What is a good strategy for automatically approving a list submission after a set period of time?

Question

I have a custom sharepoint list that requires approval from a specific group before an item is shown to everyone who has access to the list.

I received a request to have all items be automatically approved if they have not been approved or rejected after five days of the item's creation. My institution hosts the sharepoint site, but I have administrative access through Sharepoint designer.

Can anyone suggest a strategy for accomplishing this requirement?

Answer 1

You should bind a SharePoint Designer workflow with the list, make it to run on Item Creation and use Pause until Date or Pause for Duration action.. Make it to pause for 5 days then put a condition where you check either the Item is approved/rejected.. If not than approve it by updating the Approval field...

See this for all Actions available in SharePoint Designer Workflow
See this for all Conditions available in SharePoint Designer Workflow

If you can perform development, you can also write a Timer Job for this purpose... Make it to run each day in off hours and iterate through the list for whom the Approval/Rejection is not done and make the decision based on Created field...

Good Strategy: I will myself go for Timer Job as it will be more feasible for me as a developer! May not be your case...