What is a Workflow in SharePoint?
Ø In simple words, we can say workflow is a serious of activities occurs in steps which will
produce an outputat the final step.
produce an outputat the final step.
Ø In SharePoint, workflow is an automated movement of documents or items through a sequence of actions or tasks that are related to a business process.
Ø Business process is a sequence of steps that occurs on a document or a task or an item and finally produces a result as an outcome.
Ø The workflow feature in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 enables solution architects, designers, and administrators to improve business processes.
Ø Fundamentally, a workflow consists of two things: 1. the forms that a workflow uses to interact with its users and the logic that defines the workflow’s behavior. 2. Understanding how workflows are created requires knowledge about both.
Types of Workflows
Basically, there are two fundamental types of workflows in the SharePoint:
1. Sequential workflow
It represents the steps that execute in order until the completion of last activity. It is represented graphically in flowchart with start, end and all the sequential activities in between.
Example
2. State-Machine workflow
It represents a set of states, transitions and actions. As sequential workflows,
it does not have prescribed execution flow and need not have an end.
It can have any number of states and transition and it can any items related to any transition.
it does not have prescribed execution flow and need not have an end.
It can have any number of states and transition and it can any items related to any transition.
Example
The different types of workflow in the various versions of SharePoint present by default are listed below:
Ways for creating workflows in SharePoint
The different ways of creating the workflows in SharePoint are as follows:
1. In SharePoint site directly
2. SharePoint Designer
3. Microsoft Visual Studio with workflow extensions installed (WWF- Windows Workflow Foundation) – basically called custom workflows
What are the pre-requisites for creating a workflow in SharePoint?
1. There should be a at least one list or document library to create and associate a workflow.
2. If you do not have a single list or document library in your site,
you will be prompted for creating a list or library.
you will be prompted for creating a list or library.
3. If you want your workflow to be associated with custom columns or settings in the site,
then those changes should be made before you create the workflow so that
it will be available in the designer.
then those changes should be made before you create the workflow so that
it will be available in the designer.
• What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow ?
You can create four different types of input forms including
1. An association form
2. An initiation form
3. A modification form
4. A task edit form.
You can create four different types of input forms including
1. An association form
2. An initiation form
3. A modification form
4. A task edit form.
Note that these forms are optional when you create a workflow template.
• What are ways to create input forms for workflow ?
Two
1. You can create your forms by using custom application pages,
which are standard .aspx pages deployed to run out of the _layouts directory.
( disadv: lot of code required when compared to Infopath approach)
2. Using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 (disadv: picks up a dependenct on MOSS, i.e.
it cannot run in a standalone WSS environment)
Two
1. You can create your forms by using custom application pages,
which are standard .aspx pages deployed to run out of the _layouts directory.
( disadv: lot of code required when compared to Infopath approach)
2. Using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 (disadv: picks up a dependenct on MOSS, i.e.
it cannot run in a standalone WSS environment)
• What is the difference between method activity and event activity in WorkFlow ?
A method activity is one that performs an action, such as creating or updating a task.
An event activity is one that runs in response to an action occurring.
A method activity is one that performs an action, such as creating or updating a task.
An event activity is one that runs in response to an action occurring.
Advantages
Ø Allow the business activities to be automated, enabling actions
such as document review, approval, issue tracking and signature collection.
such as document review, approval, issue tracking and signature collection.
Ø Allow the document to be routed to one person to another for approval by assigning a task to
each person. This is followed by analysis, review, and approval and finally the document is published. Hence making the document management easier.
each person. This is followed by analysis, review, and approval and finally the document is published. Hence making the document management easier.
Ø Also improves the collaboration in an enterprise.
To know about creating a designer workflow in SharePoint using
SharePoint designer 2007, read this article.
SharePoint designer 2007, read this article.
Q. What are the types of workflow that you can design in SharePoint 2010.
Ans. you can design List Workflows, Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows using SharePoint
designer 2010.
designer 2010.
Q. What Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows ?
Ans.
