1. http://www.sharepointmn.com Welcome to the Minnesota SharePoint User Group May 13 th, 2009 SharePoint Workflow and a Best Buy Case Study Neil Iversen Sarah Haase Meeting # 55

2. Agenda Introductions Workflow in SharePoint Break Best Buy Case Study Q&A Drawings !! http://www.sharepointmn.com

3. User Group Goal / Objectives Develop and support a local community focused on Microsoft SharePoint Technologies Educate user group members about SharePoint Technologies Transfer knowledge within the community Communicate best practices Introduce new products / solutions http://www.sharepointmn.com

4. Introductions – MNSPUG Sponsors Inetium (www.inetium.com)www.inetium.com Technology consulting company Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Practice area focused on SharePoint New Horizons – Minnesota (www.newhorizonsmn.com)www.newhorizonsmn.com Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Training on many technologies Microsoft (www.microsoft.com)www.microsoft.com http://www.sharepointmn.com

5. www.sharepointmn.com Website for user group SharePoint resource documents SharePoint resource links RSS Feeds Meeting Schedule Past User Group Presentations info@sharepointmn.com www.sharepointmn.com http://www.sharepointmn.com

6. Upcoming Schedule Next Meeting June 10 th 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM Topics – Check www.sharepointmn.com for updates!:www.sharepointmn.com Unification of Business Data and Documents Ongoing Schedule 2 nd Wednesday of every month 9:00 to 11:30 am Microsoft’s Bloomington Office http://www.sharepointmn.com

7. Happy Anniversary! May 2004 – May 2009

8. Announcements Service Pack 2 for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/04/28/announcing-service-pack-2-for-office-sharepoint- server-2007-and-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/04/28/announcing-service-pack-2-for-office-sharepoint- server-2007-and-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0.aspx April Cumulative Updates – Released this morning! http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/13/april-cumulative-update-packages-ready-for- download.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/13/april-cumulative-update-packages-ready-for- download.aspx SharePoint vNext / O14 / 2010… – Named: SharePoint Server 2010 – Preliminary Server Requirements – SharePoint Team Blog Microsoft SharePoint Designer – Training and Resources at www.LearnSPD.com http://www.LearnSPD.com http://www.LearnSPD.com Social Networking! Find MNSPUG on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn http://www.sharepointmn.com

9. Conferences SharePoint Conference 2009 – October 19-22, 2009 http://www.mssharepointconference.com Las Vegas, NV http://www.mssharepointconference.com Local Events Minneapolis Office Developer Interest Group - July http://www.sharepointmn.com/MODIG Topic: TBD

10. Presentation More Discussion

11. Outline Workflow Overview MOSS OOB Workflows SharePoint Designer Workflows Advanced Workflow Options

12. What is Workflow? In the Abstract: – Moving something from one state to another In Practice: – Telling someone to do something

13. Lists Issues Custom Documents Contract Press Release Forms Expenses Requisition Workflow

14. We’ve collected all this data…now what? Workflow! SharePoint 2007 – Perform actions against the collected data – Gather additional data – Workflow requires a List Item work against Lists Document, Form, Page and Report Libraries …

15. Basic Workflow Capabilities Ability to start a workflow – Workflows can be started automatically as well Visibility into running workflows Collection of historical workflow data – Status of approval, errors,… Stop (or Terminate) a running workflow Tight integration with Office 2007

16. AssociationInitiationRunningTermination Remove Association Workflow Lifecycle: The Cheat sheet

17. – When a workflow is associated with a list – Data can be associated with the workflow AssociationInitiationRunningTermination Remove Association

18. – When the workflow is first started on a list item – Data can be associated with the instance of the workflow AssociationInitiationRunningTermination Remove Association

19. – Status page reflects state of the workflow – User primarily interacts via Tasks AssociationInitiationRunningTermination Remove Association

20. – End an instance of workflow Finish Naturally – Approve/Deny Finish Unnaturally – Manual Termination – Error AssociationInitiationRunningTermination Remove Association

21. – No New Instances No New Workflow Instances Currently running ones are left alone Workflow isn’t actually ‘removed’ from the list A more graceful exit until Remove can be used – Remove No longer able to be run against the List or Content Type Running Instances Terminated Column Removed from List AssociationInitiationRunningTermination Remove Association

22. Where do I Associate the Workflow? List Runs on a single list Can specify List specific settings Workflow has to be associated with every list Content Type Runs in the Site Collection Only Site Collection level settings Content Type has to be associated with every list

23. Structured Ad Hoc Visual Studio and Workflow SDK Out-of-the-Box Solutions (with customization) SharePoint Designer Workflows Document Review (parallel) Document Approval (serial) Custom Routing 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 Email Notification Exception Handling Document Processes Spec Review Weekly Status Report Custom Tracking Apps Service Requests Asset Tracking Purchase Order Processing

