I wrote up a detailed article a few weeks ago describing how to create a SharePoint Designer workflow that sends a task reminder email on a daily basis. It’s been published at the new SharePoint Magazine gune. More generally, artikuluan azaltzen SPD egitura begizta bat sortzeko.

The magazine has a wide variety of articles including, beste gauza batzuen artean, very technical stuff, interviews and industry news. I recommend you add it to your RSS feed.

If you have a product or service to sell, I’d also consider advertising on the site. It’s off to a strong start with several thousand pairs of eyes looking at it already. That’s sure to grow.

Azkenik, if you’ve been itching to write something and get it out in front of a larger audience, this is a great time and place to scratch it.

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Mark gehiagoko Miller Amaiera Erabiltzaile SharePoint has posted my latest article about using SharePoint Designer to create great workflow solutions up on his site. Ezazu.

Artikulu honetan, Hitz diseinu-prozesuari buruzko I eta, xehetasun handiagoz, nola ezarri fidagarri eta Errepikagarria proba prozesuan SharePoint erabiliz (Ohiko zerrendak, gune txantiloiak). The article targets End Users, baina hurbilketa da garatzaileentzat ona gehiegi.

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Azken astean, Nintzen lan nola loop eta estatuko makina bat ezartzeko SharePoint Designer erabiliz eta aipatu, bat alde batera utzita, zela I ziurrenik workflow hobeto mozteak buruz post blog bat idatzi.

Beno, Sanjeev Rajput beat me to it. Begirada bat.

Log datuak zerrenda pertsonalizatu batean gordetzen superior iruditzen erregularra workflow historia erabiliz:

• Zerrenda pertsonalizatu bat besterik ez da, beraz esportatu dezakezu excel oso erraz.
• Aldiz sor ditzakezu, dinamikoki datuak iragazi, etc.
• Ez da auto-purge workflow ohiko historia.

Daude arrisku batzuk / downsides:

• Askok datu gehiegi mozteak asko fluxuak eragin dezake zerrendan idatzi behar da.
• Maybe you *do* want automatic purging. You don’t get that feature with this approach (eduki ala ez).
• Security is tricky. In order to write to the list, the user must have permission to do so. That means that it’s probably not suitable for any kind of "official" audit since the user could discover the list and edit it. This could be overcome with some custom programming.

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This past week I finished off a proof of concept project for a client in Manhattan. While implementing the solution, Ran MOSS KPIs shortcoming beste I (ikus hemen KPI aurreko gai eta nire konpontzeko).

Aurrekariak: We used SharePoint Designer workflow to model a fairly complex multi-month long business process. As it chugged along, it would update some state information in a list. KPIs use this data to do their mojo.

We decided to create a new site each time a new one of these business processes kicks off. Aside from the workflow itself, guneak hauen antolatzailea hainbat dokumentu liburutegiak, use audience targeting and so forth. Just a bunch of stuff to help with collaboration among the internal employees, langile eta bezeroaren parte hartzen duten enpresa bazkide bidaiatzen.

Ere nahi dugu, osasun orokorra kontrolatzen duten enpresa-prozesuaren jakin batzuk KPIs egoera workflow-a datuak sustatu eta bisitaldiak KPIs erabiliz.

Azkenik, KPI Aldaketa bat egin duten elementuen zerrendan zerrenda bat ikuspegi bat erabili dugu, gune (datuak beste iturri batetik tiraka aurrean, excel edo SQL bezalako).

Arazoa da: Imajinatu dezakezu, oinarrizko ideia aurrera eramateko produkzio-mundu batean sartu ginen suposatuz, we would want a site template. Provision a new site based off a "business process" txantiloia.

The problem is that you can’t seem to get a functioning KPI that way. When I create a new site based on a template with a KPI List and KPI web part, the new site’s KPI data are broken. The new site’s KPI list points at whatever source you defined when you first saved it as a template.

Adibide moduan By:

• Create a new site and build it to perfection. This site includes the KPI data.
• Gorde txantiloi gisa.
• Gune berri bat sortu eta oinarri txantiloia off bada.
• Gune berri honek KPI elementuen zerrendan’ iturri gune plantilla, ez da uneko gunea.

Ez instantiation prozesua zuzendu URL.

I tried to solve this by specifying a relative URL when defining the KPI list item. Hala eta guztiz ere, Ezin izan dut lortu duten lan edozein aldaketa.

I always want to pair up these "problem" blog konponbidearen nolabaiteko mezu, but in this case I don’t have a good one. The best I can figure is that you need to go in to the newly provisioned site and fix everything manually. The UI makes this even harder because changing the URL of the source list causes a refresh, beraz, benetan duzu hutsetik gauza osoan birdefinitzeko.

Edonork kudeatzeko modu honetan hobeto daki, mesedez, post a comment.

