SharePoint 2013 Workflows Architecture Presented by Srini Sistla @srinisistla

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about me AUTHOR SPEAKER BLOGGER Pro SharePoint 2013 Business Intelligence (Apress) Pro SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence (Apress) Pro SharePoint Migration (Apress) SharePoint 2013 Development Machine ** (Self Published) SPEAKER INETA, SharePoint Saturday, CAPAREA.NET, SUGDC BLOGGER SHAREPOINT 2010 ARCHITECT / CONSULTANT / SME about me

agenda ARCHITECTURE DETAILS YOUR DEVELOPMENT MACHINE FOR WORKFLOWS DEMO agenda

comparison

2010 vs. 2013 SharePoint 2010 hosted the Workflow Foundation (WF) workflow runtime Tightly coupled workflow to SharePoint 2010 Workflow data kept in SharePoint content databases Challenges: Designed for on-premise deployments (scale) In SharePoint, extending WF meant you had to be a box admin Analytics on current/previous workflow instances hard to acquire Executed in the context of SharePoint as super user Workflow now treated as a service in SharePoint 2013 Moved to Windows Azure Workflow No longer runs in the content farm No longer runs on SharePoint WFE / App servers Harnesses the latest workflow technology from Microsoft Windows Azure Workflow available for on-prem deployments Improves stability, scalability & transparency

architecture SharePoint SharePoint Designer Visual Studio OAuth Access Control Visual Studio SharePoint Designer SharePoint Events Content People Sharing 2010 WF _API (REST OM) Workflow Manager Workflow Services Manager Workflow Client Instances Interop Service Bus Deployment Messaging WF Service Application Proxy architecture

SharePoint 2013 and Workflow Service OAuth Access Control Visual Studio SharePoint Designer SharePoint Events Content People Sharing 2010 WF _API (REST OM) Workflow Manager Workflow Services Manager Workflow Client Instances Interop Service Bus Deployment Messaging WF Service Application Proxy

architecture

IMPROVEMENTS Rapid design with the Visual and Text-Based Designers Copy & Paste in the Text-Based Designer New “Assign A Task” & “Start a Task Process” actions Do “App-Level” operations with App Step NEARLY 50 NEW/IMPROVED FEATURES AND ACTIONS THIS RELEASE!!!! Stages! Looping! Enhanced portability & packaging through WSP and VSDX files Enhanced parallel blocks Leverage web services(HTTP/REST) Complex data types with ‘Dictionary’ variables Support classic 2010 workflow type and interoperability Full integration with Project Server workflows

IMPROVEMENTS Enhanced parallel blocks Do “App-Level” operations with App Step Leverage web services(HTTP/REST) Copy & Paste in the Text-Based Designer Stages! Rapid design with the Visual and Text-Based Designers Complex data types with ‘Dictionary’ variables Looping! New “Assign A Task” & “Start a Task Process” actions Enhanced portability & packaging through WSP and VSDX files Support classic 2010 workflow type and interoperability Full integration with Project Server workflows NEARLY 50 NEW/IMPROVED FEATURES AND ACTIONS THIS RELEASE!!!!

IMPROVEMENTS Rapid design with the Visual and Text-Based Designers Copy & Paste in the Text-Based Designer New “Assign A Task” & “Start a Task Process” actions Do “App-Level” operations with App Step NEARLY 50 NEW/IMPROVED FEATURES AND ACTIONS THIS RELEASE!!!! Stages! Looping! Enhanced portability & packaging through WSP and VSDX files Enhanced parallel blocks Leverage web services(HTTP/REST) Complex data types with ‘Dictionary’ variables Support classic 2010 workflow type and interoperability Full integration with Project Server workflows

IMPROVEMENTS Introducing “Stages” Declarative workflows have loops Provides support for repeating & skipping workflow steps Declarative workflows have loops Loop # times / with condition / with expression Declarative workflows can call REST/SOAP services SharePoint 2010 required developers when: Call SharePoint API Connect & query databases Consume feeds (ATOM / REST) Call Web Services / REST SharePoint 2013 enables workflow authors to do all this declaratively IMPROVEMENTS

Workflows in designer Improved visual designer Stages & Loops Integrated the Visio designer into SharePoint Can switch between visual designer & sentence-style Editable properties helper Stages & Loops Calling REST Web Services Designer supports cut / copy / paste / undo / redo / select-all Improved email editor (rich formatting) Each stage has an entry point & gate Gate: conditional transition point where workflow exits Underlying core in WF4 flow step in a flowchart Can contain multiple steps Mitigates SharePoint Designer loop limitations Workflows in designer

