SharePoint 2010 – Send the URL of the current item with a workflow using SharePoint Designer

I know the best practices to develop a workflow is to use Visual Studio and deploy it within a solution.

But sometime, it’s better (and simpler) to use SharePoint Designer

In this case, I wanted to send an specific formatted email to some users (the item creator and 2 administrators) when an item is created and/or updated.

In this email, apart of other details, I wanted to provided the link to the new item.

So I opened SharePoint Designer and start creating the workflow associated to the list.

As there is some Field from source related to current item URL I start using it

• Encoded Absolute URL – this one should be the one to use
• Server Relative URL
• URL Path

Unfortunately, none of these options were providing the correct link. Indeed, these options are providing an incorrect path:

As you can see, the item URL is composed by an ID while it should be http://webappurl/Lists/Demo/dispform.aspx?id=<item ID>

So, to obtain the correct item URL, you must use the following Lookup

• Data source: Workflow Context
• Field from source: Current Item URL