Custom SharePoint Workflows

Transcription

1 Custom SharePoint Workflows Using SharePoint Designer 2013 SharePoint Workflows Microsoft SharePoint, as a collaboration platform, contains a huge amount of business data - documents, contacts, meetings, conversations, etc. A workflow is an automated process controlled by SharePoint that uses this information to replace many manual steps we undertake on a daily basis. Common examples of this include: the uploading of a document to a library may a supervisor to approve the document s changes; the addition of a meeting to a calendar might notify the support staff to get catering and print documents; adding a new vendor contact could trigger a process that approves and archives that vendor s contract. Workflows automatically necessary staff, update tasks and meetings, move documents from one location to another, and dozens of other useful tasks. Because of this, there are many opportunities to create custom workflows for your own situations. Custom SharePoint Designer Workflows In the browser, you ll find common workflows for approving documents, gathering signatures or feedback on documents, and approving the deletion of expired documents. Other, more complicated processes, or even processes that involve just one more step, need customization, and SharePoint Designer is the tool that aids that customization. The default in-browser workflows in SharePoint 2013 SharePoint Designer 2013 is a free download from Microsoft, so the limiting factor is whether the user has permissions on the SharePoint site to use Designer. To confirm your permission level, discuss these changes with your site administrator. If you are the site administrator, discuss your company s SharePoint Designer governance with the farm administrators. Types of Workflows In SharePoint 2013, there are list workflows, which are workflows that are created specifically for one list in a SharePoint site; reusable workflows, which can be implemented on many lists of the same type (all libraries, for example); and site workflows, which are connected to the site as a whole, not any specific list.

2 In This Document 2 Terminology 3 Setup for the Exercises 4 Library Workflow 6 Reusable Workflow 19 Site Workflow 26

3 Terminology 3 Workflow: The full automated process that changes settings, moves documents, creates list items, and s your coworkers. There are in-browser workflows, meaning that they are standard workflows that can be implemented entirely through the web browser as you visit the site. There are SharePoint Designer Workflows, which require you to use SharePoint Designer to create custom workflows. There are code-based workflows, which are programmed by software developers. This document is specifically concerned with SharePoint Designer workflows. Condition: Any value that is saved in SharePoint (the author of the document, the current date, the content type of the meeting), and can be used to make a decision. An example of a condition would be testing whether the due date of a task has passed. Step: Any set of conditions and actions, labeled and grouped together. Loop: Repeating a set of actions based on a condition. For example, send s until a task is completed. Else-If Branch: A test of a condition; if something is true, perform a specific action, else perform a different action. For example, if the department listed on the document is Executive, approve the document, else a manager for approval. Action: Any task that your workflow can perform. Examples of actions include ing, creating new list items, and changing values. Parameter: A value you can request from the user before the workflow begins. For example, if you start a workflow, you need to inform the workflow which billing center to use. Variable: A tool for storing information for use in the workflow. For example, you can save the current date as a variable called CurrentDate, then use it throughout the workflow to compare against other values.

4 Setup for this Document 4 Create a SharePoint Site If you do not have the necessary permissions, request a new SharePoint site from a current Site Administrator. If you do have those permissions, click Site Contents > New Subsite. Make sure you are listed as a member of the Owner group for this subsite, so that you can create all future materials. Create a Job Documentation Library 1. Create a New Library Click Site Contents > Add an App. Choose the button labeled Document Library. Name it Job Documentation. 2. Customize Your Library with a New Column Open Job Documentation and click Library > Create Column. Name the column Job Status and choose the third radio button, Choice. In the text field labeled Type each choice on a separate line:, enter Completed Job, Continuing Job, and Canceled Job on three separate lines. Scroll down to the text box labeled Default Value and clear the text box with the [Delete] key. Click OK. Create a Vendors List 1. Create a New Contact List Click Site Contents > Add an App. Choose the button labeled Contacts. Name it Vendors. Create an Interview Calendar 1. Create a New Calendar Click Site Contents > Add an App. Choose the button labeled Calendar. Name it Interview Calendar.

