Guest Author: Asif Rehmani – SharePoint Server MVP, MCT
SharePoint eLearning

This article is the third in the series trying to demystify all that SharePoint Designer 2010 has to offer. Check out the other two articles here:

User Interfaces of SharePoint Designer 2010

Site Level Customizations and Settings using SharePoint Designer 2010

Also, related to this article, you can watch the SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflow videos we have available here:

Create a Site Workflow and modify its form using InfoPath

An end to end process using InfoPath 2010 for forms and Visio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010 for Workflows

Create Reusable Workflows using SharePoint Designer 2010 and attach to Content Types

Note: I am trying something new with this blog entry and would Love your feedback (in the comments area). Check out the animation at the bottom of this blog entry. If you like it and would like me to continue using this feature, let me know please. Thanks!

Types of Workflows

The Workflow Designer in SharePoint Designer 2010 is used to create workflows on the currently opened SharePoint site. There are 3 types of workflows that can be created using SharePoint Designer: List, Reusable, Site.

Each type of workflow has its reason for existence and will be (should be) used by used by Site Admins, Power Users and Designers of the site. Workflows in SharePoint sites are used to create robust processes using components of the site. They can interact with users, lists and libraries. The other ways to create workflows on top of SharePoint are Browser based and using Visual Studio. Out-of-box browser based workflows are good for many scenarios, but they are simpler in nature and cannot be modified further using the browser. While Visual Studio workflows are extremely powerful and scalable, but require coding skills to implement.

Following is a quick breakdown of how the 3 SharePoint Designer workflows are used and why you would use them:

List Workflow – Using this mechanism, you attach the workflow directly to a list or library on the site. Use this workflow when you are making a workflow that’s very specific to a list or library and does not need to be later used on a different list or library.

Reusable Workflow – This type of workflow is created with reusability in mind. Create a reusable workflow when you intend to attach it to a content type and use that content type in a list or library.

Site Workflow – Site based workflow does not require to be attached to a list or library. It works on the site itself. Use this workflow if you do not want to restrict the automated process to a list or library on the site. For example, you can use the site workflow to take a survey of the site members or to execute a process on a Document Set (new functionality in SharePoint 2010).

You don’t necessarily have to start creating a workflow from scratch. The out-of-box workflow templates (Approval, Collect Feedback and Collect Signatures) that can be used in the browser can also be extended using the workflow designer. Meaning, if you like the way these workflows work, but just want to tweak it to your liking, you can do that! These workflows are categorized as Globally Reusable Workflows and are visible and available at every site in the site collection.

A word of caution: Be careful while working with these! If you modify any of these from directly the root site of your site collection, then you are modifying the actual workflow template that’s in use at your site collection. Whatever changes you make will take effect everywhere in your site collection where this workflow is being used. If you click on any of these workflows from a subsite, it will instead inform you that a copy of the workflow will be made that you can further modify (I would recommend doing this and Not changing the out-of-box workflow template).

Workflow Designer Interface

Let’s look at the workflow designer interface that’s used to configure the workflows. You get to the design interface by either creating a new workflow or by clicking on an existing workflow and then clicking on the Edit Workflow link on the summary page of the workflow.

The workflow designer interface is where you define the complete logic of the workflow. To put it simply, SharePoint Designer workflows consist of steps which are executed sequentially in the order they are placed in the workflow designer. Clicking on the Step button in the ribbon inserts a new step in the workflow designer interface. Within the step, you can place Conditions and Actions. Clicking on the Condition button will show you all of the conditions that are available.

A conditional logic statement is used to look out for a specific possibility. If the condition is true, then whatever is encapsulated within the conditional block will be executed. Otherwise, the workflow process will move on to the next conditional logic statement (if one exists). Programmers have been using the conditional logic construct (If… Else If… Else) for decades now. Now information workers also have the power to write their own business logic without coding!

Actions are the actual statements which execute a certain activity (ex: Creating a List Item, Checking in an Item, Sending Email etc). The image below shows a snapshot of a partial list of the actions available in the designer environment.

