2. Designing, Deploying and Managing Workflow in SharePoint Sites Steve Heaney Product Development Manager OBS steve.heaney@obs.com.au

3. 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

4. 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

5. Office Workflow Ecosystem SharePoint Services WFWFWebServiceWebService HistoryListHistoryListReporting & Admin Reporting SourceListSourceListTaskListTaskList Initiation and parameter setting Ad-hoc Customization (Forward/Delegate) Task Completion Authoring Apps Browser UI AdministrationReporting/StatusInitiation Parameter setting Ad-hoc Customization (Forward/Delegate) Task Notification and Completion Outlook Task Notification Task Completion SharePoint Designer Wizard-based authoring Forms integration Application deployment Access Initiation and parameter setting Task Completion Reporting

6. Workflow Authoring Scenarios Visual Studio and Workflow SDK Out-of-the-Box Solutions (with customization) SharePoint Designer Workflow Routing and Approval Review – Approval Signature collection East Asian workflow Structured Ad Hoc Office Server Features List Moderation Publishing Process Document Expiration Tracking Applications Issue tracking LOB Integration Custom Form Actions Email Notification Exception Handling Document Processes Spec Review Weekly Status Report Custom Tracking Apps Service Requests Asset Tracking Industry specific processes Purchase orders Product lifecycle mgmt

7. 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

8. Using in built workflow templates

9. What did we see? Associating a workflow Workflow initiation Task completion

10. Workflow Authoring Tools SharePoint Designer (Web Designer) Activities Re-use OOB/deployed activities Forms Auto-generated Forms -ASPX Deployment Workflow authored live against server Runtime compilation Development Model Wizard-based workflow designer Visual Studio (Pro-Dev) Activities Re-use OOB/deployed activities Can author new activities Forms Designed Forms -InfoPath-ASPX Deployment Solutions package generated Box administrator installable Development Model Visual workflow designer

11. 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

12. 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

13. Designing Workflows in SharePoint Designer

14. What Did We See? Workflow Creation Wizard No code workflow authoring

15. Office Workflow Hosting Windows Workflow Foundation Office Activities Windows SharePoint Services Host

16. 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

17. 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 Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Engine A Workflow An Activity Runtime Services Base Activity Library Custom Activity Library Visual Designer Host Process

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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

22. More information… DEV05 - Developing Visual Studio Workflows and Activities for SharePoint Sites (Tomorrow morning 9:15 Level 2, Room 3)

23. Thank you! Questions