Reusable List Workflows -
You can create a reusable list workflow (reusable workflow) in the top-level site in the site collection,
and that workflow can be made globally reusable — meaning that the workflow can be associated to any
list, library, or content type in the site collection. You can also create a reusable workflow in any subsite
in the site collection; this workflow is available for reuse in that particular subsite.
and that workflow can be made globally reusable — meaning that the workflow can be associated to any
list, library, or content type in the site collection. You can also create a reusable workflow in any subsite
in the site collection; this workflow is available for reuse in that particular subsite.
Site workflows - A site workflow is associated to a site — not to a list, library, or content type. So
unlike most workflows, a site workflow is not running on a specific list item. Because of this, many of
the actions that are available for items not available for site workflows.
unlike most workflows, a site workflow is not running on a specific list item. Because of this, many of
the actions that are available for items not available for site workflows.
Q. Can you modify the Out-of-Box workflows in SharePoint 2010 ?
Ans. In SharePoint 2010, you have an option to customize the Out-of-Box workflows. The four most
popular workflows in SharePoint Server 2007 — the Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures,
Publishing Approval workflows — have been completely rebuilt as declarative reusable workflows,
meaning that they are now fully customizable in SharePoint Designer 2010.
popular workflows in SharePoint Server 2007 — the Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures,
Publishing Approval workflows — have been completely rebuilt as declarative reusable workflows,
meaning that they are now fully customizable in SharePoint Designer 2010.
Q. What are events, actions, conditions and steps?
Ans. Lets look at this one by one.
Events - An event is what starts or initiates a workflow. Events can also be used to manage the timing
of actions within a workflow, such as waiting for the status of an item to change. There are three events
that can start a workflow:
of actions within a workflow, such as waiting for the status of an item to change. There are three events
that can start a workflow:
* An item is created.
* An item is changed.
* A workflow participant clicks a start button on the SharePoint site.
Actions – An action is the most basic unit of work in a workflow. SharePoint Designer 2010 provides
a set of ready-made, reusable actions for you to incorporate into your workflow.
* An item is changed.
* A workflow participant clicks a start button on the SharePoint site.
Actions – An action is the most basic unit of work in a workflow. SharePoint Designer 2010 provides
a set of ready-made, reusable actions for you to incorporate into your workflow.
For example, your workflow can:
* Create, copy, change, or delete list items (including documents).
* Check items in or out.
* Send an e-mail message.
* Check items in or out.
* Send an e-mail message.
Conditions - When you design a workflow, you can use the workflow editor to create rules that apply
conditional logic to SharePoint sites, lists, items and content types. A rule establishes a condition where
the workflow performs the associated action only if that condition is true. For example, you can create a
rule where the workflow sends a reviewer an e-mail message only if an item is created by a specific
person.
conditional logic to SharePoint sites, lists, items and content types. A rule establishes a condition where
the workflow performs the associated action only if that condition is true. For example, you can create a
rule where the workflow sends a reviewer an e-mail message only if an item is created by a specific
person.
Q. What are Parallel and Serial actions ?
Ans. When you have more than one action associated with a condition, the actions can be set up to run
at the same time (parallel) or one after another (serial), the default.
at the same time (parallel) or one after another (serial), the default.
Q. What are the Types of forms associated with the workflow ?
Ans. With SharePoint Designer 2010, you can create three types of workflow forms:
Initiation form – An initiation form gathers information from the workflow participant when they start
the workflow. It is automatically generated when you create the workflow in SharePoint Designer 2010.
Initiation forms are displayed to users when they manually start a workflow on a given SharePoint item.
With an initiation form, users can specify additional parameters or information about the workflow as it
applies to the given SharePoint item.
Task form – A custom task form allows workflow participants to interact with tasks in the Tasks list
specified for the workflow. With the Custom Task Wizard, you can easily create custom form fields and
add them to a custom task form. When you finish designing the workflow, SharePoint Designer 2010
automatically generates the InfoPath or ASP.NET forms for your custom tasks.
the workflow. It is automatically generated when you create the workflow in SharePoint Designer 2010.
