Peter Plessers

Workflows in SharePoint 2013

About me

Peter Plessers

SharePoint Architect

Spikes

peter.plessers@spikes.be

@SpikesNV

www.spikestogether.com

We love workflows

What has changed?

Agenda
Workflow Architecture
Workflow Features
Workflow Development
Workflows & Apps

Workflow Architecture

Architecture SP2010
Tools
Visual Studio 2010

SP Designer

SharePoint 2010
SharePoint 2010 Workflow

Architecture SP2010
Declarative

.
xom
l

Code

.WF
3.5
.dll

.rules

Architecture SP2013
Tools
Visual Studio 2012

SP Designer

SharePoint 2013
Solution
Content
SharePoint
s
s
2010
Apps
Events
Workflow
Workflow Services Manager
Subscriptio
Deployment
n
Instances

Interop

Workflow Service Application

proxy

Workflow
Manager
ACS

Workflow
Service Bus

Architecture SP2013

Architecture SP2013
Declarative

.WF
4.5
.xaml

Architecture SP2013
Benefits
Move load from SharePoint to workflow
farm
Fully declarative workflows
Scalability
Reliability
SharePoint Online (SP Designer + VS)

DEMO

Workflow Manager Installation

Register Workflow Service

Register-SPWorkflowService SPSite
http://portal.dev.com/
WorkflowHostUri
http://localhost:12291
AllowOAuthHttp

Workflow Features

New Features

New Workflow Activities

Building Blocks
Stage
Loop
App Step
Parallel Block

New Workflow Activities

Workflow Activities
Call Web Service (HttpSend)
Go to stage

New Workflow Activities

Dynamic Value
Nested sets of key-value pairs
Used in combination with HttpSend
activity
Activities to manipulate DynamicValues

SharePoint Designer 2013

SharePoint Designer
Visual Designer (Visio Add-in)
Copy paste of configurations
Package list / site workflows

DEMO

Removed Workflow Features

No InfoPath forms
Auto-generated ASPX forms
Task Forms
Initiation Forms
Association Forms

Removed Workflow Features

Missing Workflow Activities
Document Set Activities
Permission Activities
Declare Record
Lookup manager of user

Removed Workflow Features

No Visio Visualization of WF Status
Only available for SP2010 workflows

Removed Workflow Features

Workflow Associations
No longer possible to associate
workflows with content types
Built-in workflows
No 2013 workflow version of approval
workflow, review workflow,

Development

Custom Development
Custom WF activity
Custom Task Form

Custom WF Activity
Custom WF activity
Lookup Assistant activity

DEMO

Custom WF Activity
Problems you might encounter
SharePoint ignores new version of WF
activity
Restart VS + check DB

SharePoint designer breaks

Clear SP Designer cache

Custom Task Form

Custom task form
Custom application page

DEMO

Workflow & Apps

SharePoint Apps
Cloud-hosted
apps
Get remote events
from SharePoint
Use CSOM/REST +
OAuth

Provider-hosted SharePoi
nt
App
Bring your own server
hosting infrastructure

Your
Hosted
Site

Web

Auto-hosted App SharePoi

Windows Azure + SQL
Azure provisioned
automatically as apps
are installed

SharePoint-hosted
App
Reuse (lists, out-of-box web
parts)
Client side technologies and
declarative workflows

Azure

nt Web

Host
web

App
Web
(from
WSP)

SharePoint Apps
SharePoint
hosted
SharePoin
t Web
App
Web

Cloud
hosted
Azure

SharePoin
t Web
App
Web

Your
Hoste
d Site

Workflows are deployed to the

App Web

How to deploy WFs to host

web?
Deploy workflows
Deploy workflow to app web
On App Installed Event
Use CSOM to publish your workflow
from app web to host web

From App Web to Host Web

Read workflow definition from app web
WorkflowDeploymentService.GetDefinition(id)
Publish workflow definition to host web
WorkflowDeploymentService.PublishDefinition
(def)
Create task + workflow history list
Publish subscription
WorkflowSubscriptionService.PublishSubscript

Questions?

Contact Info

Peter Plessers

peter.plessers@spikes.be

@SpikesNV

www.spikestogether.com

THANK YOU