Hello,

You can now set approval status and check-out status programmatically using Smart Action Pro, as part of your business process automation. Using Update list item and Create list item action types, you can set the values of the special pseudo-columns:

• Approved - yes/no. Sets the approval status to either Approved (yes) or Rejected (no)
• Check-in (in document libraries only) - yes/no. Sets the check-in status to either Checked-in (yes) or Checked-out (no)

Yes/no value allows for a wide variety of possible inputs, for instance, in English, you can use words such as yes, true, ok, approve, affirmative and so on. The built-in support for French, German and Spanish provides similar terms. You can also map to any yes/no column by either selecting it in the value builder or simply typing in column name surrounded by square brackets (e.g. [Approve Order]).

The Update list items action can update multiple items (based on filter), located in any list of the current site collection. As with any action, it can be executed in response to events (such as items added, modified or deleted), based on timer (such as approve automatically items one week after creation) or manually, using execution columns, context menus or ribbon button (the latter two are not available in SharePoint 2007).

You can also set approval and check-in comments by setting textual values or expressions to the relevant fields.

The current approval status can also be used in conditions and filter, in this case it expects a status name in the local language of the site, such as Approved, Rejected or Pending. For instance, you can use it to send notifications to item supervisors if an item has not be approved within the predefined time period. For the similar purpose with check-in stauts use Check Out To field (which holds the user to whom the document is current checked out), for instance, check that Check Out To field Equals blank value to make sure the document is not currently checked out.

These new capabilities give you even more power and control to successfully transform your SharePoint server into a real application development platform.