Initiation forms are displayed to users when they manually start a workflow on a given SharePoint item.
With an initiation form, users can specify additional parameters or information about the workflow as it
applies to the given SharePoint item.
Task form – A custom task form allows workflow participants to interact with tasks in the Tasks list
specified for the workflow. With the Custom Task Wizard, you can easily create custom form fields and
add them to a custom task form. When you finish designing the workflow, SharePoint Designer 2010
automatically generates the InfoPath or ASP.NET forms for your custom tasks.
Reusable workflow – association form – A reusable workflow, by default, only provides the fields
common to all items, such as Created and Modified by. This is because a reusable workflow isn’t by
default associated with a list, library, or content type. An association form enables you to associate
fields with a reusable workflow so that the fields will be available when you design and run the
workflow.
common to all items, such as Created and Modified by. This is because a reusable workflow isn’t by
default associated with a list, library, or content type. An association form enables you to associate
fields with a reusable workflow so that the fields will be available when you design and run the
workflow.
Q. When are these forms get created ? And how do you customize it ?
Ans. SharePoint Designer 2010 automatically generates the forms, but you can customize them by going
to the settings page for the workflow, in the Forms section, click the form you want to customize.
Workflow forms are either InfoPath or ASP.NET pages. They are stored on the SharePoint site with the
workflow source files.
Limitationsto the settings page for the workflow, in the Forms section, click the form you want to customize.
Workflow forms are either InfoPath or ASP.NET pages. They are stored on the SharePoint site with the
workflow source files.
The limitations below are listed in relative priority with the most important or most likely to be encountered toward the top.
- You cannot access the previous value of a field. This means that you cannot check to see if a field changed. There is an action that waits for a field to change, but you must provide the value that it changes to. Alternatively you can compare it to another field, but not the previous value of that field. If the field didn’t change at all but met the condition implied by the action, this wait action likely wouldn’t wait at all and move on the next step in the workflow.
- Workaround: Use a SharePoint list event to track “ItemUpdating” and pass in the “After” value for a field (the current value will be the old value in a synchronous updating event). If you decide to also start this workflow from any asynchronous event (e.g., “ItemAdded” and/or “ItemUpdated”), you will need to pass in the event trigger (e.g., “Add”, “Updating”, “Updated”) so the workflow can differentiate between them (the current item in the workflow will be the old item for synchronous events, but it will be the new value for asynchronous events).
- You cannot loop. If you want to perform an action on say all items in a list or all child items for a parent, you simply cannot do it unless you know how to lookup each item in the list at design time and have an action for each of those items.
- Workaround: Use Events or a Visual Studio 2005 workflow.
- You cannot lookup an item using two keys. If one key does not uniquely identify an item, you are stuck. You can try to just use one field, but the workflow will act on the first item it finds. You cannot use two fields to identify it.
- Workaround: Use Events or a Visual Studio 2005 workflow.
- You cannot copy the contents of one email action to use it within the same or another email action. This is true if there are any lookups within the email contents.
- Workaround: Copy by hand (re-write the contents) or after saving the .xoml file, open it with an XML editor (right click the .xoml file and choose Open With -> SharePoint Designer (Open as XML)), then copy/paste the appropriate data.
- You cannot put lookup information in the subject of an email.
- Workaround: The easiest workaround is to put the lookup information in the email body. More complex solutions involve creating a custom SharePoint Designer workflow action, using a Visual Studio 2005 workflow, or sending the email from an event.
- You cannot group logical conditions within a step by using parenthesis.
- Workaround: Modify your expression such that the order takes precedence. For example, instead of “x=1 and (y=2 or z=3)” use “y=2 or z=3 and x=1″. .
- You cannot easily log a value with context information to the workflow history list.
- Workaround: Use the Build Dynamic String action to store your log into a workflow variable then use the Log to History List action to log the workflow variable to the history list.
- You can run actions in parallel, but you cannot run steps in parallel.
