SharePoint 2013 Workflows Architecture Presented by Srini

Thank you MICROSOFT MANIACS USER GROUP SPONSOR(S) AUDIENCE

About me AUTHOR 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

agenda ARCHITECTURE DETAILS YOUR DEVELOPMENT MACHINE FOR WORKFLOWS DEMO

comparison

2010 vs 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 SharingContentEventsPeople Visual Studio SharePoint Designer SharePoint 2010 WF _API (REST OM) Workflow Services Manager Service Bus InstancesInterop DeploymentMessaging WF Service Application Proxy Workflow Manager OAuth Access Control Workflow Client

SharePoint 2013 and Workflow Service SharingContentEventsPeople Visual Studio SharePoint Designer SharePoint 2010 WF _API (REST OM) Workflow Services Manager Service Bus InstancesInterop DeploymentMessaging WF Service Application Proxy Workflow Manager OAuth Access Control Workflow Client

architecture

IMPROVEMENTS

Introducing “Stages” 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

Workflows in designer Improved visual designer 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 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 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

Designer vs visual studio SharePoint DesignerVisual Studio ReusabilityCreate reusable WFCreate WF templates Include in SP App Custom Code Custom ActionsConsume, not createYes; underlying activities Visio Integration Debugging

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

Workflow Backend SharePoint Tasks Instances _API 123 GET /…/web/siteuserinfolist/items?$filter=id eq {0} Site Users POST /…/web/lists(guid'{0}')/reservelistitemid 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) Service Bus

Workflow Backend SharePoint Tasks Instances _API 123 Site Users REST/OData message format Retry on failure Repeatable (idempotent) Create, Read, Update and Delete Merge update with conflict resolution (HTTP ETag) Service Bus

Workflow Backend SharePoint Tasks Instances _API Site Users Workflow Frontend Service Bus Messages

Workflow Backend SharePoint Tasks Instances _API Site Users Workflow Frontend Service Bus Messages

Farm Node

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

Configure

Register-SPWorkflowService –SPSite “ –WorkflowHostUri “ – AllowOAuthHttp

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 – 1. Need a very quick solution 2. Find the actor information from local first and additional information from IMDB 3. Send financial information to the producer 4. Monitor if the finance statement is approved 5. Send daily schedule and notes to the actors 6. Learn if the actors have any schedule conflicts or questions on the notes and are reviewed and approved 7. Maintain all the notes and finance statements in one website and invite the producer, actors and crew to collaborate on the overall progress. 8. Use the provided Visio if possible to build the workflow

actors Leo Actor, Producer SP Role: Designer, Visio Expert Ann Actress, Producer SP Role: Content Owner, Reviewer Jenny Actress SP Role: Content Owner, Approver Actor, Director SP Role: Site 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 features Use the provided Visio diagram

Migrating from 2010 to 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.

questions, thank you and my

USEFUL DOWNLOADS / links SharePoint Designer 2013 – What's new in WF in 2013 – Getting Started - Develop using VS Setup configure WF Manger - Workflow Manager