I have a big Infopath form which is part of a complex workflow that involves collecting input and signatures from various users, as well as approvals.
Currently, that same workflow is being done manually — the Infopath form is actually a PDF form and the workflow steps are performed by the actual users who fill out the form, emailing it afterwards to whoever they think it may concern.
I'm on the process of automatizing this using our Sharepoint Server infrastructure, so the first thing was translating the PDF form to an Infopath one. The second would be to produce a Sharepoint workflow that would implement the business process of getting that form properly filled.
So my question is: is it possible to implement a Sharepoint Workflow that sends the full form to the correct users based on the information gathered by the form itself? Ideally, the form would be passed around using the rules defined in the workflow process, users would fill whatever necessary, submit the form and the workflow would continue based on whatever is filled. This form would not only be the initiator form, but the form to be handled in all the workflow tasks.
Breaking the form apart is not desirable as this would confuse our users, and some of them need the overview provided by the full form view. Also, I'd like to use Sharepoint as the form distributor, instead of the email service, if possible.
Any pointers in how to do this would be greatly appreciated.
This is possible.
Here are the pointers in brief:
Create a content type with your infopath form as item form
Create a visual studio workflow that is associated to your content
type
In the code of the workflow you can implement any rules of
processing the form. you're able to get the form data from the list
item you workflow runs in context of.
Related
i'm working in a SharePoint consultant company and one of our customers wants their employees can see all tasks in a single page.
i know there is a web part for get list of all Nintex tasks. but they don't want seeing just link of tasks and click on them and task form get opened. they want a page of all opened task forms.
is a there any way to doing this?
I think you cannot open many tasks forms from a single page. Since you already know about the web part, we don't need talk about it.
You can create a new form which contain all the variable (data) needed for every task you want to update and see, then distribute the data to the other list using Nintex Workflow, you can add web part from the other list at that new form list, so you can update data and see it in one page.
Currently I have created a travel request form using Sharepoint 2013 and Infopath 2013 that once you submit the form, it creates a line item on the list as well as workflows to their managers for approval.
Once the managers have approved the form, on the form itself there is a field called "Approver" and "Approved On" that shows when and who have approved the form.
I want the users to be able to open the form and have a button to export the approved form to PDF. Is this possible?
Thanks for all the help!
You may want to move this to http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com, a sister site of StackOverflow.
What I always recommend (as I work in the InfoPath / PDF business) is to attach a simple workflow to the associated forms library using a workflow tool of your choice (SharePoint Designer, Nintex Workflow, VS Workflows).
Make sure you export the relevant InfoPath status field to SharePoint so you can read the column's content in your workflow. In your workflow check if the status field is 'Approved' and if it is run a PDF Conversion action.
Now, for the big trick, the 'PDF Conversion' Action. No such action comes with SharePoint out of the box, but it is available from third parties. Google for the appropriate search terms, e.g. "Batch convert infopath using workflow" and you will find several solutions. (Disclaimer, I cannot link directly as one of the solutions you will find is one that I worked on)
Probably it will be interesting for you to use already existing business solution - PDF Share Forms. It is PDF form integration to SharePoint with bi-directional data synchronization (form field contents synchronizes with SharePoint columns automatically both directions). Support for archival, versioning, form flattening, workflows. Filled in form could be sent to a person, who filled it in, etc. www.pdfshareforms.com for more info
(I work for PDF Share Forms)
SharePoint workflows are document centric in that the base thing the workflow runs on has to be a thing; be it a document or just a list item. The workflow itself is task based, so stuff a user has to do. Now I can put any sort of code in these tasks that I want to and even put complex InfoPath forms in for the user to perform the task. This has been fine on all my previous workflows. But what if I want the tasks to be actual official forms themselves.
The item that the workflow runs on is just some abstract concept like an event. An example could be an accident has happened. There isn't an accident form, but a whole set of forms that need to be completed by different people. Task forms aren't really a nice way to go, because it locks all the forms into the task list. You can only access the forms by not deleting the tasks when complete and going to the workflow summery and following the task links to the InfoPath forms or going straight to the tasks list and doing a filter on particular "accidents".
These are official documents so ideally there would be a library for each type of document and the workflow would orchestrate the completion of the right forms. It would mean each task would have to create a new blank form and then link the user to that form. The user would go complete the form but then have to go back to the task form and click yes I've completed it until the workflow could progress. Well this is short of the workflow monitoring the forms library form for some completion trigger. But then it all gets messy with the user experience from clicking the link in the task email, to open the Infopath task form, to clicking the link in the subsequent Infopath library form and then return through these forms on completion.
It just gets messy trying to retrofit this non document centric sort of workflow into SharePoint. I would really appreciate any input on what might be the best way to do this.
Store the forms as task forms
Store the forms as library forms and create/link from the task forms
Store the forms as library forms and break the workflow down into seperate workflows for each form, all playing their part and triggering the next library.
Using the same form template for both task forms and a forms library and when a task form is complete, copy the xml into the forms library to have a official record outside of the workflow.
Thanks
We are customizing workflow approval form to display the associated list item fields. This will help the approver to verify the list item, he is approving.
The approval form will have to be one of 2 flavors.. this is assuming that you are using Windows Workflow Foundation...
InfoPath workflow form and Windows Workflow Foundation - These are the forms that are normally used for MOSS (not WSS) workflows. In order to provide list data you will need to send the list information up to the task form using the ItemMetadata.xml and SPWorflowTaskProperties.ExtendedProperties[]. If you didn't want to send that info you can try to use VSTA in the form and retrieve said information programmatically into InfoPath.
ASPX Form - Not too many people have created custom task forms (your approval form is really a task form). This form needs to be deployed to the _Layouts directory and is quite difficult to create. I recommend searching Robert Shelton's blog as he has a great example of how to create a SharePoint aspx task form.
Ulysses
How can I Submit an InfoPath form to a SharePoint library AND to an email box at the same time when the user hits SUBMIT?
I need my form to be approved by several users in a particular order; then re-submitted to the SharePoint site, and to another email box so that the next approver can see the approvals, and approve their own, then submit it and have it drop onto Sharepoint again, etc.
The email chain works (the form as an attachment), and the approvals show, but the form doesn't get updated on the SharePoint Form library.
You can add an additional DataSource for submission (send to SharePoint library) and add a rule to your submit button before the save&close rules.
BUT - I would suggest a method that is based on workflows and a form that is held on a SharePoint site. I had a very similar task, where approvals were needed in a staged manner.
If there is a fixed number of approvers, create fields for each one - if the number is not fixed you will need some replacing rules that change the current approver with the next one. Then you will need one (or more) workflows that are triggered by a flag field (or more) that you promoted before. (Make them writable from the outside during publication - the workflow will need that) This field (or fields) trigger the workflow that sends the email. After sending it should clear that flag to avoid infinite looping.
The mail should contain a link to the SharePoint library. And the approver should work on that library rather than sending the XML file through the network.
Hint: Enable versioning on that libary - and you (or the approvers) can keep track of the changes.
Hint 2: If this process will be part of the daily work, maybe a custom view and alerts will help the approvers keep track of the form's status.
Sorry for asking but have you considered using a workflow rather then emails? I'm not sure whether the basic workflows in WSS 3.0 will cater for your senario but the MOSS workflow should be more than adequate.