Automating business processes with SharePoint 2013 is a powerful way to increase efficiency within any organization. With SharePoint Designer 2013, no-code (or declarative) workflows can be built to run either SharePoint 2013 On-Premise or in the cloud with Office 365. In this session, we’ll develop an expense report workflow from beginning to end to show how SharePoint Designer Workflows are being used in business today.

1. http://bit.ly/kOqLnv
ivan@dimension-si.com
http://twitter.com/@iasanders

2. http://bit.ly/kOqLnv
ivan@dimension-si.com
http://twitter.com/@iasanders

4. Agenda
 Prototyping in Visio 2013
 Implementing in SPD2013
 Extending with VS2013
 Summary

5. SPD Workflows?
 SharePoint Online supports declarative
workflows
 Code-based workflows aren’t supported in the
Sandbox
 Prototyping in Visio 2013
 SharePoint specific flowchart diagram
 Export to SharePoint Designer 2013
 Implement in SharePoint Designer 2013
 Improved workflow designer
 Integration of forms with InfoPath 2013
 Extend with Visual Studio 2013
 Custom SPD2013 actions
 Events

6. Workflow in SPO?
 New Workflow targets
 Reusable Workflows can be applied to any list
 Site Workflows can execute on site
 New Workflow events
 Emitted by SharePoint Online (i.e. WorkflowStarted)
 Custom Events, Event Receivers

9. Summary
 Prototype workflows in Visio 2013
 Use diagrams to get sign-off
 Implement the workflow in SharePoint
Designer 2013
 Custom or copy & modify built in workflow
 Actions, conditions and steps
 Develop custom workflow actions and events
in Visual Studio 2013

10. Who can you trust??
The blogs I trust through all of the noise.
 Maurice Prather http://www.bluedoglimited.com/default.aspx
 Andrew Connell http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog
 Spence Harbar http://www.harbar.net
 Jim Duncan
 Heather Solomon http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog
 Todd Klindt http://www.toddklindt.com/default.aspx
 Todd Baginski http://www.toddbaginski.com/blog
 Todd Bleeker http://bit.ly/edlSm5
Jan Tielens http://weblogs.asp.net/jan
 Patrick Tisseghem http://www.u2u.info/Blogs/Patrick/default.aspx
 Wictor Wilen http://www.wictorwilen.se
 Ted Patisson http://blog.tedpattison.net/default.aspx
 Lars Fastrup http://www.fastrup.net
 Carsten Keutmann http://keutmann.blogspot.com
 Keith Richie http://blog.krichie.com
 Bill Baer http://blogs.technet.com/b/wbaer

11. http://bit.ly/kOqLnv
ivan@dimension-si.com
http://twitter.com/@iasanders

12. What's on the Flash
drive

13. Extras
 SharePoint 2007
 SharePointSolutionInstaller
 WSPBuilder
 KerberosBuddy
 SharePoint Sushi
 SharePointManager2007 / 2013
 SPViewPermissionSetting.wsp
 2007 Office SDK1.5
 SQL Scripts
 SharePoint 2013
 AutoSPInstaller
 2013 Documentation
 BusinessIntelligenceLabs
 2013 Tips and tricks
 SQL Scripts
 npp.5.8.6
 Search.StandardMasterPageAdapter.wsp

14. Resources
 Download SharePoint Designer 2013
 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=
en&FamilyID=d88a1505%2D849b%2D4587%2Db854%2Da7054
ee28d66
 Introducing SharePoint Designer 2013
 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-
help/introducing-sharepoint-designer-2013-HA101782482.aspx

 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-
help/introduction-to-designing-and-customizing-workflows-
HA101859249.aspx
 Creating SharePoint Workflow Solutions
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee231606.aspx
 Walkthrough: Create a Custom Site Workflow Activity
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee231574.aspx

15. Performance

17.  Search
 Search uses SQL in a very I/O intensive fashion. It is sensitive to I/O latencies on
the TempDB and the Query and Crawl file groups. One of the more difficult and
time consuming jobs for a Search Administrator is to schedule the Crawls so they
are not over lapping while keeping Search results fresh
 Indexing/Crawling
 Crawling and indexing a large volume of information, documents, and Web pages
requires a large amount of computer processing. The crawl process also
consumes network and other resources. The SharePoint environment must be
configured properly and monitored, to ensure that the crawling and indexing
process does not adversely affect the service available to users. For example,
content is usually crawled and indexed during off-peak hours when servers are
underused in order to maintain peak-hour services for users.
 Applications that may be crawling content in your production environment
○ Coveo Full and Incremental crawls to enable search
○ Newsgator to Update all of the colleague information and RSS feeds
○ DocAve for Reporting on and Performing SharePoint Management tasks
○ WSS Search indexes the Help information provided with SharePoint
○ SharePoint Profile Import syncs people profile
○ Office Search Full and Incremental updates Coveo would replace
Top Performance Killers