5 Setup for this Document 5 Open the Site in SharePoint Designer Launch SharePoint Designer 2013 In Windows 7, 8, or 10, press the [Windows] key, which opens your applications menu. Then begin typing SharePoint Designer. As you type, the search for this application will narrow down to the program you want. Simply click or press [Enter] to launch. 2. Open Your SharePoint Site in SharePoint Designer When SharePoint Designer opens, it will ask you to Open Site (an existing SharePoint site) and provide you Recent Sites. If you ve opened your site previously in SharePoint Designer, it may show up under Recent Sites. If not, click Open Site and enter the URL of your SharePoint site. SharePoint Designer should open the site, and you should have a ribbon at the top of the screen labeled Site. If so, you re ready for the exercises in this document now.

6 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 6 Creating a Workflow for Submitted Documents Our basic premise is this: when a team member submits a new document in our library (called Job Documentation), a supervisor must check the work that was done for this job, and confirm that the document is related to a completed job, a continuing job, or a canceled job. SharePoint should automatically notify the supervisor, and prompt them for this interaction. For this exercise to work, your site must have a library called Job Documentation. You must have your SharePoint site open in SharePoint Designer. Read the setup pages for detail on doing this. 1. Create a New List Workflow for the Library Click Site > List Workflow > Job Documentation. Name your workflow something self-explanatory, like Job Documentation Approval and Categorization. A description is beneficial, because it s difficult to remember the point of your actions after several months. Click OK. At the end of this step, a new workflow should be created, and SharePoint Designer will take you to a screen editing that workflow. 2. Request an Initiation Form Parameter To ask the person who is submitting the document who their supervisor is, create an Initiation Form Parameter for a Person. Click Workflow > Initiation Form Parameters. Click Add on the dialog box that opens. Give the Field Name text field the name Supervisor s Name. Enter a simple description, like Which supervisor should review this document? Set the Information Type drop-down menu to Person or Group. Click Next >. On the Show Field drop-down menu, select Name, so that the field will show the full name of the supervisor, instead of User ID or any other option. Select People Only from the Allow selection of section. Choose from All Users. Deselect Allow blank values? and Allow multiple values?.

7 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 7 These settings will require that the submitter of this document select an individual person as the supervisor to approve the document. Click Finish on the Column Settings dialog box, then click OK on the Association and Initiation Form Parameters dialog box. At the end of this step, you should be back to a screen that has simply Step 1 on it, and an orange bar where you can begin to work. The Initiation Form Parameter you ve created will be presented to a user when they start this workflow. If you need to work with your Initiation Form Parameter, you can click the Initiation Form Parameter button at the top of the screen, and edit or delete it. 3. Add the Action to Step 1 Click Workflow > Action > Send an . This will add the text these users to Step 1. As you can see, the words these users is a blue, underlined link. To complete the action, click the words these users.

8 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 8 To the right of the To field on the Define Message dialog box, you ll find a button with an address book on it. Click the address book button. On the dialog box that appears, select Workflow Lookup for a User... and click Add >>. The dialog box that appears is asking who we should send the to. In Step 2, we asked the user who their supervisor is, and now we can use this information. For Data source, select Workflow Variables and Parameters. From Field from source, select Parameter: Supervisor s Name. On Return field as, select Address. Click OK, then click OK on the Select Users dialog box to return to the Message. To the right of the CC field on the Define Message dialog box, you ll find a button with an address book on it. Click the address book button. On the dialog box that appears, select Workflow Lookup for a User... and click Add >>. As you can see, we re repeating the steps we used on the From field, but this time we re doing it so that we can CC the person who started the workflow. From the dialog box that appears, select the Data source Workflow Context. Select the Field from source Initiator, and select to Return field as Address. Click OK. Click OK.