- Workaround: Use a Visual Studio 2005 workflow.
Tips
- Other than the workaround tips mentioned above, there are some things buried in SharePoint Designer workflows that are possible, but not obvious.
- You can relate to lists once or more removed from the current list. For example, you can use the current item and lookup to a related list and use that item to lookup to another list (or maybe a different item in the original list).
- You can build dynamic strings or calculated values and put them into workflow variables then use those variables to set list items. Note that the calculations are simple: plus, minus, multiply by, divide by, mod.
- State Machine Workflow vs. Sequential Workflow
The two types of workflows which exist out of the box in Visual Studio are:
- Sequential Workflow
- State Machine Workflow
Below, find the differences between them, so that when you are thinking of implementing a workflow, you would use the one that fits the most:
State-Machine workflows:
- State-machine workflows are workflows which are driven by particular events. Example:
- OnTaskChanged
- OnTaskCreated
- OnTaskDeleted
- OnWorkflowActivated etc
- In order to move to another event, the workflow needs to meet another state.
- If a task is created, the workflow stays on that event until another even is called, for example the user decides to edit the task (on task changed)
- The control of the workflow is decided by the user, according to what events he calls, the workflow will execute.
- The workflow doesn't really have to end. It can stay in the same state for weeks for example.
Sequential workflows:
- Sequential workflow is known to be very predictable. It works like a flowchart - Example:
- The workflow works until the user approves or denies the file in order to continue. When ALL users approve/deny it will go to the next time
- This kind of workflow is used when there is only one way to complete the task.
- The workflow controls the processes of what happens throughout the workflow.
Difference B/W Sequential Workflow and State Machine Workflow
Sequential Workflow:
- It looks very simple like flow chart.
- Steps within the workflow execute sequentially, one after another in the particular order.
- A sequential workflow always progresses forward, never going back to a previous step.
- Sequential workflows are definitely much easier to design and maintain.
State machine Workflow:
- A state machine workflow executes in no particular order and these are based on events like OnTaskCreated, OnTaskDeleted etc.
- A state machine workflow moves from one state to another until the logic concludes the workflow has completed.
- Compared to Sequential workflows State machine workflows are difficult to design and maintain.
- In order to move to another event, the workflow needs to meet another state.
- The workflow doesn’t really have to end. It can stay in the same state for weeks.
Visual studio provides both Sequential workflow and State Machine workflow. But in SharePoint designer you can only make sequential workflows.
There are some business process that requires a state machine workflow like for example: a bug tracking system where When the workflow first starts, the bug may be placed in a Pending state, where it waits for a developer to be assigned and start working on the bug. When the developer starts working on the bug and fixes it, the bug is put into a Fixed state. When the bug is fixed, a tester confirms the resolution of the bug. If it is not fixed, he places the bug back in a Pending state.
So you should decide the type before developing the workflow. Because it will be very difficult to change once you have started that workflow.
Sequential workflow should used when there is only one way to complete a task and the workflow controls the process. But state machine workflow can stay in a same step for a longer period of time, must not be in an end state. State machine does not have any specified path, they are event driven.
Out of Box Workflows:
There are 7 out of box workflows.
1. Approval
Routes a document or item to a group of people for approval. By default, the Approval workflow is associated with the Document content type, and therefore it is automatically available in document libraries. A version of the Approval workflow is also associated by default with the Pages library on a publishing site, and can be used to manage the approval process for the publication of Web pages.
The Approval workflow is a staged approval model (that is, the first set of approvers can undergo the review and approval process, then the next set of approvers, and so on). Each stage or approval set can also have its own behavior. For example, members of the first group of approvers can do their review in serial approval order (one after the other), members of the second group can do their review in parallel (reviewers can provide feedback in any order), and so on.
The Approval workflow is a staged approval model (that is, the first set of approvers can undergo the review and approval process, then the next set of approvers, and so on). Each stage or approval set can also have its own behavior. For example, members of the first group of approvers can do their review in serial approval order (one after the other), members of the second group can do their review in parallel (reviewers can provide feedback in any order), and so on.
