Nishant Rana's Weblog

Difference between workflow created using SharePoint Designer and Visual Studio Designer for Windows Workflow Foundation.

SharePoint Designer	Visual Studio 2005 Designer for Windows Workflow Foundation.
Can write only sequential workflows.	Can write both sequential and state machine workflows.
Automatic deployment against the specific list or library against which workflow is being designed.	Can be deployed as a feature.
Logic is defined declaratively using Steps which comprises of Conditions and Actions	Logic could be defined through custom code written using C# or VB.NET.
Workflows could be associated to a specific list or library.	Workflow can be authored as Template which once deployed could be associated with any list or library.
Workflow modifications not possible.	Workflow modifications are possible using Modification forms built using ASP.NET or InfoPath form.
Workflow markup, rules all are stored as a document library on the site.	Workflows are compiled as an .NET assembly.
Can’t be debugged.	Debugging is possible using Visual Studio.

Using Workflow Object Model in SharePoint.

I was assigned a task to create a simple aspx page where the user could see all the all the different documents, workflows running against them, workflows task information as well as workflow history.

Here we can make use of SPWorkflow and SPWorkflowTask class.

The page would be displaying the information in the following manner

Workflow status for following document :-SampleDocument1
Workflow name :- Approval Workflow
Workflow Task Title
First Team Task
Second Team Task
Third Team Task
Workflow History Description
The approval workflow has started waiting for and Second Team to respond
Task has been created and assigned to First and Second Team
First and Second team has completed their task

Workflow status for following document :- SampleDocument2
Workflow name :- Approval Workflow
Workflow Task Title
First Team Task
Workflow History Description
The approval workflow has started waiting for First and Second Team to respond

The sample code for getting the above information

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

//SPWorkflowManager myWFMgr = new SPWorkflowManager();

SPSite objSite = new SPSite(“http://servername:port”);

SPWeb objWeb = objSite.OpenWeb();

SPList myList = objWeb.Lists[“ListName”];

// for each document within the Library

foreach (SPListItem myListItem in myList.Items)

{

Response.Write(“Workflow status for following document :-” + myListItem[“Title”].ToString());

Response.Write(“”);

// Get the workflows associated

foreach (SPWorkflow myWF in myListItem.Workflows)

{

// Get the name of the workflow

Response.Write(“Workflow name :- “+ myWF.ParentAssociation.Name);

Response.Write(“”);

Response.Write(“Workflow Task Title ”);

Response.Write(“”);

// for each workflow running get the workflow tasks and history information

foreach (SPWorkflowTask myWFTask in myWF.Tasks)

{

Response.Write(myWFTask[“Title”].ToString());

Response.Write(“”);

}

// for each workflow running get the history information

Response.Write(“Workflow History Description “);

Response.Write(“”);

SPList myList1 = objWeb.Lists[“Workflow History”];

SPQuery query = new SPQuery();

query.Query = “<OrderBy><FieldRef Name=”ID”/></OrderBy>” +

“<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name=”WorkflowInstance”/>” +

“<Value Type=”Text”>{“ + myWF.InstanceId.ToString() + “}</Value>” +

“</Eq></Where>”;

SPListItemCollection historyListItems = myList1.GetItems(query);

foreach (SPListItem i in historyListItems)

{

Response.Write( i[“Description”].ToString());

Response.Write(“”);

}

Response.Write(“”);

}

That’s it …

Managing Tasks Permissions Programmatically within SharePoint using event reciever or using special permissions property

I was writing a workflow using SharePoint designer wherein at certain steps tasks were getting created and assigned to different user. But the problem with that was that any user having appropriate rights on the tasks list was able to edit the task.

Below are the two methods using which we can have only the assigned to user having the rights on that task.

