Features and benefits of creating workflows using SharePoint Designer 2013

1. Create Powerful SharePoint Designer 2013
Workflows in Office 365 & On-Premises
Asif Rehmani
SharePoint MVP and MCT
SharePoint-Videos.com

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Asif Rehmani
CEO and Founder
VisualSP / SharePoint-Videos.com
Chicago
USA
Contact
@asifrehmani
asif@sharepointElearning.com
www.sharepoint-videos.com
Author
Trainer and
Consultant
SharePoint
MVP, MCT
Conference
Speaker

3. VisualSP Help System
www.VisualSP.com
in-context and on-demand Help for
SharePoint users –
SharePoint 2010, 2013, Online
Context sensitive Help items:
• Videos • Images/Screenshots
• Documents • Links

4. 1 Year access to
890+
SharePoint
Video Tutorials
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Giveaways for today’s session
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Target audience for this session:
 Intranet/Web Content Manager
 Portal Solutions Manager
 SharePoint Guy/Gal
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Session level:
250 – Intermediate

6. To understand how to rapidly build no-code
workflows using SharePoint Designer 2013
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Session focus
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7. Workflow tools
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 Browser
 SharePoint Designer 2013
 Visio 2013
 Visual Studio 2012/2013

8. Out of the box workflow templates
Only the legacy ones from SharePoint 2010
No new workflow templates introduced with SharePoint 2013
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9. Demo
Out of the box workflow templates

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SharePoint Designer Workflow Types
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11. 2010 and 2013 style workflows
SharePoint Designer
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2010
2013

12. Workflow Manager 1.0
SharePoint 2013 workflow processing moved to Workflow Manager (WM)
 Workflow no longer runs in the SharePoint content farm / servers
 SharePoint farm & Workflow Manager farm can be on same /
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different servers

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New Workflow Activities & Actions
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New Actions & Activities
Microsoft Project Specific
Actions
Assign a Task Get Property from
[Dictionary/DynamicValue]
Create a Project from Current Item
Start a Task Process Count Items in
[Dictionary/DynamicValue]
Set the current project stage status
to this value
Go to This Stage Trim String Set the status field in the idea list
item to this value
Call HTTP Web Service Find Substring in String Wait for Project Event
Start a List Workflow Replace Substring in String Set this field in the project to this
value
Start a Site Workflow Translate Document
Build
Set Workflow Status
[Dictionary/DynamicValue]

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The ‘New Stuff’
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 Stages
• New base level concept of
stages
 Visual Designer
• Direct Visio incorporation
• Stage-Level Diagrams
 New Task Actions
• Quick and easy to create
tasks and approval
processes
 Web Services
• Able to call into
Rest/HTTP web services
 Loops!
• Able now to loop indirectly
with stages or directly
with the new Loop actions
 Copy/Cut and Paste
• Core copy/cut and paste
abilities now introduced

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16. Demo
SharePoint Designer Workflows

17. Creating / Acquiring new Workflow actions
 Acquire workflow actions through vendors:
http://www.harepoint.com/Products/HarePointWorkflowExtensions/Default.aspx
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 Create new workflow actions using Visual Studio
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18. What will happen to my workflows when we upgrade
from SharePoint 2010 to 2013?
They will get transferred as SharePoint 2010 workflows
You can modify them with almost* the same type of
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environment as in 2010
* With the added ability to use copy/paste functions

19. Copying a workflow to another List or Site
Save as workflow template
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Export to Visio
Copy / Paste stages

20. SharePoint Designer 2013:
 List workflows, Reusable workflows and Site workflows can all be
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Packaging a workflow
SharePoint Designer 2010:
 Only reusable workflows can be packaged
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packaged as a wsp

21. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dn594430
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SharePoint Composites Showcase
created by Mark Gillis from Microsoft
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Example of fairly advanced workflow
http://sharepoint-videos.com/pull-info-from-a-blogs-rss-feed-using-sharepoint-designer-
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2013-workflow/
Example of
using:
• Stage
• Loop
• Web service
• Workflow variables
• Dictionary variable
• XML to JSON
• Calculation
• Creating items

23. How do I practice my ideas and concepts?
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 Watch free videos at:
 http://sharepoint-videos.com/video-categories/all-free-videos/
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cgs-7APLJ0&list=UUGLppoZbffV8SpxrGV8TYZA&index=1
Get a sandbox environment for practicing
 Build your own dev VM
 Get 30 day Office 365 trial
or
 Try the templates available at CloudShare –
http://www.cloudshare.com

24. Call to Action
 Learn more about SharePoint Designer workflows
by watching the videos
 Dive into it to understand how it can benefit your
organization
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25. Questions?
Don’t forget to enter your evaluation
of this session using EventBoard!
Thank you!
Asif Rehmani
@asifrehmani
asif@sharepointElearning.com