Parallel Block

Each of the actions and conditions can be moved around rather easily within the step or even from one step to another. Just click on the action/condition you would like to move and click the Move Up or Move Down button in the ribbon. The default nature of the actions you place in the workflow steps is sequential. The first action takes place then the next and so on. This is made evident by the word then that appears preceding every action within the step after the first action. There will be many instances where you need the actions to take place in parallel. For example, if an action calls for collecting data from a user, the process will not move on to the next action until that action is accomplished and the user who the data is being fetched from provides the data. If you want actions to fire in parallel, you can use the Parallel Block functionality. You first start by placing the parallel block within the step right up close to the actions you want to run in parallel and then by clicking on the Parallel Block button in the ribbon.

The below animation highlights the following:

• Moving actions up and down
• Parallel block

Remember that there is no Undo button in the workflow designer so that if you make a mistake, you just need to undo it manually the old fashioned way .

That’s it for now. I’ll be back with more information on workflows in my next article. There are still many things to be discussed such as workflow settings, impersonation steps, parallel blocks, association columns, nested steps and a whole lot more. Stay tuned…

Guest Author: Asif Rehmani – SharePoint Server MVP, MCT
SharePoint eLearning

Asif has over 10 years of training and consulting experience in the IT industry. He has been training and consulting on primarily SharePoint technologies for over 4 years. He is a SharePoint Server MVP and MCT.

Asif is the co-author of the book “Professional SharePoint Designer 2007“ by Wrox publications. He has also been a speaker on SharePoint topics at several conferences over the years including Microsoft’s SharePoint Conference, SharePoint Connections, Advisor Live, and Information Workers Conference.

Asif runs a SharePoint eLearning website (http://www.sharepoint-elearning.com) which provides dozens of SharePoint Video Tutorials. He was the co-founder and is currently one of the active leaders of the Chicago SharePoint User Group.

SharePoint 2010 will bring significant changes that will likely be both empowering and disruptive for law firm users and technical staff. Unlike SharePoint 2007, which was released when SharePoint adoption levels were still low, the 2010 release finds its predecessor with over 100 million licenses sold and well entrenched in law firms of all sizes. Upgrading to SharePoint 2010 will therefore have a significant impact on both firm users and clients.

Given this state of affairs, it’s crucial to understand the key benefits that might justify the disruption and cost of upgrading to SharePoint 2010. What follows are a list of new enhancements and subsystems that hold the greatest potential for law firms, which deserve consideration when developing your SharePoint 2010 strategy. Combined with an understanding of the unique circumstances at your firm, this information will help you to make the best decision as to whether and when an upgrade makes sense for you.

LARGE DOCUMENT LIBRARY SUPPORT

Microsoft heard the concerns of its customers with regards to scalability of document libraries. Document libraries can now handle millions of documents without difficulty, which makes SharePoint an even more interesting option for general purpose document management. In addition, new capabilities such as records management, tagging, and rating improve the ways documents stored in SharePoint can be managed and found.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT

A growing concern in many firms, as more and more documents have found their way into SharePoint, has been the lack of a robust records management capability. Most law firms found SharePoint 2007 unsuitable to manage records. SharePoint 2010 has reworked and expanded its records management functions to allow for multiple repositories, as well as the ability to designate documents as “in place” records, i.e., without the need to move them from the list in which they reside. Workflows move documents through their various lifecycle stages, including retention, archival, or destruction. Whether or not SharePoint 2010 can replace dedicated records management software for managing all firm records remains to be seen, but the new capabilities for records should greatly reduce concerns regarding the management of content stored in SharePoint.

