Getting Error while submitting approval process through Trigger

Question

I am using custom button to submit for approval process. In the custom button I am validating lot conditions usin gJavascript API, if everything satifies then it will change the Status = Under approval.

Based on the Status field value, in trigger i am submitting the record for approval process.

trigger code:

if(obj.Status__c == 'Under Approval' && obj.Status__c != oldobj.Status__c) {
    Approval.ProcessSubmitRequest req1 = new Approval.ProcessSubmitRequest();
    req1.setComments('Submitting request for approval automatically using Trigger');
    req1.setObjectId(obj.id);
    Approval.ProcessResult result = Approval.process(req1);
}

error Message:

Trigger.Custom_Object_Trigger: line 14, column 1 19:42:19.479 (1479053000)|FATAL_ERROR|System.DmlException: Process failed. First exception on row 0; first error: ALREADY_IN_PROCESS, Cannot submit object already in process.: []

Could you please me know why this error is coming?

Answer 1

The reason you're getting this error message is because you cannot submit a record which is already in the approval process. And the reason I think it is getting submitted again is because this trigger is getting called more than once which might be caused by a workflow field update etc.

So to avoid this error message you can use a static variable, set it to false after the records is submitted. Check for this static varaible in the if () condition and that should do the trick.

public class UtilClass{
    public static boolean isSubmitted=false;
}

in your Trigger you can do something like this:

if(obj.Status__c == 'Under Approval' && obj.Status__c != oldobj.Status__c &&  !UtilClass.isSubmitted) {
    Approval.ProcessSubmitRequest req1 = new Approval.ProcessSubmitRequest();
    req1.setComments('Submitting request for approval automatically using Trigger');
    req1.setObjectId(obj.id);
    Approval.ProcessResult result = Approval.process(req1);
    UtilClass.isSubmitted = true;
}

From your code it looks like you have not bulkified the trigger for submitting the approvals. I think you should probably look into that as well. :)