2. Collect Feedback
Routes a document or item to a group of people for feedback. Reviewers can provide feedback, which is then compiled and sent to the person who initiated the workflow. By default, the Collect Feedback workflow is associated with the Document content type, and therefore it is automatically available in document libraries.
3. Collect Signatures
Routes a document that was created in a Microsoft application to a group of people to collect their digital signatures. This workflow must be started in applications in the 2007 Microsoft Office system and the Microsoft Office 2010 suites such as Microsoft Word. Participants must complete their signature tasks by adding their digital signatures to the documents in the relevant client program.
By default, the Collect Signatures workflow is associated with the Document content type, and therefore is automatically available in document libraries. However, the Collect Signatures workflow appears for a document in the document library only if that document contains one or more Microsoft Office Signature Lines.
4. Disposition Approval
Manages document expiration and retention by letting participants to decide whether to keep or delete expired documents. The Disposition Approval workflow supports record management processes and is intended for use primarily in a Records Center site.
5. Three-State
Designed to track the status of a list item through three states (phases). It can be used to manage business processes that require organizations to track a high volume of issues or items, such as customer support issues, sales leads, or project tasks.
The Three-state workflow is so named because it tracks the status of an issue or item through three different states, and through two transitions between the states. For example, when a workflow is initiated on an issue in an Issues list, SharePoint Server 2010 creates a task for the assigned user. When the user completes the task, the workflow changes from its initial state (Active) to its middle state (Resolved) and creates a task for the assigned user. When the user completes the task, the workflow changes from its middle state (Resolved) to its final state (Closed), and creates another task for the user to whom the workflow is assigned at that time. Note that this workflow is only supported on lists, not libraries.
The Three-state workflow is so named because it tracks the status of an issue or item through three different states, and through two transitions between the states. For example, when a workflow is initiated on an issue in an Issues list, SharePoint Server 2010 creates a task for the assigned user. When the user completes the task, the workflow changes from its initial state (Active) to its middle state (Resolved) and creates a task for the assigned user. When the user completes the task, the workflow changes from its middle state (Resolved) to its final state (Closed), and creates another task for the user to whom the workflow is assigned at that time. Note that this workflow is only supported on lists, not libraries.
6. Translation Management
Manages manual document translation by creating copies of the document to be translated and by assigning translation tasks to translators. This workflow is available only for Translation Management libraries.
7. Issue Tracking
Routes an issue to team members for resolution. It presents a Web page to the user who makes possible the entry of new issues.
Ex: customer complaints.
As an issue progresses though different workflow states, the Web page of the user changes to reflect appropriate events; for example, a Web page that was closed when an issue is resolved.
Note:
Before using out of box workflows you need to activate SharePoint 2007 workflow feature.
All Out of Box workflows are sequential workflows only.
Can we design workflows using SharePoint designer?
Yes. We can design Sequential Workflows only. We can’t design State machine workflows.
State machine workflows can be designed by using visual studio.
you can design List Workflows, Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows using SharePoint designer 2010.
you can design List Workflows, Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows using SharePoint designer 2010.
The business need
Many of our clients use SharePoint for Employee, Customer, or Member Portals. Not surprisingly, there are typically numerous business processes being supported that could really benefit from some type of automated workflow. This might include scenarios like:
- Vacation and leave requests and approvals
- New employee account and hardware/software approvals and provisioning
- Project and budget tracking and approvals
- New site provisioning
- Customer self service
Available Toolsets
In order to meet business needs for workflow within SharePoint, we have traditionally had three options available to us:
- Configure out-of-the-box SharePoint workflow
- Implement workflow using SharePoint Designer
- Implement workflow with custom code using Visual Studio
All About Workflow in SharePoint 2010
The Workflow status are constants (integers), So you'll need to refer to a list like:1. Status: Value2. Not Started: 03. Failed On Start: 14. In Progress: 25. Error Occurred: 36. Canceled: 47. Completed: 58. Failed On Start(Retrying): 69. Error Occurred (Retrying): 710. Canceled: 1511. Approved: 1612. Rejected: 17So we need to check if Approval Status equals 17.