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I’ve recently learned that it’s possible and even fairly easy to create a state machine workflow using SharePoint Designer. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that good stuff and I had a need this week that looked for an invention. Coincidentally, Topatu dut MSDN foro honetan post baita. My personal experience this week and that "independent confirmation" lends strength to my conviction. I plan to write about this at greater length with a full blown example, baina hemen da GIST da:

• Hurbilketa Izan ere, eu Zerrendako elementu bat aldatu ahal baliatzen, thereby triggering a new workflow. I’ve normally considered this to be a nuisance and even semaforoak erabiliz Blogetakoak hura kudeatzeko.
• SharePoint ahalbidetzen anitz independente fluxuak aktiboa izan da zerrenda-elementu jakin aurka.

Konfiguratzeko:

• Diseinatzeko zure egoera makina (hau da,, estatu eta nola estatu batetik bestera trantsizio).
• Ezartzea, egoera bakoitzean workflow independente gisa.
• Konfiguratzeko egoera fluxuak horietako bakoitza exekutatu zerrendako elementua edozein aldaketa erantzunez.

Egoera latza workflow bakoitzean patroi hau honela:

• Hasieratzea gainean, determine whether it should really run by inspecting state information in the "current item". Abort if not.
• Egin lana.
• Update the "current item" with new state information. This triggers an update to the current item and fires off all the state workflows.

Alde batera nabarmenak prestazio bat aitortzen duen egoera makina workflow bat sortu ahal, egoera informazio hori guztia eraikin KPIs eta interesgarria ikuspegietako emanaldirik.

Handi samarra izan eragozpen bat du — standard workflow history tracking is even more useless than normal 🙂 That’s easily remedied, Hala ere,. Store all of your audit type information in a custom list. That’s probably a good idea even for vanilla sequential workflow, but that’s for another blog post 🙂

I call this a "mea culpa" izan dudalako, zoritxarrez, said more than once on forums and elsewhere that one must use visual studio to create a state machine workflow. That simply isn’t true.

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It’s possible to cause an endless loop in a SharePoint Designer workflow. A common implementation pattern like this causes the problem:

• Sortu workflow bat eta zerrenda bat lotu.
• Adierazi behar dela, elementu berriak sortzen hasi eta lehendik dauden elementuak eguneratzeko.
• A step in the workflow updates a field in "Current Item".
• Uneko elementua aldatu, eu hasten da berriro.

Amaierarik gabeko begizta hau saihesteko, ezartzeko errazak semaforo bat:

• Gehitu gune zutabe bat (edo zerrenda / liburutegia zutabe ez bazaude eduki mota erabiliz).
• Ezkutatu editatzeko orritik (erraza egiten bada, bere propietate bidez zutabe gune bat, Ez da erraza zerrenda zutabe bat bada).
• Eu en, egiaztatzeko semaforo zutabe balioa hutsik badago ikusteko.
• Da hutsik badago, ezarri ez hutsik balio bat eta jarraitu.
• Aurkitzen ez bada hutsik, irten.

Honek nahiko ñabardura irtenbide bat izan daiteke, enpresa-beharren arabera eta abarren arabera, baina workable eredua izan da, beharrezkoa denean dut.

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Jende askok ezagutzen, Langileen Prestakuntza txantiloia Microsoft-ek emandako hemen akats bat ahal dugun erreproduzitu ondorengo pausuak ditu:

• Sortu klase bat max tamaina duen 10 ikasleak.
• Izena eman –> Total available seats properly decrements by one. Emaitza: 9 eskuragarri eserleku.
• Erregistroa: –> Bug. Total available seats should increment by one. It does not. Emaitza: 9 SharePoint bakoitzeko eserleku eskuragarri, baina, egia esan,, daude 10 eskuragarri eserleku.

Irtenbidea: Erabili SharePoint Designer workflow zuzentzeko.

Lehen, open up the site. The folder list for me looks like this:

If we have a look at the "Attendee registration" workflow, we see that there is a step labeled "Enforce seating policy". It looks like this:

This step in the workflow updates the item by incrementing the "Filled Seats" metadata column on the course. If we pull that up in more detail, honetan ikusiko dugu:

Duten informazioa erregistroa ezabatzean workflow konpondu behar dugun guztia.

Irauli dugu baino gehiago bada erregistroa ezabatzean eu, there is no similar workflow step. Add it as follows:

1: Expand "Attendee unregistration" eta ireki XOML du (Lehenengo pantailan ikusiko jaurtiketa zu galdu ezkero).

2: Berri bat gehitu workflow aldagai, "New Filled Seats" of type "Number".

3: Assign a value to "New Filled Seats" ikus daitekeen bezala:

4: Decrement betea estaliak arabera 1:

5: Eguneratu erlazionatutako ikastaroa elementua:

6: Make sure all the steps are in the right sequence. Niretzat, itxura hau atsegin du:

7: Amaitu eu berriro eraikiko da.

