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#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Advanced Office 365/ SharePoint
Online Workflows
Prashant G Bhoyar (PGB)
CapArea .NET SharePoint User Grouphttp://www.meetup.com/CapArea-NET-SPSIG/events/229709059/
18 May 2016
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
2
• Senior Consultant at Portal Solutions
• Born and raised in India
• Came to United States of America in 2007 for studies
• University of Maryland College Park Alumni
• Technical Reviewer of the book “Pro : SharePoint 2013 Administration”
• Organizer of SharePoint Saturday Baltimore (SPSBMORE)
• Founder and Organizer of DC-Metro Office 365 User Group Monthly in person & online event
http://www.meetup.com/DC-Metro-Office-365-User-Group/
• Recipient of Antarctic Service Medal
Who AM I ?
Prashant G Bhoyar (PGB)
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Amazing Antarctica Adventure – November/December 2008
• McMurdo Station, Antarctica (US Government Station)
• 1000-1100 people stays during Antarctic Summer (November to February)
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
About Portal Solutions
We deliver Digital
Workplace Products
and Solutions that help
organizations share
what they know and
find what they need by
connecting people,
data, and content.
5
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
OneWindow Workplace
• OneWindow Is Built On Office 365 and Microsoft Azure
• Available for Office 365 and SharePoint Hybrid environment
OneWindow
YammerSharePoint
OnlineSkype For Business Office Groups Office Graph/Delve
VideosOneDrive for
Business
OneWindow APIs
Planner
Analytics
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
What Do You Get With OneWindow Workplace?7
Amazing Experiences
• News
• Workspaces
• Knowledge Discovery
• People Directory
• Search
• Activity Feeds
• Tools and Apps
• Widgets
Platform
• Integration
• Lync/Skype
• Yammer
• OneDrive
• Office Graph
• Office Groups
• SharePoint
• Videos
• Analytics and
Personalization
Access Anywhere
• Responsive
• Native applications
(Mobile, Windows 10)
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Next Steps
8
Interested in assessing if OneWindow Workplace
is right for you?
Let’s talk. Click here or go to http://www.onewindowapp.com to learn more.
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Upcoming Local Speaking Engagement
• Federal SP User Group (FEDSPUG) – 19th May 2016
http://www.meetup.com/fedspug-wspdc/
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#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
• Intro of Office 365 / SharePoint Online Workflows
• Architectural changes in SP2013 workflows
• Key Differences between SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2010 style workflows
• Common Business Scenarios
• Throttling Limits in Office 365
• Visual Studio Workflows
• Best Practices/ Limitations
Agenda
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Audience Poll
• How many of you are IT pros?
• How many of you are Developers?
• How many of you are Power Users?
• How many of you are End Users?
• How many of you develop/manages/maintains the
workflows?
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#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
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How to get Personal Office 365
Development Tenant?
Sign up for Office 365 Developer
Program at http://dev.office.com/
Get 1 year of Office 365 subscription
for free
Excellent for personal development
use
1 seat only
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
15
How to get Office 365 Demo Tenants
Tenant?
Login at https://www.microsoftofficedemos.com/Loginusing your partner account
Get 3 months of Office 365 subscription for free
Excellent for rapid client demos
More than 20 Seats
Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) is also an option
Formerly called as MEC
1 Month Trial E3, E5
https://products.office.com/en-us/business/compare-office-365-for-business-plans
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Helps to Automate Business Processes
Helps to meet the Industry Standards
Helps Organizations to function Effectively
Important for success of SharePoint/Office 365
sites Implementations
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What are Workflows?
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Types of Workflows
Sequential State Machine
• Activities occur in sequence
• On rejection , begin from start
• Simple Business Processes example, Leave Request
• Activities are not sequential
• Can by pass activities based on business logic
• Complex business processes example, Financial Aid
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Typical SharePoint Workflow Life Cycle
Initiation
• When the workflow is started on list/library item
Running• User Interaction via tasks
• Status page reflects the status of the workflows
Termination • End of the workflow instance
Association
• When the workflow is associated with List/Library
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
• Browser
• SharePoint 2013 Designer
• Visio 2013
• Visual Studio 2012/2013/2015
• Third Party Tools
Office 365 /SharePoint
Online Workflow Tools
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
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• The development/testing experience is
slow
Because of platform’s architecture
In general Workflow development is slow
process
Analogy : Public Transportation System
• Difficult to gather all the requirements
before start of the development
Be ready for multiple revisions
Workflow development/maintenance
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
SP2013 workflows are fully declarative
SP2013 workflows are no longer compiled into .NET assemblies instead XAML files defines workflow and their execution No more custom code
Build WebServices for custom business logic
SP2013 workflows are available in Office 365/ SharePoint Online
There are no tools available to convert SP2010 Style workflows to SP2013 style workflows Only option is manual….
