Moving items in Content Editor bypasses Workflow in Sitecore

Question

Let's say that we have a bunch of items that are already published, meaning that their workflow status must be something like _final. When we move those items from a folder to another in the Content Editor, the workflow status remains the same.

However, I would prefer those items moved from a folder to another folder checked, not just showing those contents to public without any controls.

Is it possible to set the workflow status to something like _Draft so that the user must start their workflow from the beginning when they move their items (contents) to other folders?

Answer 1

You should make use of the event item:moved. In this pipeline, when the item has already been moved, you can update the workflow state.

public void OnItemMovedEvent(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
    var eventArgs = args as SitecoreEventArgs;

    if (eventArgs == null)
    {
        return;
    }

    var item = eventArgs.Parameters[0] as Item;

    // Apply some logics to see if item workflow should be updated

    using (new Sitecore.SecurityModel.SecurityDisabler())
    {       
        item.Editing.BeginEdit();
        item.Fields["__Workflow state"].Value = "{190B1C84-F1BE-47ED-AA41-F42193D9C8FC}";
        item.Editing.EndEdit();     
    }
}

Note that I am assuming you are using the Sample Workflow. If you are using a custom one, you need to update the ID at the statement

item.Fields["__Workflow state"].Value = "{190B1C84-F1BE-47ED-AA41-F42193D9C8FC}";

Once completed, you need to add it to the item event pipeline via config file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <events>
        <event name="item:saved">
            <handler type="YourNamespace.ClassName,YourAssembly" method="OnItemMovedEvent" />
        </event>
    </events>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>