It can be done using Event Receiver or within the SharePoint workflow using special permissions property.

public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)

{

// Name of the List

if (properties.ListTitle == “Tasks”)

{

// Get the SPSite Object

SPSite objSite = new SPSite(“http://servername:portname”);

// Point to the top level web site within it

SPWeb objWeb = objSite.OpenWeb();

// get the task list item getting created

SPListItem myListItem = properties.ListItem;

// get the id of the assigned to user

// we want that only assigned to user should have full rights on that task

string userAssignedTo=myListItem[“Assigned To”].ToString();

int index = userAssignedTo.IndexOf(‘;’);

int id = Int32.Parse(userAssignedTo.Substring(0, index));

// get the SPUser from the id

SPUser user = objWeb.SiteUsers.GetByID(id);

// break the role inheritance

myListItem.BreakRoleInheritance(false);

// webroledefinitions – Full Right, Design, Contribute and Read

SPRoleDefinitionCollection webroledefinitions = objWeb.RoleDefinitions;

SPRoleAssignment roleassignment = new SPRoleAssignment(user);

roleassignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add(webroledefinitions[“Full Control”]);

myListItem.RoleAssignments.Add(roleassignment);

// give full control right to the assigned to user

roleassignment.Update();

}

Or within workflow as

// handler for create task activity

private void createTask1_MethodInvoking(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

//Specify properties for the task

createTask1.TaskProperties.AssignedTo = @”domainusername”;

createTask1.TaskProperties.Title = @”Please complete the task”;

createTask1.TaskProperties.Description = “This is sample SharePoint Task”;

createTask1.TaskProperties.DueDate = DateTime.Now.AddDays(7);

createTask1.TaskProperties.EmailBody = “This is the sample email body ”;

createTask1.TaskProperties.SendEmailNotification = true;

// Define a HybridDictionary object

HybridDictionary permsCollection = new HybridDictionary();

// Give Administrator rights to the user to whom the task has been assigned

permsCollection.Add(createTask1.TaskProperties.AssignedTo, SPRoleType.Administrator);

// SpecialPermissions -the SpecialPermissions property in your code will strip out all existing permissions inherited from

// the parent list(Workflow Task List) and only adds permissions for each pair you added to the hashtable

createTask1.SpecialPermissions = permsCollection;

}

That’s it ….

Create a custom content type to be used with CreateTaskWithContentType activity in SharePoint Workflow

Create a folder at C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12TEMPLATEFEATURES for e.g. MyCustomContentTask.

Now add three xml files over there

Name them as

· Feature.xml

· MyCustomContentType.xml

· MyCustomContentTypeColumns.xml

First define your custom content type as following (MyCustomContentType.xml)

Our custom content type would be including two custom columns i.e. one for FirstName and other for LastName.

<?xml version=“1.0“ encoding=“utf-8“?>

<ContentType ID=“0x0108010011D80FDA18534a3f9A162A1F5D6187F0“

Name=“My Custom Content Type“

Group=“Custom Content Types“

Description=“Custom Content Type“

Version=“0“

Hidden=“FALSE“>

<FieldRef

ID=“{9A447D6C-5BB8-4890-80E5-056B60FF6462}“

Name=“_FirstName“

<FieldRef

ID=“{76CC8E55-59C9-40d6-B46B-A4C1D95B16CB}“

Name=“_LastName“

</FieldRefs>

</FormUrls>

</XmlDocument>

</XmlDocuments>

</ContentType>

</Elements>

ID- Id of the custom content type

0x0108010011D80FDA18534a3f9A162A1F5D6187F0

0x010801 –The id of the base content type the custom content type should derive from

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms452896.aspx

Followed by 00.

And a new guid 11D80FDA18534a3f9A162A1F5D6187F0.

Name- Name of the custom content type.

Hidden – Whether or not the users should see the content type.

FieldRefs – Collection of column references. Can contain one or more FieldRef.

FieldRef- Define the fields.

Id – Give a new guid.

Name – Name of the field

XmlDocument – Here we could define our custom form that should open when users creates, edit task or when the task is displayed.We can simply let it blank if we want to use the same forms that SharePoint uses for the default task.

Now to define the columns that we have just added we’ll put the following information in our MyCustomContentTypeColumns.xml file

For your custom columns (MyCustomContentTypeColumns.xml)

<?xml version=“1.0“ encoding=“utf-8“?>

<Field ID=“{9A447D6C-5BB8-4890-80E5-056B60FF6462}“

Name=“_ FirstName “

DisplayName=“First Name“

Group=“Custom Columns“

Type=“Note“

NumLines=“10“

Required=“ TRUE “>

</Field>

<Field ID=“{76CC8E55-59C9-40d6-B46B-A4C1D95B16CB}“

Name=“_ LastName“

DisplayName=“ Last Name“

Group=“Custom Columns“

Type=“ Note “

NumLines=“10“

Required=“TRUE“>

</Field>

</Elements>

Here we have two field tags corresponding to the FieldRef field defined in MyCustomContentType.xml.