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New SharePoint 2013/2016 Workflows Architecture
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
How does the workflow run in SP2013/2016?
Workflow
Instance
Starts
SP2010
Style
Workflow?
Use SP2010
Workflow Engine
Use New
Workflow
Manager
Workflow
Instance Executes
Workflow Instance Ends
Workflow
Instance Executes
YesNo
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
What will happen during migration?
Existing Workflow
in SP2010
Migration to
SP2013 On
Premise
Migration to
SP2016 on Premise
Migration to Office
365/ SharePoint
Online
SharePoint Designer
2010 Workflows
Run as SP2010 Style
Workflows
Run as SP2010 Style
Workflows
Run as SP2010 Style
Workflows
OOTB Workflows Run as SP2010 Style
Workflows
Run as SP2010 Style
Workflows
Run as SP2010 Style
Workflows
Full trust Visual
Studio Workflows
Run as SP2010 Style
Workflows
Run as SP2010 Style
Workflows
Can not migrate
Third Party SP2010
Workflows
Check with Vendor Check with Vendor Check with Vendor
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
What will happen during migration?
Existing Workflow in SP2013 Migration to SP2016 on
Premise
Migration to Office 365/
SharePoint Online
SharePoint 2013 Designer
Workflows created as SP2013
Style Workflows
Run as SP2013 Style Workflows
(Provided workflow manager is
installed and configured)
Run as SP2013 Style Workflows
SharePoint 2013 Designer
Workflows created as SP2010
Style Workflows
Run as SP2010 Style Workflows Run as SP2010 Style Workflows
SharePoint 2013 Workflows
created as App
Run as SP2013 Style
Workflows/Workflow as App
(Provided workflow manager is
installed and configured)
Run as SP2013 Style
Workflows/Workflow as App
Third Party Workflows Check with Vendor Check with Vendor
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
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How to identify SP2010 style and SP2013
style workflows?
List Settings -> Workflow Settings
Site Workflows -> Site Administration
->Workflow Settings
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Key Differences between SP2013 & SP2010 Style Workflows
SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows SharePoint 2013 Style Workflows
• Uses SharePoint 2010 Workflow Host
• Impersonation Step
• OOTB Visualization of Workflows
• No loops, stages in Designer WFs
• Custom task forms are InfoPath forms
• Can capture Approval comments OOTB
• Uses Workflow Manager
• App Step
• Need to create custom solution
• Looping, stages are present
• Custom task forms are .aspx pages
• Need to implement custom solution
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
How to capture approval comments?
• Not available OOTB in Task process
• High level steps
Create a new site column of type text to capture the approval comments
Create a new task content type and add the newly created site column
In the task process, use the custom task content type
In the task list, create a workflow either using SharePoint Designer 2013 or Visual Studio to update the approval comments in the workflow host (list item, document or document set).
This workflow will get the information about the workflow host from the “Related Items” field.
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
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• Information about associated Item we select in the Task Process
• Saves in the Information in Jason Format
[{"ItemId":5,"WebId":"3409b5b9-7fea-49b9-a325-63c730a63a96","ListId":"9e6939fa-bf53-4021-91bb-b73bed0efa39"}] ItemID
WebId
ListId
• We can retrieve the “ItemId” from the related items and use it to update/email captured comments
What are related Items?
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
User Experience
Task Process Custom SharePoint Forms
• User Interaction via Tasks
• Not a good user experience
• Provides the ability to send reminders
• Lot of OOTB webparts/options are available to aggregate the tasks
• User Interaction via Custom Forms
• Can provide good user experience
• All the data is at same place
• Need to implement the custom logic to send reminders
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Throttling Limits in Office 365
• In Office 365 workflow manager has strict throttling limits for
SharePoint 2013 Style workflows
• The instance has exceeded the outbound http request quota for a
1.00:00:00 time period. The 5000 request limit was reached in <time>.
Analogy credit score
• Workflow instances can get suspended and we need to wait 24
hours to resume the suspended workflow instance by
clicking Resume for the workflow or
by using the SharePoint Workflow Client Object Model
• Suspended workflow instances will be terminated after 10 days.
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Throttling Limits in Office 365
• There is no OOTB email alert if the workflow get suspended
• We can find the suspended workflows on the page
/_layouts/15/WorkflowServiceHealth.aspx
• If we develop workflow as an “App” these throttling limitations
does not apply
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Throttling Limits in Office 365 – Design Consideration
• Avoid infinite loops
We may use “Wait for field change in current item”
• Avoid using a workflow to execute complex algorithms
Workflows are intended to manage document-driven, human
processes and not to dispatch significant computational tasks.
• Avoid the use of the “Wait for Event in List Item" activity
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
What do we say when we are thinking about adding infinite
loops in the workflow in Office365?
NOT TODAY!!!!!