9 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 9 To the right of the Subject field, you ll see a button with an ellipsis on it [...]. Click [...]. The dialog box that opens is helping you construct a Subject line for the . Our plan will be to state: [User Name] has submitted a new document for approval Click the Add or Change Lookup button at the bottom-left, and choose Data Source: Workflow Context. Select Field from source: Initiator. Select Return field as: Display Name. This will find the initiator of the workflow, and find their name. Insert the name by clicking OK. Complete the Subject by typing has submitted a new document for approval. Click OK.

10 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 10 Now, click in the body of the . We ll start out with an address to the person who ll be approving the document. Click Add or Change Lookup, and choose Data source Workflow Variables and Parameters, Field from source Parameter: Supervisor s Name, and Return field as Display Name. Click OK. Once back in the body of the , type a comma after the lookup for the person s name, then hit [Enter] to move to the next line. For the body of this , type: A new document was submitted for approval. Please follow this link to read over the document, then set the value for Job Status to the appropriate setting. After this, click the Add or Change Lookup button, and choose Data source Current Item and Field from source Encoded Absolute URL. Click OK.

11 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 11 Finally, type Thank you, and on the next line, click the Add or Change Lookup button again. From this dialog box, choose Data source Workflow Context, Field from source Initiator, and Return field as Display Name. When you feel you ve entered the information for this correctly, click OK. At the end of this step, you should return to a screen with Step 1, but now the text inside Step 1 says Parameter: Supervisor s Name. When the workflow begins, it will the Supervisor (CC ing the initiator of the workflow), and provide a link that the supervisor can use to check the document.

12 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) Create a Task Now, there should be an orange bar in the Step 1 segment, after Parameter: Supervisor s Name. Use this to add another Action to the Step - creating a Task for the Supervisor. Click Workflow > Action > Assign a To-do Item. This will enter the text then Assign a to-do item to these users. Click the link a to-do item to describe the new task that will be assigned. Read the details on the Custom Task Wizard Dialog, and click Next >. This will bring you to a screen where you can name the new task to be created, and give the users who are assigned this task a bit of a description. Type these details in: Name: Document Approval and Categorization Description: A document has been submitted for categorization. Click Finish. To assign it to the proper person, click the text these users. In the Select Users dialog, select Workflow Lookup for a User... and click Add >>. Select Data source Workflow Variables and Parameters; Field from source Parameter: Supervisor s Name; and Return field as As String. Click OK twice to lock in the values on the task. At the end of this step, you should have Step 1 with (1) ing the supervisor, and (2) Creating a task for the supervisor. Now, the workflow will wait for the supervisor to complete their task. If they don t complete the task, it will them on a regular basis to do it. Once the task is completed, we d like to move on to a new step, where SharePoint s the workflow s initiator and lets that person know everything is complete.

13 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) the Initiator After the Task is Completed Both Actions so far have been performed in the same Step. Creating a new Step will allow us to segment Actions to contact and inform the supervisor from Actions to inform the initiator we are done. Click after Step 1, so the orange bar is outside the Step 1 box. Click Workflow > Step, and see Step 2 being created. Now that the orange cursor is blinking in Step 2, let s add the Action that will the Initiator. Click Workflow > Action > Send an . Click these users. To the right of the To field, click the Address Book button.

14 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 14 Select Workflow Lookup for User..., and click Add >>. Select Data source Workflow Context, Field from source Initiator, and Return field as Address, which will select the address of the person who started the workflow process. Click OK to the Lookup for Person or Group dialog box, and OK for the Select Users dialog box. To complete the , type a Subject of Your document has been categorized. Click in the body of the , and type: The document you submitted for approval and categorization has been reviewed. Thank you. On the next line down, type Document Name: and press the Add or Change Lookup button in the bottom-left. Choose Data source Current Item and Field from source Name. Click OK. On the next line down, type Document Address: and press the Add or Change Lookup button in the bottom-left.

15 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 15 Choose Data source Current Item and Field from source Encoded Absolute URL. Click OK. Your finished should look something like this: Click OK. At the end of this step, you should have a second step that s the Initiator when the workflow is finished.

