designing, deploying and managing workflow in sharepoint sites steve heaney product development...
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Designing, Deploying and Managing Workflow in SharePoint Sites Steve Heaney
Product Development Manager
OBS
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 businesslogic to items and documents in Windows SharePoint Services, while providing context and tracking progress
• Empower information workers using Office Serverwith 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 advantageof the full functionality of the Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) platform and integrate into the SharePoint and Office experiences
Office Workflow Ecosystem
SharePoint Services
WF WebService
HistoryList
Reporting& Admin
SourceList
TaskList
Initiation and parameter settingAd-hoc Customization(Forward/Delegate)Task Completion
Authoring AppsBrowser UI
AdministrationReporting/StatusInitiationParameter settingAd-hoc Customization(Forward/Delegate)Task Notificationand Completion
Outlook
Task NotificationTask Completion
SharePoint Designer
Wizard-based authoringForms integrationApplication deployment
Access
Initiation and parameter settingTask CompletionReporting
Workflow Authoring ScenariosVisual Studio andWorkflow SDK
Out-of-the-BoxSolutions(with customization)
SharePoint Designer Workflow
Routing and Approval
Review – ApprovalSignature collectionEast Asian workflow
Stru
ctu
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A
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Office Server FeaturesList Moderation
Publishing ProcessDocument Expiration
Tracking ApplicationsIssue tracking
LOBIntegration
Custom Form ActionsEmail Notification
Exception Handling
Document Processes
Spec Review Weekly Status
Report
Custom Tracking Apps
Service RequestsAsset Tracking
Industryspecific processes
Purchase ordersProduct lifecycle mgmt
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)
ActivitiesRe-use OOB/deployed activities
FormsAuto-generated Forms-ASPX
Deployment Workflow authored live against serverRuntime compilation
Development ModelWizard-based workflow designer
Visual Studio (Pro-Dev)
ActivitiesRe-use OOB/deployed activitiesCan author new activities
Forms Designed Forms-InfoPath-ASPX
DeploymentSolutions package generatedBox administrator installable
Development ModelVisual workflow designer
The role of forms in workflow
• 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)
Forms are used for: Configuring workflows,starting workflows, and completing tasks
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
• 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
Extensible framework and tools for building workflow into Windows applications
Windows Workflow Foundation
Key Concepts• Workflows are a set of activities• 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
Host Process
WindowsWorkflow Foundation
Runtime Engine
A Workflow
An Activity
Runtime Services
Base Activity Library
Custom Activity Library
Visual Designer
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
–Create Task–Complete Task–On Task Change–Delete Task–Update Item–Create Item–Copy/Delete Item–On Item Change–Log to workflow history list
Activities are the building blocks of workflows.
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