FLEXIBLE CONTENT STORAGE

With the ability to handle large numbers of documents, there is a need for more flexible storage management. While the default storage option continues to be Microsoft SQL Server, firms now have two additional options based on the External Blob Store and Remote Blob Store models. EBS and RBS both store document content on a file server rather than in a database, and differ primarily in which server on your SharePoint farm does the heavy lifting. With EBS, web front end servers intercept requests to read or write documents directly to a file server. With RBS, read-write tasks are performed by the SQL Server. EBS offloads processing from the SQL Server, but must be installed on all WFEs. RBS adds to SQL Server loads, but does not need to be replicated across WFEs.

IMPROVED SEARCH WITH FAST

The ability to reliably and quickly search across all documents and content related to client matters is a significant driver of law firm efficiency. The right content must be available to attorneys and legal staff, minimizing the need to spend precious time sifting through irrelevant documents. SharePoint 2010 includes the option to integrate the FAST search technology (acquired by Microsoft in 2009). FAST is a enterprise-level search engine that combines scalability to billions of documents, the ability to extract metadata (e.g., client name, industry, or area of law) from within the body of documents, deep-faceted search that enables rapid drill-down to only the needed documents, and thumbnail preview of office documents that allows users to avoid opening documents to determine relevance.

The FAST option will come at an additional licensing cost and increased complexity, so you will want to consider whether the additional scalability and features warrant the expense and effort. Without FAST, the native SharePoint search will still index and search content from SharePoint, Exchange, file servers, the internet, and other line-of-business applications via the Business Connectivity Service, formerly the Business Data Catalog.

USER FRIENDLY WORKFLOWS

Automated workflow was a diamond-in-the-rough in SharePoint 2007. Simple workflows could be created in SharePoint Designer, but there were significant (some would say severe) limitations. Among these was a user interface that made it difficult to visualize any but the most basic workflow logic, and the fact that workflows created through the Designer were tied to a specific list on a specific site. SharePoint Designer 2010 can now create workflows that are portable across sites, allowing non-programmers to author workflows that can be used by others anywhere on your SharePoint farm. In addition, workflows can be visually manipulated in Visio 2010, which makes it much easier to understand the business processes that a workflow is modeling.

IMPROVED PAGE EDITING

Throughout SharePoint 2010 the process by which authorized users edit pages has been significantly simplified; having a similar feel to that of editing a Word document. Users can type text directly into the page, resize images, set colors and fonts, and perform other simple editing tasks in a more intuitive way. This should improve the ability of practice groups and departments to maintain their own content with limited support from IT. However, this ease of use may be a double-edged sword. As more users assume responsibility for authoring their own pages, increased governance around style and content will be required.

IMPROVED WIKIS

SharePoint 2007 wikis were clearly an afterthought. SharePoint 2010 significantly improves on the wiki functionality of its predecessor in several ways. First is support for multiple wiki page templates – for example, you might create different templates for a forms library or a general procedure. Second is the significantly improved page editor, which has the ability to embed web parts directly into wiki pages, enabling quite complex “mash-ups” of unstructured and structured content. As with all lists in SharePoint 2010, users can rate and tag pages, making it easier for others to find the wiki pages of greatest interest to them.

READ-WRITE ACCESS TO EXTERNAL DATABASES

Many readers may have worked with the Business Data Catalog in SharePoint 2007. The BDC provided a means for connecting to external data stored in SQL Server, and displaying that data through the BDC web parts, or indexing it through SharePoint Search. Microsoft has re-branded the BDC as Business Connectivity Services, and expanded its functionality to allow for full read-write operations. This functionality is exposed through what appears to be a SharePoint list, so the user’s experience in editing SQL data is similar to that of editing data in a native SharePoint list. This opens up a host of possibilities to develop applications for which storing data in a SQL table is preferable to storing it in a SharePoint list.

OFFLINE ACCESS VIA SHAREPOINT WORKSPACE

SharePoint Workspace (formerly Groove) provides the ability to take SharePoint documents and data offline, edit that content, and resynchronize it back to SharePoint at a later time. This provides intriguing possibilities for travelling attorneys who need access to client or matter specific documents while at locations without easy access to the internet. For example, if an attorney will be appearing in a court without Wi-Fi, or is on an airplane in route to a client’s location, they could use SharePoint Workspace to view and edit copies of the needed documents until a connection becomes available.

