Scenario: I have an InfoPath form that front-ends a workflow process implemented using SharePoint Designer.  At one point, a manager must approve the form.  Since I cannot count on workflow history to meet my auditing requirements, I decide to store my own auditing message directly on the form itself.

Overview:

Design the form and publish it as a content type and the form itself to a document library.  Mark desired form fields as being updateable from MOSS.  The form is tied to the content type and the content type is "attached" to a forms library (or many, if you want).  Write a workflow that updates the field.

Specific Steps:

1. Create a document library.  This will hold your InfoPath template.
2. Create a forms library. 
3. Create the InfoPath form.  Include a text field, "Audit Message". 
4. Publish the form as a content type (NOT a document).
5. While filling out the publishing dialogs:
   a) Save the .xsn file to the document library (step #1).
   b) Publish the "Audit Message" field and mark true: "Allow users to edit data in this field by using a datasheet or properties page".
   c) Create a new content type and give it an appropriate name.
6. Access the forms library.
   a) Go to its advanced settings and enable the forms library to manage content types.
   b) Select the newly created content type (5c above).  It will be grouped under "Microsoft InfoPath" (or similar).
   c) Remove the default "Form" content type from the library.
   d) Mark the library to "show as web page" so that the form will launch from SharePoint and not the InfoPath workstation client.
7. Go back to the forms library proper and click "New" to simply verify that the form is posted correctly and acting as you want.
8. Fire up SharePoint Designer and navigate to the site that hosts your form library (from step 2).
9. Create a new workflow attached to the forms library.
10. Add a single action "Set Field in Current Item".  You should expect SharePoint Designer to list your your field, "Audit Message".  Assign it a value.
11. Click Finish and go back to the form library.
12. Create a new form and put some test value into the "Audit Message" field.
13. Save it and go back to the form library.
14. Right-click, select "Workflow" and start up your workflow.
15. It should run almost immediately.  Pull up the form (from step 12) and if all has gone to plan, "Audit Message" has been assigned whatever value you provided in step 10.

Notes:

Not all controls may configured for this bi-directional communication.  For example, it does not seem to implement an SPD workflow that modifies text fields wrapped inside repeating sections. 

One of the key take-away’s here is that we’ve really created a content type with an associated template.  This also enables us to store multiple InfoPath form templates in the same form library.

This requires forms server.  It’s most certainly not going to work in a WSS 3.0 environment and probably even requires an Enterprise SharePoint environment.

UPDATE: This has been released to CodePlex here: http://www.codeplex.com/spdwfextensions

UPDATE: See here for latest release notes: http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!1CC1EDB3DAA9B8AA!381.entry

UPDATE: See here for my thoughts on commercializing this project: http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!1CC1EDB3DAA9B8AA!569.entry

This project provides a custom activity in SharePoint Designer.  Use this custom activity to invoke (dispatch) any C# function that you incorporated into the linked assembly.

As of late October, 2007, this is just an initial version of the project.  I plan to expand it with a number of additional functions, including substring, index, replace, invoking web services and anything that seems useful or interesting.  I also plan to post this to codeplex once I have my act together on that front.  This will also be deployable as a solution at some point.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please leave them in comments or email me.

Disclaimer:

I make absolutely no claims as to the suitability of this for any purpose.  Use at your own risk.

Installation steps (to be followed for each WFE in the farm):

1. Download the .zip and extract.

2. Install the .dll into the GAC.  I usually open c:\windows\assembly using windows explorer and copy it there.

3. Modify web.config to add the assembly to the safe controls:

<System.Workflow.ComponentModel.WorkflowCompiler>
  <authorizedTypes>

<authorizedType Assembly="SpdGenericInterface, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=abe076fd8125f3c4" Namespace="Nivlag" TypeName="*" Authorized="True" />

4. Copy "SpdGenericInterface.actions" to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\Workflow

Note that the above location is specific to english language installations.

5. Close SharePoint Designer (if it’s already open).

6. iisreset

7. Open SPD and create a new workflow.

If all goes well, you should be rewarded with a new category of action:

Notes:

See here (http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdesigner/archive/2007/03/15/adding-activities-to-spd.aspx) for a terrific overview of the process for creating, installing and configuring a solution like this.

The .zip is designed to extract directly to you c:\ drive.  If you do this, you can open the project and all the paths will be consistent.

To use this in visual studio, you probably need to install "Extensions for Windows WF".

The initial upload contains just one "dispatcher function", "ToLower()".  To add more functionality, add it to the Execute method as shown:

 protected override ActivityExecutionStatus
          Execute(ActivityExecutionContext executionContext)
        {

            string functionToDispatch;
            functionToDispatch = this.DispatchFunction.ToLower();

            switch (functionToDispatch)
            {
                case "tolower()":
                    {
                        this.OutResult1 = this.InParam1.ToLower();
                        break;
                    }

                default:
                    {
                        this.OutResult1 = "Unknown function: [" + this.DispatchFunction + "].";
                        break;
                    }
            }

            return ActivityExecutionStatus.Closed;
        } // ActivityExecutionStatus

    }

Then, re-build the project and copy the assembly to the GAC.  I expect an iisreset would be required.

Part of the process for creating a custom action for SharePoint Designer involves create a ".actions" file.

I’ve found and tried to use a sample template which starts off as:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
  <WorkflowInfo xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <Actions Sequential="then" Parallel="and">

However, that xmlns attribute prevents my environment from working.  My actions don’t show up in SPD. 

The solution is to strip out the xmlns attribute, do an iisreset and close/re-open SPD.