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Using Microsoft SharePoint to Develop Workflow and Business Process Automation Ted Perrotte National Practice Manager, Quilogy, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) Solutions tperrotte@quilogy.com
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Agenda Workflow Overview Workflow Types Demonstration Out of the box workflows SharePoint Designer Demo Q&A
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Real world workflow opportunities… Expense reports Purchase requests Performance Reviews Customer Quotes Document assembly (collaboration) Legal review and compliance Document Retention Policies Notifications Project Task Assignments Help Desk solutions Change Request management Approvals Many others…
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Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) Windows Workflow Foundation is the programming model, engine and tool for quickly building workflow enabled applications It consists of a.NET Framework version 3.0 namespace, an in-process workflow engine, and designers for Visual Studio SharePoint extends the WF with specific activities and SharePoint Designer
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Overview The workflow process can control almost any aspect of an item, including the life cycle of that item Workflow is flexible enough to model both the system functions and the human actions necessary for the workflow to complete Workflow functionality is provided through the Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) run-time engine Developers can create custom workflows that run in Windows SharePoint Services & MOSS Developers can use custom workflow forms to gather information from users
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Workflow Basic Concepts Each Workflow consists of a set of related activities An “activity” is the elemental unit of modeling, programmability, reuse, and execution within WF An “activity” may be performed by the system or by a user Activities can represent logical control structures (if then…do while…) Activities can have properties, methods, and events Simple Activities perform a single unit of work (e.g. “Delay for 1 day”) Composite Activities contain other activities (e.g. a condition with 2 branches) You can attach “handlers” (such as error handlers) to activities
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Conceptual View of Workflow Framework Diagram from Microsoft.com
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Conceptual View of Workflow Framework Diagram from Microsoft.com
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Sequential & State Workflows Sequential workflows: a procession of steps that execute in order until the last activity completes State machine workflows Represents a set of states, transitions, and actions. One state is denoted as the start state, and then, based on an event, a transition can be made to another state. The state machine can have a final state that determines the end of the workflow
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Sequential Workflow Sample Flowchart Diagram from Microsoft.com
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Interaction points in Workflow Lifecycle Association Initiation * Modification Task * *SharePoint Designer
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Initiating Workflows Workflow can be started manually (user) Workflow can be configured to run automatically when a document or item is changed. Workflow can be configured to run automatically when a document or item is created
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Basic Types of Workflows MOSS “Out of the Box” Workflows SharePoint Designer Workflows Visual Studio Custom Workflows
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MOSS “Out of the Box” Workflows Approval Collect Feedback Collect Signatures Disposition Approval
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SharePoint Designer Workflows Use Designer for declarative, rules-based workflows that contain no code, and are developed against a specific SharePoint site What’s actually produced is a sequential workflow with conditions expressed using the WF rules engine Designer uses a “wizard driven” interface that enables users to assemble sequential workflows
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SharePoint Designer Workflows Users select from a predetermined set of activities Activities appear as “actions”, represented by a sentence that contains variables Users can select conditions Workflow markup, workflow rules, and supporting files are stored, uncompiled, in a specific document library on the site
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SharePoint Designer Workflows As the user creates a Designer workflow, SharePoint generates two files: Workflow markup file—which describes the activities Workflow rules file—which contains the business logic in declarative rules form, rather than code
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Limitations of Designer Workflows Can only produce sequential workflows (can’t create State Based workflows) Designer workflows can’t be modified while they’re running Workflows must be authored against a specific document library or list Association happens when the workflow is authored Automatically generates ASP.NET forms for Initiation & Task Completion—not association or modification
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SharePoint Designer Screenshot Screenshot from Microsoft.
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Features of Visual Studio Workflows Can write workflows for WSS or MOSS Code-behind file enables developer to write custom Visual C# or VB.NET code to express business logic Generates workflow markup file Workflow is authored as a template, which can be associated with multiple sites and lists Workflow markup file, or markup and code-behind files, are compiled into workflow assembly
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Features of Visual Studio Workflows Workflow templates must be associated with each list on which it is to be available (not automatic) Can use any forms technology (e.g. ASP forms for WSS workflows, or InfoPath Forms for MOSS workflows) Can include workflow modifications Can use custom symmetrical InfoPath forms, which enable Office client integration of custom workflow forms
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Features of Visual Studio Workflows Can author custom activities for inclusion in workflows package, workflow assembly and workflow definition as a SharePoint feature, and deploy to the site Can use Initiation form to gather information from the user when starting the workflow Can use custom forms for users to interact with SharePoint tasks Visual Studio debugging available Can author both sequential and state workflows
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Key SharePoint related workflow “Activities” OnWorkflowActivated CreateTask (this has a SendEmailNotification property that can be set to true…) OnTaskChanged CompleteTask DeleteTask OnWorkflowModified SendEmail LogToHistoryList
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Visual Studio Workflow Interface
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Demonstration
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Reference links and related information A list of all WF activities can be found at: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms733615(vs.85).aspx Overview of MOSS Workflow Development using Visual Studio http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms580283.aspx General information can be found on the Microsoft site, MSDN, TechNet, or contact the Quilogy team! Contact us: tperrotte@quilogy.comtperrotte@quilogy.com Office2007@quilogy.com
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