8: Test.

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Ereduak sortzen ari diren konponbideak aurkituko SharePoint crafting dut bat SharePoint Designer workflow eta gertaera hargailu bat baliatzen du.

Hona hemen enpresa eszenatoki jarri behar da testuinguru:

• Dokumentu bat igo dut doc lib bat.
• Off alboratzen dut anitzeko urratsa workflow sortu SharePoint Designer erabiliz.
• Prozesu horretan zehar uneren, workflow Zeregin bat esleitzen norbait (biltzeko bitartez erabiltzailearen datuak edo Zeregin bat).
• We want to use a KPI to track how long that task is awaiting completion. The KPI shows green for tasks that are completed or due more than 3 days from now. It shows yellow if the task is due tomorrow or today. It shows red if the task is past due.
• Hemen jaurtitzailearen da: Data hori KPI gidatzen duten opor-jakitun izan nahi dut.

I can’t calculate a holiday-aware due date in SharePoint Designer workflow very easily. I would have to create a custom action or use a 3rd party tool. Hala eta guztiz ere, it’s easy enough to calculate such a date in an event receiver. Merge those two together and we get a pattern like this:

• Define a hidden yes/no site column on the document library labeled "DoCalcualteDueDate".
• Hasieratu da faltsua.
• Eu dagokion momentuan (e.g. just before the "collect data" Ekintza), esleitzeko balioa duten True.
• ItemUpdate bat() event receiver looks to see if "DoCalculateDueDate" is true. Since the event receiver runs on every update, "DoCalculateDueDate" normalean faltsuak.
• Noiz workflow ematean egia DoCalculateDueDate, gertaera hartzailea jai-jakitun epemuga kalkulatzen.
• Noiz gertaera hartzailea kalkulua, hau da,, DoCalculateDueDate bandera ezartzen du faltsua.

Azkenean, SPD workflow is communicated with an event receiver via the DoCalculateDueDate semaphore and we have holiday-aware due dates that are assigned at the exactly correct moment in the workflow’s life. SharePoint Designer controls when the due date is assigned but the event receiver performs the actual calculation and assignment.

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UPDATE: I’ve been researching how to embed a SPD workflow into a site definition. This MSDN forum chain has some interesting information. It’s not conclusive, baina bide puntutatik oihanean.

I’m giving this post a slightly oddball "Observed Behavior" lead since I’m a little leery of drawing conclusions from it. SPD workflows are … temperamental.

People are often asking / wondering / fretting over moving SPD workflows from one place to another. Gaur egun, I followed these steps and made these observations:

• I created a workflow using SharePoint Designer in a site attached to a document library.
• The associated document library already housed several documents.
• I saved the site as a template.
• When I saved the site as a template, I saved the content as well.
• I created a new site in the same site collection using that template.

Puntu honetan, I tried to run the workflow. It promptly terminated itself with the log message, "Failed on start".

I expected this. I have low expectations when it comes to moving SPD workflows around.

I continued:

• Opened the site in SharePoint Designer.
• Had a peek at the workflow. It seemed fine.
• I clicked "Finish".
• I ran the workflow.

Oraingo honetan, fina lan egin ezazu.

I’ll add that this workflow used the "collect data from user" action which is a relatively complex action under the hood.

I tentatively conclude that the process of "finishing" the workflow caused SPD to properly associate the SPD workflow with the new document library. I also conclude the XOML and other XML artifacts are reasonably "loose". They are not super tightly coupled to the document library.

What does this mean? Assuming it’s a reliable and reproducible process, there’s at least one rough method we can use to move them around. I don’t know if this would work if we crossed site collection boundaries or even more drastically, entire new farms (e.g. dev to stage to prod).

If you’re reading this and inclined, please post a comment or email me your SharePoint Designer migration story. I’ll gladly update this posting with any insights thus offered.

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It’s often useful to store status information in a custom list such as an approval code which should never be directly manipulated by end users. This is a common business scenario. I have been working on a project this year that generates various status and reminder dates via SharePoint Designer workflows that then drive KPIs and generally support time-critical business processes.

Erabili gune eduki mota / zutabea efektu hori lortzeko.

Sortu gune eduki egoera zutabean mota erakusten:

Note the "Status (Demo for)" Azpiko eremuan.

Hurrengoa, click on the column name to access the column’s properties. Select "Hidden (Ezin izango da, forma agertzen)" Zutabearen Ezarpenak erakutsi atalean:

This removes the field from the standard edit/update forms. Hala eta guztiz ere, oraindik ez da ikusia eskuragarri, KPIs, objektu eredua eta beste inon erabili nahi duzun, including SPD workflow.

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