16 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) Check Settings, Save, and Publish At the top of the screen, on the Workflow tab, click Workflow Settings. This will bring you to a panel with the settings for the workflow. In the section labeled Start Options, make sure only the checkbox for Allow this workflow to be manually started is selected. Finally, at the top of the screen, click Save. Then click Publish. Publish will make the workflow available to users of the library. 7. Test the Workflow Open your SharePoint site and click the Job Documentation link in the Quick Launch bar. Upload a document to the library. Click Files > Upload Document. Then, Browse for the document you would like to add to the library. For testing purposes, choose any document on your hard drive. Click OK. Submit the document for approval. Click the Word icon to the left of the file name, which will mark a checkbox for that file. Then click Files > Workflows.

17 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 17 From the Job Documentation: Workflows: [Your File Name] page, you ll see Job Documentation Approval and Categorization, the workflow you created. Click this workflow. In the Supervisor s Name text box, enter the information for your account. Click Start. You re returned to the library, and a new column appears called Job Documentation Approval and Categorization (the name of our workflow). The status of the workflow is listed, as well as a link that will show all the details of the workflow s process.

18 Creating a List Workflow (Ex. 1) 18 Additionally, open your , and you should receive the notification we constructed very soon. Look for the details you added, as well as the link to the document. Slightly later, you ll also receive an stating a Task was created for you that you must complete. Investigate the task, the document, and the workflow history for this document. Finally, change the Job Status value and complete the task that was created. A final will be sent to your account, as the initiator of the workflow. At the end of this step, you should see all the parts of the workflow operating correctly.

19 Creating a Reusable Workflow (Ex. 2) 19 Creating a Workflow to Solve a Common Problem The scenario for this workflow is: individual SharePoint users all over our site input information about a national vendor who provides us services at our various offices all over the country. Because they deal with the vendor in their area, when they input the address, city, and state information, they provide the local information. With a workflow, we can identify the company being referenced, and if the condition is met (Company XYZ), we will fill the Notes field with the national contact information. This will be done with a Reusable Workflow, so it can be applied to any contact list in the future. To follow this exercise, you must have a list called Vendors and have your SharePoint site open in SharePoint Designer. Read the setup pages for detail on doing this. 1. Create a New Reusable Workflow Click Site > Reusable Workflow. Name your workflow Vendor National Contact Information, and provide a description of something immediately understandable, like Identifies large, national vendors, and supplies their headquarters contact information in the Notes field of a new contact. Specify that the Content Type for this workflow is Contact, so the workflow knows which fields it has available to work with. Click OK. At the end of this step, you will have a new Reusable Workflow, able to be applied to any list with contacts in it. You will have a blinking orange cursor in Step 1, ready for you to insert any Conditions and Actions.

20 Creating a Reusable Workflow (Ex. 2) Add a Condition Testing for a Company Name To test for the company name of the record being added, click Workflow > Condition > If current item field equals value. This should add a line to Step 1. To start, click field from this line. From the drop-down, choose Company Name. Now click value. Simply type Company XYZ and press [Enter]. At the end of this step, we ve put in a test for a particular condition in any contact list. Now, we must add an Action to perform once the condition has been met. 3. Add an Action to the Condition In order for the action to only occur when the condition is met, the orange blinking cursor must be below, and indented from the If block. See the next page for examples:

21 Creating a Reusable Workflow (Ex. 2) 21 Correct Position (below, indented inside the box) Incorrect Position (below, but on the same level, and outside the box) Click Workflow > Action > Sent Field in Current Item. This will add a section stating Set field to value. Click the field link, and choose Comments. Click the value link, and click the Ellipsis button [...]. Type: Headquarters Broadway New York, NY Click OK.

22 Creating a Reusable Workflow (Ex. 2) 22 At the end of this step, You will have a workflow that tests whether the company information entered matches a particular value, and if it does, enters some supplementary information into the Notes field. *Note: Microsoft is using Notes and Comments interchangeably here. Apologies for any confusion. 4. Check Settings, Save, and Publish Click Workflow > Workflow Settings at the top of the screen. Notice your Start Options section - currently, any administrator who decides to apply this workflow can choose to have it start manually, or automatically on creation and/or editing.