18. Top Performance Killers
 Profile Import
 Profile imports are used with NGES to sync your AD user details to provide access
to your feed subscriptions and with SharePoint to sync your AD user details with
your SharePoint User Profile
 Large List Operations
 Having large lists by itself is not necessarily a performance issue. When
SharePoint Server renders the many items in those lists, that can cause spikes in
render times and database blocking. One way to mitigate large lists is to use
subfolders and create a hierarchical structure where each folder or subfolder has
no more than 3,000 items. Identify large lists and work with the owners of the sites
and lists to archive items or pursue other mitigation strategies
 Heavy User Operation List Import/Write
 Another scenario of users having power they don’t realize. Importing large lists
using excel or synchronizing an access db. In SQL there’s little difference between
these types of user operations.
 Backup (SQL & Tape)
 Serious CPU and write disk I/O performance hit. SQL Litespeed or SQL 2008
backup with compression all help to lessen the performance hit.

20. Database Performance
 Database Volumes
 Separate database volumes into unique LUN’s
consisting of unique physical disk spindles.
 Prioritize data among faster disks with ranking:
○ SQL TempDB data files
○ Database transaction log files
○ Search database
○ Content databases
 In a heavily read-oriented portal site, prioritize data
over logs.
 Separate out Search database transaction log
from content database transaction logs.

21. Database Performance
 SQL TempDB Data Files
 Recommended practice is that the number of data files allocated
for TempDB should be equal to number of core CPU’s in SQL
Server.
 TempDB data file sizes should be consistent across all data files.
 TempDB data files should be spread across unique LUN’s and
separated from Content DB, Search DB, etc…
 TempDB Log file separated to unique LUN.
 Optimal TempDB data file sizes can be calculated using the
following formula: [MAX DB SIZE (KB)] X [.25] / [# CORES] =
DATA FILE SIZE (KB)
 Calculation result (starting size) should be roughly equal to 25% of
the largest content or search DB.
 Use RAID 10; separate LUN from other database objects (content,
search, etc…).
 “Autogrow” feature set to a fixed amount; if auto grow occurs,
permanently increase TempDB size.

22.  Content Databases
 100 content databases per Web application
 100GB per content database
○ CAUTION: Major DB locking issues reported in collaborative
DM scenarios above 100GB
○ Need to ensure that you understand the issues based on
number of users, usage profiles, etc…
○ Service Level Agreement (SLA) requirements for backup and
restore will also have an impact on this decision.
○ KnowledgeLake Lab testing demonstrated SharePoint
performance was NOT impacted by utilizing larger DB sizes;
tests included content DB sizes that were 100GB, 150GB,
200GB, 250GB, 300GB and 350GB.
Database Performance

23.  Content Databases - Continued
 Pre-construct and pre-size
 Script generation of empty database objects
 “Autogrow” feature on
 Use RAID 5 or RAID 10 logical units
○ RAID 10 is the best choice when cost is not a concern.
○ RAID 5 will be sufficient and will save on costs, since content
databases tend to be more read intensive than write intensive.
 Multi-core computer running SQL Server
○ Primary file group could consist of a data file for each CPU core
present in SQL Server.
○ Move each data file to separate logical units consisting of
unique physical disk spindles.
Database Performance

24.  Search Database
 Pre-construct and pre-size
 Script generation of empty database objects
 “Autogrow” feature on
 Use RAID 10 logical units
○ Should be a requirement for large-scale systems
○ Search database is extremely read/write intensive
 Multi-core computer running SQL Server
○ Primary file group could consist of a data file for each CPU core
present in SQL Server.
○ Move each data file to separate logical units consisting of
unique physical disk spindles.
Database Performance

25.  Search Database
 Search database is VERY read/write intensive!
 Do not place any other database data files on any logical unit
where search database files reside.
 If possible, try to ensure that the RAID 10 logical units for the
search database data files do not share their physical spindles
with other databases.
 Place the search database log files on an independent logical unit.
Database Performance

26.  Database Maintenance
 Physical Volume File Fragmentation:
○ Defragment your physical volumes on a regular schedule for
increased performance!
○ LUN’s need to be 20-50% larger than the data stored on them
allow for effective defragmentation of the data files.
 Performance Monitor Counters to watch:
○ Average Disk Queue Length
 Single Digit values are optimal.
 Occasional double-digit values aren’t a large concern.
 Sustained triple-digit values require attention.
Database Performance

27. Page Performance
 Minimize HTTP Requests
 80% of the end-user response time is spent on the front-end. Most
of this time is tied up in downloading all the components in the
page: images, stylesheets, scripts, Flash, etc. Reducing the
number of components in turn reduces the number of HTTP
requests required to render the page. This is the key to faster
pages.
 For static components: implement
 "Never expire" policy by setting far future Expires header
 Avoid Redirects
 Redirects are accomplished using the 301 and 302 status codes.
Here’s an example of the HTTP headers in a 301 response:
 Optimize Images
 After a designer is done with creating the images for your web
page, there are still some things you can try before you uploading
the images to your web server
 Avoid Empty Image src
 Image with empty string src attribute occurs more than one will
expect.