Workflows in visual studio Can create WF 3.5 or WF 4 workflows For WF 4, Azure Workflow required For WF 3.5, see Workflow Interop Bridge… Focus is around declarative workflows Push custom code logic to Web services Programmatic workflows still possible, but only in Windows Azure Workflow Workflow tools: SharePoint Designer & Visual Studio Workflows in visual studio

Designer vs visual studio SharePoint Designer Visual Studio Reusability Create reusable WF Create WF templates Include in SP App Custom Code Custom Actions Consume, not create Yes; underlying activities Visio Integration Debugging Designer vs visual studio

Interop bridge Enables SharePoint 2010 workflows to work in 2013 Execution engine hosted in SharePoint 2013 Interop bridge: Negotiates between two execution engines (SP2010 & SP2013) Delegates SP2010 workflows to SharePoint from WAWS Invoke SP2010 workflow action from WAWS with InvokeSharePointWorkflow action

INTEROP BRIDGE

Processing SharePoint Workflow Backend Service Bus SPC2012 - Developer 12/31/2018 Processing SharePoint Workflow Backend Assign Task GET 1 _API Lookup User POST 2 Reserve Task Id Site Users Tasks POST 3 Create Task GET /…/web/siteuserinfolist/items?$filter=id eq {0} POST /…/web/lists(guid'{0}')/reservelistitemid Persist Service Bus POST /…/web/lists(guid'{0}')/items REST/OData message format Retry on failure Repeatable (idempotent) Create, Read, Update and Delete Merge update with conflict resolution (HTTP ETag) Instances © 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries. The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

Processing SharePoint Workflow Frontend Workflow Backend Service Bus SPC2012 - Developer 12/31/2018 Processing SharePoint Workflow Frontend Workflow Backend Assign Task (cont) _API Register Interest Wait For Notification Site Users Tasks … Service Bus Receive & Persist Messages Instances © 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries. The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

Collocated Topology Farm Node Farm Node Farm Node SharePoint WF Manager Farm Node Database load balancer SharePoint WF Manager Farm Node SharePoint WF Manager Collocated Topology

Federated Topology SP Farm 1 Workflow Cluster SP Farm 2 Workflow Client Workflow Cluster load balancer SP Farm 2 Each SP farm targets a different Workflow Manager scope Independent security realms Workflow Client Federated Topology

Configure

Configure

Configure

Configure

Configure Register-SPWorkflowService –SPSite “http://sp/sites/awfs” –WorkflowHostUri “http://sp:12291” –AllowOAuthHttp Configure

demo how-to?

business requirement A very famous actor, and producer wants to direct movie. He wants to engage, collaborate and send information to his cast and crew in timely fashion. His tech Manager delivers views in Visio diagram. Requirements at high level are – Need a very quick solution Find the actor information from local first and additional information from IMDB Send financial information to the producer Monitor if the finance statement is approved Send daily schedule and notes to the actors Learn if the actors have any schedule conflicts or questions on the notes and are reviewed and approved Maintain all the notes and finance statements in one website and invite the producer, actors and crew to collaborate on the overall progress . Use the provided Visio if possible to build the workflow

actors Will Leo Ann Jenny Actor, Director SP Role: Site Owner, Approver Actor, Producer SP Role: Designer, Visio Expert Actress, Producer SP Role: Content Owner, Reviewer Actress SP Role: Content Owner, Approver

Solution Leverage SharePoint 2013 out of the box features as much as possible for Quick and Rapid App Development and delivery Use SharePoint Designer 2013 workflows and in specific HTTP/REST Web Services Use Dictionary Variables Assign A Task Stages Demonstrate on the list what stage of the workflow currently the status is in Use new Email features Use the provided Visio diagram

Migrating from 2010 to 2013 2013 is based on new architecture – Workflow Manager Runs on Workflow Foundation 4 Declarative and is in XAML Format 2010 workflows run as-is on 2013 platform Recreate them if you need to use them Use workflow interop – allows 2010 workflows to run within 2013.

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USEFUL DOWNLOADS / links SharePoint Designer 2013 – http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35491 What's new in WF in 2013 – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219638.aspx Getting Started - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj227177.aspx Develop using VS 2012 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163199.aspx Setup configure WF Manger - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163276.aspx Workflow Manager 1.0 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj193528.aspx USEFUL DOWNLOADS / links