23 Creating a Reusable Workflow (Ex. 2) 23 Press Save, then press Publish. At the end of this step, your workflow will be published to your site, and be available for any Contact list to use. 5. Implement the Workflow In the browser, open your Vendors contact list you built earlier. Click List > Workflow Settings. As you can see, even though we ve created this Reusable Workflow, it isn t being implemented yet. Click the drop-down menu for Show workflow associations of this type and choose Contact. Click Add a workflow.

24 Creating a Reusable Workflow (Ex. 2) 24 At the bottom of the menu for Select a workflow template, you ll find Vendor National Contact Information, the name of our workflow. Select it. Enter a unique name, like Adding National Contact Information. The only other relevant selection in this workflow is how the workflow is started. Go to the Start Options section, deselect the checkbox for Allow this workflow to be manually started, and select the checkboxes for Creating a new item as well as Changing an item. Click OK. Using the links on your Quick Launch Bar, return to the Vendors contact list. At the end of this step, you have informed the contact list Vendors that a workflow should be initiated every time a new item is added, or an existing item is edited. We should be able to test this workflow simply by adding a new record.

25 Creating a Reusable Workflow (Ex. 2) Test the Workflow Click New Item on your Vendors list. Enter the text information for an individual (maybe yourself), but specifically enter your Company information as Company XYZ. Click Save. This should take you back to your Vendors list. To see whether the workflow did its job, click on the record you created to re-open it. You should see the following: At the end of this exercise, you should see that a workflow can be created for all of one kind of list, then implemented on a list. You should also see that you can decide whether to do something based on a Condition.

26 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) 26 Creating a Form That Performs Multiple Steps While both the List Workflow and Reusable Workflow are ultimately associated with interaction with a list or library on the SharePoint site, the Site Workflow is a little different. A user of a Site Workflow will fill out a form and press OK, and multiple things on the SharePoint Site will happen automatically. Our example is: our team needs to interview new caterers. We will create a form that allows us to add the caterer to our Vendors contact list, as well as the Interview Calendar. To follow this exercise, we must have a SharePoint Site with a Vendors contact list and an Interview Calendar. We must have the SharePoint site open in SharePoint Designer. Read the setup pages for detail on doing this. 1. Create a New Site Workflow In SharePoint Designer, click Site > Site Workflow. Name it Prospective New Vendors, and type a Description like Site Workflow designed to create a new interview appointment and new contact record for a prospective vendor. Click OK. At the end of this step, you should have a Site Workflow with a name, a description, and a blinking orange cursor inside a box labeled Step 1.

27 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) Gather Information from the Initiator To know details like who is the vendor and when is the meeting, we create a form for Initiation Form Parameters. Click Workflow > Initiation Form Parameters. Click Add. For the first Field name, enter Vendor Name. Leave the setting for Information type at Single line of text. Click Next >. Leave the Default Value blank, and click Finish.

28 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) 28 Repeat these steps. Click Add. Enter a Field name of Contact First Name, as a Single line of text. Click Next >. Leave the Default Value blank, and click Finish. Click Add. Enter a Field name of Contact Last Name, as a Single line of text. Click Next >. Leave the Default Value blank, and click Finish.

29 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) 29 Click Add. Enter a Field name of Contact Phone Number, as a Single line of text. Click Next >. Leave the Default Value blank, and click Finish. Click Add. Enter a Field name of Meeting Start, as a Date and Time field. Click Next >. Choose a Default value of [None]. Deselect the checkbox for Allow blank values? Display format should be Date and Time. Select the checkbox to Require values be greater than the date and time the form is loaded. Click Finish. Click OK on the Association and Initiation Form Parameters dialog box. At the end of this step, you should have many values (Vendor Name, Contact First Name, Contact Last Name, Contact Phone Number, and Meeting Start) being gathered from the initiator to properly create a contact and a meeting. You should be shown a Step 1 box with a blinking orange cursor. Now, we ll create the meeting and the contact.

