I'd like to create a custom workflow for SharePoint 2007 (NOT 2010) in Visual Studio. My need is to have a custom parameter when this workflow is attached to the list. These would be parameters that I can reference in the Workflow, like a SharePoint ID, email, or other kind of string.
Does anyone know how to accomplish this?
Sure. They are called Workflow Association (setting default values for workflow) and Initiation (setting/modifying values when starting workflow for each item) Forms:
Association and initiation forms are displayed for users to complete
before any workflow actually starts. You can use these forms to enable
users to set parameters and other information for the workflow in
advance.
You can read Accessing Data from Workflow Association and Initiation Forms in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on MSDN
Somwhere on the way in the article you can encounter the following sentance:
The code shown below is based on the Feedback Collection workflow
sample that is provided with the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK
To have these examples at hand, i would suggest you download and install (so you can see how it's done by yourself):
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Software Development Kit (SDK)
SharePoint Server 2007 SDK: Software Development Kit (if you use
MOSS)
Related
I am fairly new in SharePoint Development and configuration. I need to create a list that when a entry is created, it will email the selected person to approves the entry.
Right now, I have already created the list and will be setting-up the workflow configuration, but the problem is that the 'Approval-SharePoint 2010' Workflow template is missing.
How can I work around this? Or can I download the template and install it in the Server SharePoint 2013?
You haven't mentioned which version of SharePoint you are running. I presume because you don't have the option available you are running SharePoint 2013 Foundation.
SharePoint 2013 Foundation doesn't use support the Workflow Manager and uses the same workflow engine that SharePoint 2010 Foundation uses- this doesn't include the approval workflow.
The Approval-SharePoint 2010 workflow template comes with SharePoint Standard or SharePoint Enterprise. See here for feature comparisons between versions:
https://blog.blksthl.com/2013/01/14/sharepoint-2013-feature-comparison-chart-all-editions/
Unfortunately, having tried various things myself, the options are upgrade to at least SharePoint standard or build a custom workflow. Customer workflows can be built using SharePoint Designer or as part of a code solution. There are quite a few guides already out there. This is just the first one I came to:
http://plexhosted.com/billing/knowledgebase/226/How-to-create-a-simple-approval-workflow-in-SharePoint-Designer.html
If I am being too presumptuous and your version is higher than Foundation then it might just be that you need to activate the Workflows feature in the site collection features.
i need to know few things please
1- is sharepoint with windows workflow foundation (a good and dependable engine)
2- i am using .NET and sharepoint, what would be the best workflow plugin for sharepoint
we need it provide easy interface to create the work flow, connect and affect oracle, SQLSERVER, work with moss2007, give us full control on the look and design of the form page as well as the approval or any pages and forms used within the workflow ( am i asking for too much !!:) )
the workflows will be used for approvals, change requests, requests of equipments, leave application, .... etc
Windows Workflow Foundation is very strong and can be relied upon for SharePoint workflows.
In the market there are lot of plugins available for workflow creation.
SharePoint Desginer
ShareVis Designer
Nintex Workflow
Captaris Workflow
I have provided a few references above. Kindly evaluate your needs and use one of them.
SharePoint makes use of Windows Workflow Foundation and it's a pretty stable and powerful solution. If you need an easy to use interface to create workflows, you may want to take a look at Nintex Workflow. We use it at the company and are very pleased with it. There are versions for both SharePoint 2007 and 2010.
http://www.nintex.com/en-US/Pages/default.aspx
To preface, I am working with SharePoint Server 2010 Beta 2, Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate RC.
I have built a custom Content Type based on the Item type with a few custom site columns. I also have built a custom Sequential Workflow using Visual Studio 2010. This is a relatively simple workflow that creates a task, waits for the task to complete, sets the workflow to complete. I am able to deploy this workflow to the site collection through VS 2010 deploy (which is pretty nice, btw). The problem I have is that when I try to associate the custom Content Type with my custom workflow, that workflow is not listed in the workflow templates to choose from. There are only the OOTB SharePoint workflows to choose. The kicker is that if I create a list and associate a workflow to that list, my custom workflow is in the workflow template list. This makes sense since at the start of building a custom workflow in VS2010, one of the first questions is whether the workflow is a Site or a List workflow and I selected List. Is the issue that List workflows are not allowed to be associated with Content Types?!?
Thanks.
In your workflow's elements.xml, look for AssociationCategories and change it to ContentType like so:
<AssociationCategories>ContentType</AssociationCategories>
Big thanks to my co-worker, Yves for pointing this out :)
I am planning to build a case management system from scratch, The system will incorporate a workflow. Cases will contain activities to be performed by different people inside and outside the company within a specified window of time.
Does SharePoint support a configurable workflow engine that I might use for this project?
Absolutely. Workflow is one of the strong parts of SharePoint. Out-of-the box you or your users can build workflows using the free SharePoint Designer. Depending on your exact requirements this may be good enough.
If you need a more advanced workflow editor then you may want to consider Nintex Workflow or K2. Alternatively you can write your own workflows in Visual Studio or buy 3rd part Workflow Actions for SharePoint Designer.
I have included some useful links below:
Building workflows using SharePoint Designer
Creating workflows using Visual Studio
3rd Part Workflow actions to embed VB or C# directly into SharePoint Designer Workflows. Note that I have worked on this product so consider my recommendation biased ;-)
Does anyone know if it is possible to Lookup list data from a different site when creating a workflow with Sharepoint Designer 2007? The Define Workflow Lookup dialog only allows you to pick from lists in the current Sharepoint site you are creating the workflow in.
Ideally I'd like to be able to pick from a list in the parent site, or a site from a given URL (eg. http://myserver/mysite)
You cannot do that with OOTB activities. However you can build a custom SharePoint designer activity to do the task you need. We usually create just a call web service activity and then we call a SharePoint we service we need.
Take a look at this CodePlex project for some custom SharePoint Designer activities.
SPDActivities on CodePlex are very useful. However, if your exact requirements are not covered by any of those activies then you may want to consider embedding c# or vb.net code directly into the SharePoint Designer Workflow (Without resorting to Visual Studio).
I wrote a blog article about how to do it exactly at the following location:
http://www.muhimbi.com/blog/2009/12/embed-c-or-vb-code-directly-in.html