CASPUG - Developing Reusable Workflow Features

Developing Reusable Workflow Features
Charlotte SharePoint User Group
Mike Oryszak
http://www.mikeoryszak.com
September 21, 2011

Practice Manager with Intellinet
Microsoft SharePoint Server MVP
Dev and Architect with MS stack since 1996
Working with SharePoint since 2002
Raleigh-Durham, NC Area since 1998
About Me

Approach and Goals
Overview on Creating Custom Actions
Example 1 – Budget Approval Limits
Example 2 – Out of Office Delegation
Additional Examples
Wrap-up and Questions
Session Overview

Approach and goals

Common Workflow Limitations
Workflows developed one at a time
Config and Admin content is localized – Silos
Maintaining data difficult, and process admin focused
Approach and Goals
Common Workflow Limitations

Reuse Goals
Centralize common configuration data
Leverage central farm services
Make it easier for users to maintain their data
Reduce time to create new workflows
Improve efficiency of managing workflows
Approach and Goals
Workflow Reuse Goals

Approaches
Take a “Portfolio Approach” to process design
Change data lookup sources from local to central
Budget Approval Limit example
Out of Office Delegation example
Group common functions or calls into Actions or Services
Check Request example
Leverage central services like User Profiles, BCS
Budget Approval example
Link workflows together; start workflow from another
Approach and Goals
Recommended Approaches

Creating Custom Actions

Approaches
Budget Approval example
Full Trust Actions

Important Namespaces
System.Workflow.ComponentModel
Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow
Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions
Key Dev Tasks
Change Class Def to “public partial class <Name> : Activity”
Define Properties
Override ActivityExecutionStatus Execute
Override ActivityExecutionStatusHandleFault
Create WorkflowActionsdefinition in Elements.xml
Register Type in web.config
Farm Solution Implementation

Developed in Visual Studio
Limited to Site Collection boundaries
Does not require server admin to deploy; O365
Provides a way to create simple reusable features
Sandboxed Actions

Important Namespaces
Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow
Microsoft.SharePoint.UserCode
Key Dev Tasks
Action must return a Hashtable
Action must accept a SPUserCodeWorkflowContext as the first argument
Create WorkflowActions definition in Elements.xml
Sandboxed Solution Imlementation

Budget Approval Limits

A common example of data needed to support an approval workflow
Centralize the data so that it is available for multiple processes
Leverage services like User Profile and BCS
Overview

Bad Approach
Load Budget For Approver
Issues:
3 Sites, separate config lists
Separate Maintenance
Out of Sync

Alternative Approach
Advantages:
Central Source
Can Sync (BCS)
Distributed Management

Demo

Out of Office Delegation

SharePoint has no built-in Out of Office Delegation
Great example of User Maintained config data
Great example of leveraging User Profiles
Overview

Building it into each process, with localized data stored in a list on the workflow site
Process Admin Maintains it
Data stored in multiple places
Workflow steps maintained in multiple places
Bad Approach

Out of Office Delegation Feature
User Profile Custom Attributes
Out of Office Start Date
Out of Office End Date
Custom Workflow Action
Simplifies check from SPD workflows
Alternative Approach

Demo

Additional Examples

Standard Feature Requests
Escalations
Task Reminders
Role Based Assignments (CFO, Ops Mgr, etc)
Frequent Re-usable Processes
Check Request
Compliance Activity Logging
Additional Examples

Create Reusable Sub-Processes
Use Standard Events
New Item
Edit Item
Can use Full Trust Actions to add/edit items between site collections
Additional Examples
Initiating Another Workflow

Check Request is an example of a process that may be initiated from multiple processes
Could be built into each process, or separated into a separate “sub-process” for reuse
Check Request Workflow
Overview

Bad Approach
Issues:
Same process steps
AP users have tasks in x sites
Multiple places to update if process changes
Process owners may not understand other uses

Sub-Process Approach
Advantages:
Std process on AP site
Easy access for AP users
Easy to maintain and monitor

Wrap-up

Recommended Approaches
Take a “Portfolio Approach” to process design
Change data lookup sources from local to central
Group common functions or calls into Actions or Services
Wrap-up
Recommended Approach

MSDN – Create a Sandbox Workflow Action
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff798499.aspx
MSDN – Reference Implementation Workflow Activities
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff798330.aspx
User Profiles – Creating Custom Properties
http://www.mikeoryszak.com/sharepoint/user-profiles-%e2%80%93-creating-custom-properties
User Profiles – Driving Business Process
http://www.mikeoryszak.com/sharepoint/user-profiles-%e2%80%93-driving-business-process
Workflow Posts
http://www.mikeoryszak.com/tag/workflow
Additional Resources

Questions?

Contact Info
Blog - http://www.mikeoryszak.com
Twitter - @Next_Connect
Email – mikeo@intellinet.com
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeloryszak

CASPUG - Developing Reusable Workflow Features

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