Note, however, that offline access may be a feature with diminishing returns. The number of locations without internet access is rapidly diminishing. Also, one needs to consider the number of documents that will require synchronization. For small document libraries an offline copy may be feasible, whereas for libraries holding tens-of-gigabytes of content it may be better to require a direct connection through the SharePoint web interface.

CONCLUSION

The next version of SharePoint contains hundreds, if not thousands, of significant changes to its predecessor. They range from architectural enhancements to promote scalability to user-interface enhancements that bring SharePoint into conformance with Office 2007 and 2010 and everything in between. Given the sheer breadth and depth of these changes, most legal IT departments are likely to take an iterative approach to evaluating and deploying SharePoint 2010 — selecting those features and subsystems that offer the most value first, and then gradually layering on additional components as the benefits become clear.

This article is reprinted with permission from the April 19, 2010 issue of Law.com. ©2009 ALM Properties Inc.

Guest Author: Mark Gerow
Fenwick & West

Mark Gerow has more than 20 years of experience in IT, professional services and software product development and has provided consulting services to hundreds of companies throughout the San Francisco Bay area and Northern California. He currently works for Fenwick & West, where he leads the application development team and is responsible for defining and implementing the firm’s intranet and extranet strategies using SharePoint technologies.

Every once in a while your customer might ask you to customize permissions for a document library in such a way that authors can only change their own documents. There was no such feature for document libraries in SharePoint 2007, and the “problem” is still present in v2010. (Both versions support automatic item-level permissions OOTB for other lists like Tasks).

In Part 1 of this article I tried to solve the problem for SharePoint 2007 with Workflows, but never found the time to complete it and create custom workflow activities for SharePoint Designer. In 2010, SharePoint Designer comes to the rescue, as it has similar workflow activities OOTB!

In this article we will examine how you can create a workflow that will customize item permissions for each document submitted to a document library (only the Author will have contribute permissions). These SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow activities can also be used in various workflow scenarios where permissions need to be revoked after an item is submitted (e.g. Annual Leave Requests, various approvals etc.).

Here is what you need to do:

• Create a new Document Library (e.g. Top Secret Documents)
• Go to Document Library Settings > Permissions for this document library
• Click on the Stop Inheriting Permissions command from the ribbon


• Revoke permissions for all but a few important groups (e.g. Portal Owners and Portal Members).
  Please note: Steps 2. – 4- are optional but the workflow is going to be much simpler if there are fewer permissions to manage
• Open your site in SharePoint Designer, and select theWorkflows option and your list from the ribbon


• Type the name for the new workflow (e.g. Customize Permissions)
• Insert a new Impersonation Step. This special step runs each activity as workflow author.
  Make sure the workflow author (you) has proper privileges to manage permissions for this list.


• From the list of workflow actions choose “Replace Item Permissions
• Click Replace these permissions


• In the dialog click Add
• In the Choose permission to grant dialog click Contribute, and then click the Choose… button
• Add User who created current item to the Selected users list
• Click the workflow name (e.g. “Customize Permissions”) to manage workflow settings


• Make sure you have selected the correct Start options


• Publish your workflow

Once a user adds a document to a document library this workflow will revoke permission from other users and grant contribute permissions to the document author.

You can also customize this workflow and add permissions for other users as well.

Guest Author: Toni Frankola
SharePoint Use Cases

Toni started his Web adventure in late 90’s and has been working with various web technologies ever since. These days his main focus is SharePoint technology. He is active in the SharePoint community via his SharePoint blog at http://www.sharepointusecases.com/ and Twitter http://twitter.com/tonifrankola, and also speaks about SharePoint at various SharePoint conferences. Toni runs his own company Acceleratio Ltd., that specializes in SharePoint consulting and developing software products, and leads the Croatian SharePoint User Group.