Image Source : http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Syrio_Forel
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Tips for developing maintainable custom workflows
• Naming Convention for Custom Workflows
Use the naming convention that works best for you and your
organization
For example, List or Library + ListName + Purpose
• Use activity “Add a comment” to write informative comments in
the workflow
End users will not see these comments unlike workflow history list
logs
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Tips for developing maintainable custom workflows
• Do not modify the OOTB global workflows
Create copy and then modify
• Log information in the History List
Log variables, important info that will be helpful during
debugging/troubleshooting
End users can see the logs
• Create custom task content types for tasks with only one
logical outcome
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Tips for developing maintainable custom workflows
• Use new Task List and History list for each workflow
To create the new tasks list and history list, we can use
Workflow Settings page
SharePoint Designer
SharePoint UI
OOTB “Workflow Tasks” List has additional notifications
To turn off -> List Settings – Advanced Settings -> Uncheck “Send e-mail
when ownership is assigned?”
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Tips for developing maintainable custom workflows
• Don’t create the variable if you don’t have to
50 is the limit
• Use SharePoint groups to assign the tasks/send emails instead of
individual users
• Keep workflow initiation activity to minimum
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Tips for developing maintainable custom workflows
• Capture the dates of various approval steps
Good for generating audit logs
• Save the Workflow status in a separate field
Avoid default workflow name
Helps if you divide workflows into multiple workflows
• Create a separate Workflow status field as text
Gives the ability of filtering and sorting
Approvers love this option
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Tips for developing maintainable custom workflows
• Pay extra attention while modifying the Custom Task content
types
Task outcome field must be the last field
• Review the workflow starting logic
Limit how many times the workflow gets started
Make sure they won’t start unnecessarily after the workflow is ended
successfully
• Restrict the access
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Tips for developing maintainable custom workflows?
• If possible Break down the workflows in multiple WFs
Helps a lot in development and maintenance
We can start SharePoint 2010 workflows from SharePoint 2013 only
We can not start SharePoint 2013 workflows from SharePoint 2013
workflows
You can use “Wait for field change in current item” to trigger the
workflows
• For large lists, don’t remove the workflow, but set to no new
instance
Do it in non business hours
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
When the night is dark and full of terror….
Image Source : http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/game-of-thrones-melisandre-how-much-do-we-know-about-her.html
• Means the
Production
workflows are
on fire..
Few techniques
can help you
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Tips for developing maintainable custom workflows
• Implement the logic to stop/start at a particular stage
Super helpful in case the workflow instance terminates
Super helpful during migration (For on premise customers)
Helpful to update the business logic
• Using If condition and a custom variable, we can pick and choose the additional logging
Similar to #if debug directive in C#
The workflow will be long, but it can save a lot of troubleshooting/development time
End users will not see additional comments in Production
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
55
Limitations
We can not start workflows on delete event
50 variable limit
No source control in SharePoint Designer Workflows
String functions are limited
For advance implementations you will need to involve devs/architects
You can not start the workflows on Task lists whenever new tasks gets created by SP2013 style workflows
Workaround : Create SP2010 style workflow in Task List
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Recent Announcements
• There will NOT be SharePoint Designer 2016 http://sharepoint-community.net/forum/topics/what-s-happening-to-sharepoint-designer-in-
sharepoint-2016-is-it
• Microsoft Flow https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-microsoft-flow-and-announcing-the-
public-preview-of-powerapps/
57
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
What does this mean?
• SharePoint Workflows will have same fate as InfoPath forms services
Microsoft will continue to support
No future enhancements
• Time to explore other options
Microsoft Flow Under Preview https://flow.microsoft.com
Visual Studio Workflows Can deploy them only as “App”
Other Third Party Products
58
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
59
SharePoint 2013 Workflows Using Visual
Studio 2012
Full access to the Workflow Foundation in .NET Framework 4.5
Supports deployment as full trust solutions, Sandbox Solutions as well as SP Apps
You can use Source Control
Create Custom Activities
Create Custom Forms for workflows
Set Breakpoints on Activities
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
61
Limitations of Visual Studio Workflows
Develop workflow as an app
Steep learning curve
Management/Resourcing
Visual Studio is a licensed product
unlike SharePoint Designer
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
A man must know how he did today…
Image Source : https://throneslife.com/2015/04/09/jaqen-hghar/
Please provide feedback
Email ([email protected])
Session Evaluations or
Anonymous Suggestions: https://www.suggestionox.com/r/pgb
#CAPAreaSPUG @pgbhoyar
Questions? Feedback? Contact me:
Twitter: @PGBhoyar
Blog: http://pgbhoyar.com (limited contents)
Email: [email protected]
Feedback : Please provide feedback
Email or
Session Evaluations or
Anonymous Suggestions: https://www.suggestionox.com/r/pgb
Thank You
Organizers, Sponsors and You for Making this Possible.