SharePoint Approval Workflow Question

Question

I have SharePoint site with publishing features enabled. I have a custom content type with the out of the box approval workflow configured. In the Workflow settings, the final option to "Update the approval status (use this workflow to control content approval)" has been checked. The lists on which the content type is configured do not have the "require content approval" option selected.

My question: is it necessary to "Update the approval status" option checked to enjoy the benefit of content approval?

All content added to the lists needs to be approved but this configuration appears to be causing an error on the workflows. The approval aspect works correctly but then each workflow errors: "An error has occured in Approval Workflow". I have read that this is because of the configuration described above. For the record, the ULS logs show this error:

Workflow Infrastructure
98d4 Unexpected System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: name at System.Resources.ResourceManager.GetString(String name, CultureInfo culture) at Microsoft.Office.Workflow.LocUtil.GetResourceString(SPWeb web, String resourceId) at Microsoft.Office.Workflow.ReviewRouting.SetItemMetadata(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Activity.RaiseEvent(DependencyProperty dependencyEvent, Object sender, EventArgs e) at Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.LogToHistoryListActivity.Execute(ActivityExecutionContext context) at System.Workflow.ComponentModel.ActivityExecutor1.Execute(T activity, ActivityExecutionContext executionContext) at System.Workflow.ComponentModel.ActivityExecutor1.Execute(Activity activity, ActivityExecutionContext ...

Answer 1

Judging by the error and with the information on the custom content type you provided, the code might be trying to apply globalization the custom content-type column or any other column and:

• you have language packs intalled not synced with the current version
• you have only the language pack for say, MOSS and not WSS installed for the language
• your current installation is missing the correct resx file for some other reason

Check if your current version has any hotfixes ahead of it (or service packs), sync all the language packs if you haven't and see if that helps.

Answer 2

For reference, this is what i've found:

For the approval functionality to work correctly, the list should have:

• "Require Content Approval" option checked (this option is available in Versioning Settings for the list).
• In the workflow configuration, check the "Update the approval status (use this workflow to control content approval)" option.

If the workflow is configured to control content approval but the list does not have content approval configured on it, SharePoint generates the above error.