stage 3. Check the Enable Retention checkbox. Select Add a retention stage link. In the Event button set Time Period as NextBDay plus 6 months. In the Action section choose Start a Workflow from the drop down. Select Start this workflow: set as Next Birthday. Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 17 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com
Figure 3: Stage to activate 4. Click OK twice and return to the List Based Retention schedule page. Now you have created a way to track employee birthdays with out of the box tools in SharePoint. You could easily adapt this process to managing employee anniversaries as well. We d love to hear from you. We re always available at Shepherd@SharePointShepherd.com Copyright 2016 AvailTek LLC - 18 - Visit www.sharepointshepherd.com