Intro to Declarative Workflows in SharePoint Daryl Rasmussen, MCSD (.NET), MSTS (Moss 2007), MCSD (SP 2010) Calgary SharePoint Users Group

Agenda  What is a Workflow?  Applying Workflows in SharePoint  Why Workflow?  Pick a Format  Some Best Practices  What if it “can’t be done”…

What is a Workflow?  A set of operations to be performed based on some event  Lists/Libraries support Add & Update event driven WF  In 2010 and beyond, Site Workflows can be scheduled  Either can spawn another workflow  For our purposes today, declarative based (i.e. “no code” solutions)  SharePoint Designer and similar tools  Visio…

Applying Workflows In SharePoint  Introduced in MOSS 2007  Extended and Enhanced in SP 2010  New options in SP 2013  Expected to continue to be supported in SP 2016  Works both on premise and on-line (O365 and in Azure)  Available in WSS 3.0 / SharePoint Foundation as well as Enterprise editions

Some Limitations:  Not cross-farms, not cross-site collections, generally not cross sites  Lists only in MOSS 2007  Timer bound, not instantaneous  Only one instance per WF at a time  On Add & Update, but not on Delete  Not everything theoretically possible is supported  state based versus sequential workflow  no looping (pre 2013)  no access to external systems, files, etc.

Why Workflow?  Business Process Automation  Document Approval – from simple to complex  Employee self-service forms – e.g. Vacation Requests  Annual Policy Acknowledgements  Meta-data assignment – for example based on content type, folder, library or document set location, file type, etc.  Assignment of values to hidden fields – e.g. Title, calculated hyperlinks to related info  More complex calculations / string assignments – there are some things that you can’t do in a calculated column  Notifications – beyond the simple “Alert Me” stuff  Copy data between lists – for security reasons or to implement a drop box  A “No Code” solution – easier to deploy (especially in O365), can be done by power users

3 Types:  List Workflow – tied to a specific list or library  Reusable Workflow – a generic one that can be associated with any list or library  Several built in ones created by Microsoft that are installed by default (Collect Feedback, Approval, etc.)  For reusable workflow you can not edit current list custom columns directly. But you can update an item in a specific list (including the current one) by passing current Item ID.  Site Workflows – something that is not associated with any list, but can be scheduled to run periodically.

Pick a Format  MOSS 2007 => SharePoint Designer 2007  SharePoint 2010 => SharePoint Designer 2010  SharePoint 2013 => SharePoint Designer 2013 using SP 2013 WorkFlow Engine (if enabled) OR using SP 2010 WorkFlow Engine (enabled by default on prem)  Look at your process needs  2010 has some actions not continued in 2013 (see refs)  2010 lets you “run as” workflow owner, in 2013 you have to  2013 introduced looping, better control of , “re-usable workflows”, some new actions (see refs)  If it makes no difference, use 2013 format for forward compatibility  Note that you can invoke a SP 2010 workflow from a SP 2013 one…  SharePoint 2016 => TBD, but expect either SPD 2016 will be co-released, or a patch for SPD 2013 will enable it to talk to SP2016  Third Party Tools: K2, Nintex, etc.  Use them if you can, even if you don’t need to, IMHO  Don’t overlook InfoPath: together with WF the two can provide a lot of functionality without code

Some Best Practices  Set a Debug flag as the first thing you do  Later if you need to you can introduce “If Debug = True” processing statements  Declare (and initialize) all your variables up front – easier to find (and change initial values) if you don’t have to scroll through pages of rules to find them  Write to the Workflow History Log often  Read who to send notices to from a separate list (so you don’t have to republish your workflow when this changes)  Have both debug and production values for recipients  Break your workflow up into manageable “chunks”  More than a “screen-full” is hard to trace  Name your “chunks” – Step 1 is not meaningful…  Launching another workflow has pros and cons  If you use “run as” option in 2010, create a service account to publish with

What if it “can’t be done” declaratively?  Be creative –  If you can’t calculate it, can you keep track of it instead? (ref my blog “You can Count On it!”, parts 1, 2 & 3)You can Count On it!  If you can’t loop, can you launch another wf which in turn launches this one again?  Use the “Call Web Service” action  Exchange.asmx, other existing services  Write one of your or own for just that bit  On Prem, you may have more options:  Download and install the HarePoint WorkFlow Extensions 30 day trial version  Includes about 20 actions for free for ever, including much better than the built-in SPD string manipulations  Purchase a 3 rd Party Add On that gives you an Action you are missing and need  Write your own WorkFlow Action in Visual Studio for just that one bit…  Take a look at the “Run Powershell Script” action from HarePoint  If all else fails, write the whole thing in.NET

Using Visio to create the WF  Allows you to set up the “flow” but not the details. For example, there’s a shape for “Send ” but no way in Visio to set the properties like the subject, body, recipients  So you still have to use SPD to complete it

References/Discussion  Discontinued Actions in SPD 2013: us/library/office/jj aspxhttps://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/office/jj aspx  New Workflow Actions in SPD 2013: us/library/office/jj aspxhttps://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/office/jj aspx  Get a value from another list based on a value in this workflow (lookups): a-sharepoint-designer-workflow/ a-sharepoint-designer-workflow/  Create a workflow with elevated permissions by using the SharePoint 2013 Workflow platform:  How to Start a SharePoint 2010 Workflow Within a SharePoint 2013 Workflow Using SharePoint Designer 2013: sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/anavijai/how-to-start-a-sharepoint workflow-within-a-sharepoint/ sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/anavijai/how-to-start-a-sharepoint workflow-within-a-sharepoint/

Some Vendors…  KwizCom Workflow Activity Toolkit KwizCom Workflow Activity Toolkit  HarePoint Workflow Extensions HarePoint Workflow Extensions  Virto SharePoint Workflow Activities Extensions Virto SharePoint Workflow Activities Extensions  K2 K2  Nintex Nintex  Don’t be afraid to check Google for more options…Google

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