SharePoint 2010 – Work Flows

Pre-requisite for creating custom work flows

1. NET Framework 3.5 (Web service | Ado.net | WCF)
2. ASP.NET 3.5
3. InfoPath 2010 – design and customise
4. Windows Work Flow foundation 3.5
5. SharePoint 2010

SP Work Flow is all about adding human/people interaction to business processes for

• approval,
• Awareness
• Accountability
• Take control over
• Decision Making

SPWF is built on the top of Windows Work Flow Foundation API 3.5

Types of SP Work Flows

1. Simple Content Approval(doesn’t use work flow foundation, it is a simple column status changes)
2. Out of the box work flow templates(Available only on SharePoint Enterprise edition)
3. Visio based
4. SharePoint designer Work Flow
5. Re-usable work flow
6. Site work flow
7. Custom work flow using Visual Studio

Work flow Features

1. Built in support to work flow persistence secured and stored in content databases
2. Different types of work flow templates provides out of the box for common senarios
1. Approval
2. Collect Feed back
3. Collect signature
4. Three state
5. Disposition approval
3. Options to extend and customize out of the box work flow templates
4. Multi stage approval support to the built in templates
5. Visio based work flow templates(It clearly separates abstract business process flow designed by Business Analyst and concrete implementation by developer)
6. Options to export work flow implementation to Visio diagrams
7. Options to work flow implementation into wsp deployment package.
8. Visio based work flow visualization summary
9. SP designer based work flow for
10. API for building custom activities for SPD based work flow
11. Parallel execution option support in SharePoint designer based work flow
12. New work flow event receivers to respond to workflow run time state changes (event receivers are specialized components that handle events generated by SP infrastructure for custom actions.
1. Types of Event Receivers
1. Feature event receivers
2. List ER
3. Item ER
4. Work Flow ER
5. Incoming Email ER
13. Visual studio project templates for custom work flow
14. Work Flow object model and web service support for programmatic access
15. Site work flow for handling interaction with multiple libraries and lists.
16. Reusable work flow for supporting multiple content types
17. SharePoint designer improvements with regards to creating InfoPath forms for site work flow , re-usable work flow and SPD work flow