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Designing, Deploying and
Managing Workflow in
SharePoint Sites
Steve Heaney
Product Development Manager
OBS
steve.heaney@obs.com.au
Agenda
• Office workflow vision and ecosystem
• End user workflow concepts
• Workflow design and development tools
• Workflow design using SharePoint Designer
• Office workflow hosting & activities
• Questions
Office Workflow Vision
• Facilitate human processes by attaching business
logic to items and documents in Windows SharePoint
Services, while providing context and tracking progress
• Empower information workers using Office Server
with out-of-the-box solutions and self-service tools to support
a broad range of routing and tracking scenarios without IT
involvement
• Empower organisations to build a broad range of
sophisticated workflow solutions that take advantage
of the full functionality of the Windows Workflow Foundation
(WF) platform and integrate into the SharePoint and Office
experiences
Office Workflow Ecosystem
Access
Authoring
Browser
SharePoint
Apps
UI Services
Designer
Outlook
SharePoint
Source
List
Task
List
History
List
Reporting
& Admin
Initiation and parameter
WF
Web
setting
Wizard-based
authoring
Service
Task Completion
Forms
integration
Task Notification
Initiation
and
Reporting
Administration
Application
deployment
parameter
setting
Task Completion
Reporting/Status
Ad-hoc Customization
(Forward/Delegate)
Initiation
Task Completion
Parameter
setting
Ad-hoc Customization
(Forward/Delegate)
Task Notification
and Completion
Visual Studio and
Workflow SDK
LOB
Integration
Structured
Workflow Authoring Scenarios
Industry
specific processes
Purchase orders
Product lifecycle mgmt
SharePoint
Designer Workflow
Custom Tracking Apps
Service Requests
Asset Tracking
Custom Form Actions Document Processes
Email Notification
Spec Review
Exception Handling
Weekly Status Report
(with customization)
Tracking Applications
Issue tracking
Routing and Approval
Review – Approval
Signature collection
East Asian workflow
Office Server Features
List Moderation
Publishing Process
Document Expiration
Ad Hoc
Out-of-the-Box
Solutions
Who Uses Workflow?
• Adhoc participation by Knowledge workers
– Participates in WSS, Office, and Outlook
– Starts workflows, completes tasks
– Focus – flexible and familiar
• Familiar to WSS Administrators
– Set workflow settings (available workflows, default settings)
– Manage Site/Box (deployment, activation)
– Focus – consistent and integrated
• Powerful tools for Developers
– Suited development tools
• VS for professional developers
• SharePoint Designer for site authors
– SDK with activities and samples
Using in built workflow templates
What did we see?
• Associating a workflow
• Workflow initiation
• Task completion
Workflow Authoring Tools
SharePoint Designer (Web Designer)
Visual Studio (Pro-Dev)
Development Model
Wizard-based workflow designer
Development Model
Visual workflow designer
Activities
Re-use OOB/deployed activities
Activities
Forms
Auto-generated Forms
-ASPX
Forms
Deployment
Deployment
Workflow authored live against server
Runtime compilation
Solutions package generated
Box administrator installable
Re-use OOB/deployed activities
Can author new activities
Designed Forms
-InfoPath
-ASPX
The role of forms in workflow
Forms are used for: Configuring workflows,
starting workflows, and completing tasks
• ASPX Forms (Windows SharePoint Services and
Office servers)
–Server only
• InfoPath Forms (Office servers)
–Server rendered by Office Forms Server
–Office client integration
–Write once, run server, and client (same form)
Workflow Authoring with SharePoint Designer
• Scenarios: Authoring SharePoint apps
– Document Workflow, e.g. My route for review
– Web ‘Guided Process’, e.g. New Hire Process
– Custom Form Action, e.g. on click, send email
• Authoring environment includes
– Workflow designer based on Rules Wizard experience
– Building blocks for workflow based SharePoint apps
• Document workflows
• Send mail, update list item
• Custom developed workflows and building blocks
– Verification and deployment of workflows
Designing Workflows in SharePoint Designer
What Did We See?
• Workflow Creation Wizard
• No code workflow authoring
Office Workflow Hosting
• Windows Workflow Foundation
• Office Activities
• Windows SharePoint Services Host
Windows Workflow Foundation
Extensible framework and tools for building
workflow into Windows applications
• Common workflow technology for Microsoft products, ISVs
and customer solutions
• A framework to build on – not a server or application
• Key features
–
–
–
–
Unified model for human and system workflow
Extensible activity framework
Allows workflows to run in any application or server
Visual designer for graphical and code-based authoring
• Availability
– Included in .net 3.0 – powers Office 2007 workflow
Windows Workflow Foundation
Visual Designer
Key Concepts
• Workflows are a set of activities
A Workflow
• Activities are the building blocks
• Workflows run within a Host Process:
Any application or server
• Developers can build their own
Custom Activity Libraries
Components
• Base Activity Library: Out-of-box
activities and base for custom activities
• Runtime Engine: Workflow execution
and state management
• Runtime Services: Hosting flexibility
and communication
• Visual Designer: Graphical
and code-based construction
An Activity
Custom Activity Library
Windows
Workflow Foundation
Base Activity Library
Runtime Engine
Runtime
Services
Host Process
Host Process
What Are Activities?
• Workflow consists of Activities…
– The workflow itself is an Activity
• Activity is the basic building block
– Unit of Reuse
– Unit of Execution
• Has associated properties, conditions and events
– Configured in Markup and/or Code
– Supports pre/post interception hooks into execution in user code
• Activities fall under two broad categories
– Basic
– Composite
Office Activity Examples
Activities are the building blocks of workflows.
– Create Task
– Complete Task
– On Task Change
– Delete Task
– Update Item
– Create Item
– Copy/Delete Item
– On Item Change
– Log to workflow history list
Office Workflow Host
• WSS host provides:
–Persistence
–Event Delivery
–Timer
–History and Reporting
–WSS Application Integration
• Workflow Foundation is hosted in WSS process on all
front-end machines
• Workflow instances are aggressively dehydrated to
the back-end database
Visual Studio Workflow Designer
• The Visual Studio Workflow Designer Provides a
project system for developing workflow solutions
• It lets you quickly define a workflow graphically
– Drag activities from Toolbox onto design surface
• Configure activity properties in Properties window
– Code-beside for business logic (your code)
– Provides a mechanism for compiling workflows
– Integrated workflow and code debugging
More information…
• DEV05 - Developing Visual Studio Workflows and
Activities for SharePoint Sites (Tomorrow morning
9:15 Level 2, Room 3)
Thank you!
•Questions