Workflow Interview Questions and answers
Can we apply Workflow to all elements of SharePoint ?
|
Workflow associations are often created directly on lists and document libraries, It can also be created on a content type that exists within the Content Type Gallery for the current site or content types defined within a list.
In short, WF can be applied
· At the level of a list (or document library)
· At the level of a content type defined at site scope
· At the level of a site ( Sharepoint 2010 )
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What are the ways to initiate the workflow ?
|
· Automatic (on item added or item deleted)
· Manual (standard WSS UI interface)
· Manual (Custom UI Interface)
· Programatically through custom code
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What is the difference between method activity and event activity in WF ?
|
A method activity is one that performs an action, such as creating or updating a task. An event activityis one that runs in response to an action occurring.
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What is different with SharePoint 2010 workflows ?
|
Some of the additions in workflow model are :
1. SharePoint 2010 workflows are build upon the the workflow engine provide .Net Framework 3.5.
2. In addition to the SharePoint lists we can now create workflows for SharePoint sites as well.
3. SharePoint Designer 2010 also has a new graphical workflow designer for designing workflows and deploying them directly to SharePoint.
4. Another Improvement in SharePoint Designer 2010 is that it now allows you to edit the out-of-the-box workflows that come with SharePoint.
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What is the difference between an Internet and an intranet site?
|
An internet site is a normal site that anyone on the internet can access (e.g., www.msn.com, www.microsoft.com, etc.). You can set up a site for your company that can be accessed by anyone without any user name and password.
An intranet (or internal network), though hosted on the Web, can only be accessed by people who are members of the network. They need to have a login and password that was assigned to them when they were added to the site by the site administrator
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What are the various kinds of roles the users can have?
|
A user can be assigned one of the following roles
Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.
Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.
Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site.
Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.
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What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow ?
|
You can create four different types of input forms including an association form, an initiation form, a modification form, and a task edit form. Note that these forms are optional when you create a workflow template.
|
What are ways to create input forms for workflow ?
|
Two different approaches can be used to develop custom input forms for a WSS workflow template.
You can create your forms by using custom application pages, which are standard .aspx pages deployed to run out of the _layouts directory. ( disadv: lot of code required when compared to Infopath approach)
using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 /2010 (disadv: picks up a dependenct on MOSS, i.e. it cannot run in a standalone WSS environment)
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What is claims based authentication ?
|
Claims is a new authentication method that SharePoint 2010 can utilize. This allows a single authentication store for multiple types of authentication (Windows NTLM, SQL FBA, LDAP, etc) which allows all of these types of authentication to access SharePoint under a single URL.
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How do we use the claims identity outside of SharePoint?
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LOB systems
External partner services
Separate SharePoint farms
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Q. What is LINQ to Sharepoint ?
|
LINQ is a feature of the programming languages C# 3.0 and Visual Basic .NET
LINQ adds, to each of the languages, a SQL-like syntax and vocabulary for querying data sources.
LINQ to Sharepoint allows developers to use SQL-like syntax to query Lists and Libraries in Sharepoint.
LINQ to Sharepoint internally converts the LINQ query to a CAML query to fetch records
Advantage : Strongly typed access to the entities of the list.
Disadvantage : If the new columns are added or its datatype changed, the datacontext class used by LINQ is no longer valid and may break the code
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Q. Name the tool used to create DataContent classes for use in LINQ queries?
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SPMetal.exe
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Q. What are the advantages and disadvantages of LINQ to Sharepoint ?
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Advantages:
Disadvantages:
If the new columns are added or its datatype changed, the datacontext class used by LINQ is no longer valid and may break the code
Extra layer to the actual CAML query
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Q. Can MS Visio be used to create a Sharepoint workflow ?