24. Workflows – Out of the Box (MOSS) Lists and Libraries – Approval – Collect Feedback – Collect Signatures – Disposition Approval List – All above and – Three State (formerly Issue Tracking) – Translation Management

25. Demo: Our First Workflow

26. OOB Workflows – Main Limitations Limited options to change – Very powerful and well designed, but only if you need a similar scenario Dynamic User Assignment is difficult – Hard to use if different instances need different ‘approvers’

27. Structured Ad Hoc Visual Studio and Workflow SDK Out-of-the-Box Solutions (with customization) SharePoint Designer Workflows Document Review (parallel) Document Approval (serial) Custom Routing 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 Email Notification Exception Handling Document Processes Spec Review Weekly Status Report Custom Tracking Apps Service Requests Asset Tracking Purchase Order Processing

28. One Quick Form-Related Detour Finding your Manager (In InfoPath) Add a Secondary Data Connection – http://myserver/_vti_bin/UserProfile Service.asmx Call GetUserProfileByName – Pass in nothing as the AccountName Select Default Value on your Textbox – Select the Values from the Secondary Data Source Click ‘Filter Data’ – Create a condition where Name is equal to ‘Manager’ (or desired property) Enjoy!

29. SharePoint Designer 2007 Formerly Front Page 2003 Designed with SharePoint in mind Allows users to create new workflows Associate workflow to a list or library

30. Workflow Steps Group similar tasks together Defines where the workflow ‘waits’ Label for easier maintenance

31. Demo: SharePoint Designer

32. Collecting Workflow Feedback The Interactive Cheat sheet Define the data to be collected – Use names you’ll be able to find – Avoid common names like Type, Modified, etc Getting the Result – Select the Tasks list and Field – Find the item from the ‘Tasks:ID’ Saving it for the future – Use a Workflow Variable Task list where the data is Field with the information you want ID field in the Tasks list Workflow variable that contains the ID (by default collect1)

33. Demo: SharePoint Designer

34. SharePoint Designer Workflow – Main Limitations Limited set of actions – New actions can be added, but not UI elements Not (easily) Redeployable – Locked to the list instance they were created on

35. Structured Ad Hoc Visual Studio and Workflow SDK Out-of-the-Box Solutions (with customization) SharePoint Designer Workflows Document Review (parallel) Document Approval (serial) Custom Routing 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 Email Notification Exception Handling Document Processes Spec Review Weekly Status Report Custom Tracking Apps Service Requests Asset Tracking Purchase Order Processing 3 rd Party Options

36. Making a New Option Custom SharePoint Designer Actions – CodePlex SPDActivities 1 – Last Month’s MODIG 2,3 3 rd Party Workflow Offerings – Have more actions – Better UI – Additional reporting options – Examples: Nintex, K2, … 1 http://spdactivities.codeplex.com/http://spdactivities.codeplex.com/ 2 http://www.sharepointmn.com/modig/User%20Group%20Presentations/MODIG%202009-04.pptxhttp://www.sharepointmn.com/modig/User%20Group%20Presentations/MODIG%202009-04.pptx 3http://www.sharepointmn.com/modig/User%20Group%20Presentations/MODIG%202009-04-Code.ziphttp://www.sharepointmn.com/modig/User%20Group%20Presentations/MODIG%202009-04-Code.zip

37. Demo: Nintex Workflow

38. Structured Ad Hoc Visual Studio and Workflow SDK Out-of-the-Box Solutions (with customization) SharePoint Designer Workflows Document Review (parallel) Document Approval (serial) Custom Routing 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 Email Notification Exception Handling Document Processes Spec Review Weekly Status Report Custom Tracking Apps Service Requests Asset Tracking Purchase Order Processing

39. Custom.NET Workflow Bring in the Reinforcements! You are here because: – Default Flows might lack specific feature – SharePoint designer missing action – Custom data or actions needed – Existing Windows Workflow investment – State Machine workflow requirement – Expose the full power of.NET Word of Warning – There is a steep learning curve

40. Custom.NET Workflow – The Platform Windows Workflow Foundation Its not just a SharePoint Platform – Built into.NET 3.0

41. Workflow – Platform Implications Workflow now a core.NET feature – Workflow can be ‘hosted’ anywhere – SharePoint was Microsoft’s first host (CRM 4 uses it now too) Custom applications can host it as well Standardized Format – XML based file format (XOML) Widespread Availability

42. Review Workflow Overview – In 5 easy steps! MOSS OOB Workflows – What they can/can’t do SharePoint Designer Workflows – Good middle option for Workflow Development Advanced Workflow Options – 3 rd Party – Code it up!

43. Questions?

44. Break More Discussion

45. Presentation More Discussion

46. Drawings http://www.sharepointmn.com

47. Thanks for coming! http://www.sharepointmn.com