Office Business Applications Workshop Defining Business Process and Workflows

Office Business Applications Workshop Lesson 3 – Windows Workflow Foundation Introducing workflows and the Windows Workflow Foundation The WF Runtime Engine and Services Workflow Basics and Terminology

Office Business Applications Workshop Encapsulated logic for coordinating business processes Provides abstractions to model real world processes Valuable for modeling long running and stateful behavior Workflows in WF are decomposed into activities What are workflows? Sequential workflows modeled as flowchart State machine workflow modeled as state diagram

Office Business Applications Workshop Sample Business Process

Office Business Applications Workshop Simplified Business Process

Office Business Applications Workshop Windows WorkFlow Foundation Single workflow technology for Windows Extensible framework & toolset Base for Microsoft products and customer solutions Transform workflow from niche to mainstream paradigm Exposed to developers via.NET 3.0

Office Business Applications Workshop Host Process Windows Workflow Foundation WF Runtime Engine And Services WF Base Activity Library My custom workflow Runtime Services: pluggable implementations with defaults Persistence Communication Tracking … … Runtime Engine: provides intrinsic behaviors to activities Tracking Infrastructure State Management State Management Workflow Execution Dynamic Update Dynamic Update

Office Business Applications Workshop Workflow Basics Custom Workflow consists out of one or more activities Activity Libraries WF Base Activity Library SharePoint Activity Library Custom Libraries Activity is a class Events/Properties Methods called by WF Runtime engine WF created using Visual Studio.NET Deployed as.NET assembly

Office Business Applications Workshop Workflow Terminology Template Feature scoped at the site collection Defines the forms and association options Association Created when connecting template with container or content type Stores parameter info for the workflow Instance Created at the moment the workflow is started Instance of association, not of template Workflow instances run as System Account! Workflow Task –Human-based interventions stored as normal task items in a task list –Internally linked with the instance –Notify instance when changes occur –Can be associated with custom task form Workflow History Item –Logging of events in history list –Normal list items with Workflow specific meta-data like instance id, association id, etc…

Office Business Applications Workshop Workflow in SharePoint and the Office Clients

Office Business Applications Workshop Lesson 4 – Building Custom Workflows Workflow Life Cycle Your Options for Creating Custom Workflows Custom Workflows with the Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Custom Workflows with Visual Studio 2005

Office Business Applications Workshop WorkFlow Life Cycle Developer develops a workflow template. Server box administrator deploys the template to a site collection. List administrator associates a workflow template with a list or content type on that site collection to create a new association. User starts an instance of a workflow association on an item (or workflow instance starts automatically on event). Workflow executes, perhaps creating some tasks and history items on the Tasks and Workflow History lists specified in the association.

Office Business Applications Workshop Workflow Authoring for Office 2007 SharePoint Designer for corporate Web designers SharePoint Designer for corporate Web designers Activities Re-use OOB/deployed activities Activities Re-use OOB/deployed activities Forms Autogenerated Forms -ASPX Forms Autogenerated Forms -ASPX Deployment Workflow authored live against server Runtime compilation Deployment Workflow authored live against server Runtime compilation Development Model Wizard-based workflow designer Development Model Wizard-based workflow designer Visual Studio Workflow Designer for professional developers Visual Studio Workflow Designer for professional developers Activities Re-use OOB/deployed activities Can author new activities Activities Re-use OOB/deployed activities Can author new activities Forms Designed Forms -InfoPath -ASPX Forms Designed Forms -InfoPath -ASPX Deployment Solutions package generated Box administrator installable Deployment Solutions package generated Box administrator installable Development Model Visual workflow designer Development Model Visual workflow designer

Office Business Applications Workshop Visual Studio & Workflow SDK Out-of-the-Box Solutions (with customization) SharePoint Designer Workflows Document Review (parallel) Document Approval (serial) Custom Routing Structured Ad Hoc Signature Collection Server Features List Moderation Publishing Process Document Expiration Translation Process Ringi (eApproval) Task & Issue Tracking (WSS, Access, & Project) LOB Integration (BizTalk) Custom Form Actions Notification Exception Handling Document Processes Spec Review Weekly Status Report Custom Tracking Apps Service Requests Asset Tracking Purchase Order Processing Scenarios

Office Business Applications Workshop The Workflow Designer

Office Business Applications Workshop Workflows with the Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007

Office Business Applications Workshop Five Steps to Develop a VS.NET Workflow 1.Model your workflow in Visual Studio 2.Create and bind your forms 3.Code your workflow 4.Deploy your workflow to the server 5.Debug Before you start Install the VS.NET Extensions for WF Install the ECM Starter Kit

Office Business Applications Workshop Custom Workflows with Visual Studio 2005

Office Business Applications Workshop What you have learned Workflow definition Workflows in OBA applications are running with the help of the Windows Workflow Foundation Custom workflows can be build with Microsoft products but don’t forget that there are some very good third- party products that built on top of everything you saw

Office Business Applications Workshop