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MS Visio cannot be used to create the Sharepoint workflow itself, but can be used for workflow visualization. What this means is that, the flow diagram designed in Visio can be imported in Sharepoint Designer where all the functionality can be added and deployed to Sharepoint.
Note:
To use Visio 2010 for workflow visualization, you must be running the Enterprise version of SharePoint Server 2010 and Visio 2010 Premium.
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Q. Whats new in Shared Service Provider (SSP ) in Sharepoint 2010 ? ( or What is "Service Application" ? )
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“Service Application” or “Service App” is a concept in Sharepoint 2010, where SSP Services are split out into separate services.
What is replaced :
Profiles, Audiences = People Service App
Search = Search Service App
Excel = Excel Service App
Whats new :
Project Server = Project Server App
Visio Services = Visio Service App
Advantages :
Web applications can be configured to only use a subset of the deployed services.
You can deploy multiple instances of the same service in a farm by giving the new service instances unique names.
You can share services across multiple web applications in a farm.
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Q. What is a declarative workflow? Can non-authenticated users participate in workflows?
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Workflows created by using Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010, the default setting enables deployment of declarative workflows. Yes, however you do not give non-authorized users access to the site. The e-mail message and attachments sent from notifications might contain sensitive information.
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Q.What are event receivers?
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Event receivers are classes that inherit from the SpItemEventReciever or SPListEventReciever base class (both of which derive out of the abstract base class SPEventRecieverBase), and provide the option of responding to events as they occur within SharePoint, such as adding an item or deleting an item.
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Q. what are Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows ?
|
Reusable List Workflows -
You can create a reusable list workflow (reusable workflow) in the top-level site in the site collection, and that workflow can be made globally reusable — meaning that the workflow can be associated to any list, library, or content type in the site collection. You can also create a reusable workflow in any subsite in the site collection; this workflow is available for reuse in that particular subsite. Site workflows - A site workflow is associated to a site — not to a list, library, or content type. So unlike most workflows, a site workflow is not running on a specific list item. Because of this, many of the actions that are available for items not available for site workflows. |
Q. Can you modify the Out-of-Box workflows in SharePoint 2010 ?
|
In SharePoint 2010, you have an option to customize the Out-of-Box workflows. The four most popular workflows in SharePoint Server 2007 — the Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures, Publishing Approval workflows — have been completely rebuilt as declarative reusable workflows, meaning that they are now fully customizable in SharePoint Designer 2010.
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How to Customize Default Approval Workflow (Part.1)
I'm sorry it has been taken long time since previous blog post.
Today I'd like to introduce how to customize default approval workflow using only SharePoint Designer (with non code).
This is new feature in SharePoint 2010. In SharePoint 2007, we couldn't customize default approval workflow. So you needed to make new own workflow from zero base if you want to customize approval workflow.
I introduce these steps in two blog posts.
OK, I introduce Part1 first, add bellow Person or Group TextBox as CC in ChangeRequest in Task Form.
The Steps are here.
- First create a copy of default Approval Workflow in SPD. Click Copy and Modify and create new copy of default Approval Workflow.
- Click Approval Workflow Task.
- Click New in Task Form Fields to create CC as Person or Group Field.
- Fill in these TextBox, choose Person or Group in Information type, and click Next.
- Click Finish.
- Save and Publish the .Approval Workflow.
- Back to Approval - Copy05 page. Click Approval Workflow Task in Form.
- Task Form is opened in InfoPath 2010. Check the CC form which was created previous step.
- Select CC Row and copy it(Control + C). Delete CC Row from default form.
Tips : You can also add CC from Fields property menu. But you can't resolve names in CC by using Enter key if you drag & drop CC from Fields property menu to ChangeRequest form. So you had better use the copy from default form.
- Click Page Design Tab and choose ChangeRequest from View pulldown.
- Add new Row and paste CC Row (Control + V) in ChangeRequest form.
- Save the InfoPath form to local and Publish it.
Steps were finished.
I'll introduce how to use the CC in next blog post.
How To Create Work Flow
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