ID- It should the same as defined for Field Ref field

Name- Same as defined for Field Ref field.

Type – Note i.e. appear as multiline text box.

Required – To make the field mandatory.

For more info for Field

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms437580.aspx

And for the Feature.xml

Id – Generate a new guid for the feature

Title – The name for the feature

ElementManifest- Defining the location of the above two files defining our custom content type.

<?xml version=“1.0“ encoding=“utf-8“?>

<Feature Id=“64CB36F5-BF1A-470e-A27F-213A9F170DA4“

Title=“My Custom Feature“

Description=“Represents a custom content type“

Version=“12.0.0.0“

Scope=“Site“

xmlns=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/“>

</ElementManifests>

</Properties>

</Feature>

Now install the feature and activate it using the stsadm tool

stsadm.exe -o installfeature -filename MyCustomContentTask Feature.xml

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename MyCustomContentTask Feature.xml -URL http://localhost:82

Now to use it

Go to your Lists à Settings àListSettings

Scroll down to find Add from existing site content types

Click on it and Select your new content type from Available Site Content Types.

That’s it..

Publishing workflow as an ASP.NET Web Service.

The workflows developed using windows workflow foundation can be published as a web service. To publish a workflow as a web service, we are provided with two activities. WebServiceInput and WebServiceOutput activity.

To create a workflow to be published as a web service do the following

Create a new Empty Workflow Project.

Add a new interface class to the project which would be used by our WebServiceInput activity.

Suppose this is our interface class.

interface IAddInterface

{

int AddNumber(int firstNumber, int secondNumber);

}

Now right click on the project and add a new Sequential Workflow.

Now drag and drop three activities. First WebServiceInput, Code and WebServiceOutput.

For webServiceInputActivity1 specify following properties.

InterfaceType –IAddInterface.

MethodName– AddNumber

As soon as method is added we’ll see two new properties added over there one for each parameter specified in the interface method.

i.e. firstNumber and secondNumber.

Create two variables to bind with them and one more variable to hold the result.

public int intFirstNumber;

public int intSecondNumber;

public int total;

Specify intFirstNumber, intSecondNumber for firstNumber and secondNumber property of webServiceInputActivity1.

Finally set IsActivating as true;

Now right click code activity and select generate handlers to create a handler method and specify the following code for it

private void codeActivity1_ExecuteCode(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

total = intFirstNumber + intSecondNumber;

}

Now select webServiceOutputActivity1 and set its properties as following

InputActivityName = webServiceInputActivity1

ReturnValue = Activity=AddWebServiceWorkflow, Path=total (i.e. to total variable)

That’s it now we want to publish it as workflow.

For this right click the project and Select Publish as a web servcie option.

This would create a new webservice which would be named as worklflowProjectName.worfklowMethodName_WebService.asmx.

Now we could use it just like any other web service created using ASP.NET.

WebServiceInputActivity recieves input from the client using the webservice. It can be associated with single web service method defined inside the interface. The WebServiceInputActivity can be followed by the set of activities which could be built in or custom activity. If the response has to sent back to the calling client than we need to make use of WebServiceOutputActivity.

Failed on Start (retrying) or Correlation Token in SharePoint Workflow

This error occurs mostly when the Correlation Token values has been not set properly for activities.

Correlation token– A correlation token is essentially a means of uniquely identifying each instance of a workflow, modification or task.

OnWorkflowActivated, OnWorkflowItemChanged,OnWorkflowItemDeleted, SetState, SendEmail and UpdateAllTasks these activities should be using same workflow token for e.g. workflowToken.

CreateTask, CreateTaskWithContentType,UpdateTask, DeleteTask, CompleteTask,RollbackTask, OnTaskChanged, OnTaskDeleted, OnTaskCreated these activites should be using same correlation token for e.g. taskToken.

EnableWorkflowModification, OnWorkflowModified should be sharing same correlation token for e.g. modificationToken.

Each distinct task or modification would be having it own distinct token.