30 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) Adding the Actions We want this workflow to create a contact and a meeting based on the Initiation Form Parameters we ve collected. Click Action > Create List Item. Click the entry this list, and choose from the List drop-down menu Vendors. Click the field Last Name (*), and click the Modify... button. To the right of the text box for To this value, choose the fx button. This will open a dialog box we ve used in previous examples:

31 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) 31 For Data source, choose Workflow Variables and Parameters, and for Field from source, choose Parameter: Contact Last Name. Click OK, then click OK. Now, we ll be adding entries for their First Name, Company Name, and Business Phone. Click Add... Choose the Set this field drop-down menu to First Name, then click fx. For Data source, select Workflow Variables and Parameters, for Field from source, choose Parameter: Contact First Name. Click OK, then click OK. Click Add... Choose the Set this field drop-down menu to Company, and click fx.

32 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) 32 For Data source, select Workflow Variables and Parameters, for Field from source, choose Parameter: Vendor Name. Click OK, then click OK. Click Add... Choose the Set this field drop-down menu to Business Phone, and click fx. For Data source, select Workflow Variables and Parameters, for Field from source, choose Parameter: Contact Phone Number. Click OK, then click OK. At this point, your Create New List Item dialog box should look like this: Click OK to complete the first list item, the contact in the Vendors list.

33 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) 33 Now we will create our second action, creating an end time. If you notice, we only asked for the start time from the workflow initiator, so we ll need to save an end time that s 60 minutes in the future. Click Workflow > Action > Add time to date. Click the 0 link in the pictured entry, and type 60. Click the date link in the pictured entry, and select the fx button. Set Data source to Workflow Variables and Parameters, and Field from source to Parameter: Meeting Start. Finally, click the link Variable: date1, and choose Create new Variable. Name the variable End time. At the end of this step, you should see that you can create and save information you need, even if you didn t ask for it at the beginning of the workflow. Saving the End Time as a new variable allows us to set both the start and end of the upcoming meeting action.

34 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) 34 Now it is time to perform our third action, creating a meeting on our calendar. Click Workflow > Action > Create List Item. Once again, click the entry this list to specify which list to create a new item in. Choose Interview Calendar from the List drop-down menu. You screen should look like this: Select the entry Title and click Modify:

35 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) 35 To the right of the To this value text box, click the Ellipsis button [...]. Type Prospective Vendor Interview with In the bottom-left, click the Add or Change Lookup button. Set Data source to Workflow Variables and Parameters, Field from source to Parameter: Vendor Name. Click OK, then OK, then OK. This will return you to the Create New List Item dialog. Next, select Start Time and choose Modify...

36 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) 36 Now click the fx button to the right of To this value. Set Data source to Workflow Variables and Parameters, and Field from source to Parameter: Meeting Start. Click OK, then OK to return to the Create New List Item dialog box. Finally, select End Time and click Modify... Click the fx button to the right of To this value, and choose Workflow Variables and Parameters for the Data source, as well as Variable: End Time for Field from source. Click OK, then OK, then OK. You will be returned to your workflow with three actions in a single step. At the end of this step, you have used the Initiation Form Parameters to create a new Vendor record, add 60 minutes to the Start Time, and create a new Calendar Event.

37 Creating a Site Workflow (Ex. 3) Save and Publish Click the Save button, then the Publish button. 5. Test Your Workflow Open your SharePoint site in the browser, then click Site Contents in the Quick Launch Bar. In the top-right, there are a set of buttons for SITE WORKFLOWS, SETTINGS, and RECYCLE BIN. Select Site Workflows. You should see your new workflow - Prospective New Vendors. Click that workflow. Fill out the form with the required information, and click Start. Then visit your calendar and your Vendor list. You should see your new listings there. At the end of this exercise, you should see that a Site Workflow is a simple form that collects the necessary information to perform many other actions - creating list items, updating information, and ing people. You should also see that you can calculate information using actions and variables, so you can get additional information above what you d already have collected.