Walkthrough: Creating a simple Sequential Workflow with a custom Task Form in SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010 (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on March 30, 2011 by ikarstein

In this walkthrough I want to show you how to create a Sequential Workflow with Visual Studio 2010 for use in SharePoint 2010. – I will show how to create a custom Task Form for interaction with users. The Task form will be a native SharePoint list form. No InfoPath. There are many InfoPath samples out there but they cannot be used on a SharePoint Foundation 2010 platform. But workflows can be used on SharePoint Foundation 2010 too!

To reproduce the following steps you need to create a SharePoint site. – In the walkthrough I’ll use a Site Collection located at “http://sharepoint.local/sites/workflow”.

This blog post is part 1 of 2. It describes the steps 1 to 15. Read part 2 here: https://blog.kenaro.com/2011/03/30/walkthrough-creating-a-simple-sequential-workflow-with-a-custom-task-form-in-sharepoint-2010-using-visual-studio-2010-part-2-of-2/

You can download – and help to develop – the whole demo project source code at Codeplex: http://spworkflowdemo.codeplex.com/

(If you need assistance for the deployment process because of deployment errors please see this third post of this series: https://blog.kenaro.com/2011/04/22/walkthrough-creating-a-simple-sequential-workflow-with-a-custom-task-form-in-sharepoint-2010-using-visual-studio-2010-part-3-of-21/)

Let’s start…

1. We create the Site Collection. Use the “Blank Site” site template.

2. In Visual Studio 2010 we create a Empty SharePoint Project. I named it “ik.SharePoint2010.Workflow”

We create it with “Deploy as farm solution” and specify the location “http://sharepoint.local/sites/workflow/”.

3. This is the project structure at start:

4. First we need to create an instance of the Workflow History list that is needed for the workflow.

Create a new “Empty Element” project item named “Workflow History”.

Open the created “element.xml” file and modify it as shown below.
1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2: <Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
3:  <ListInstance Title="Workflow History"
4:  OnQuickLaunch="TRUE"
5:  TemplateType="140"
6:  FeatureId="00BFEA71-4EA5-48D4-A4AD-305CF7030140"
7:  Url="Lists/WorkflowHistory"
8:  Description="">
9:  </ListInstance>
10: </Elements>
The “TemplateType” attribute represents the “Workflow History” list template. It resists on a SharePoint feature with ID “00BFEA71-4EA5-48D4-A4AD-305CF7030140”. It’s a native SharePoint feature.

You can add the attibute “Hidden” to the “ListInstance” tag and set it’s value to “TRUE” to hide the list as it’s done by SharePoint by default for this list. In this case you should also change “OnQuickLaunch” to “FALSE”. For my demo purpose I want to have “Workflow History” visible and on the Quick Launch bar.

5. Now we will create all tools we need for a “Workflow 1”. (May be I’ll create more workflow demos later. So it’s number 1.)

6. We create the SharePoint fields for “Workflow 1”. Therefore we create another “Empty Element” project item named “Workflow 1 Fields”.

I’ll create 3 fields for use in the Task Form we will create: Test1, Test2, Test3. They are all fields of type Text.

1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

2: <Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

3:  <!-- Fields for Task 1 of Workflow 1-->

4:  <Field ID="{2FE15855-3CAB-44A6-AB29-1600204FCA20}" Name="Workflow1Task1_Test1"

5:  MaxLength="255" DisplayName="Test1" Description=""

6:  Direction="None" Type="Text" Overwrite="TRUE"

7:  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" />

8:  <Field ID="{517B22A5-1B89-4C24-82BE-3D4FD99645BC}" Name="Workflow1Task1_Test2"

9:  MaxLength="255" DisplayName="Test2" Description=""

10:  Direction="None" Type="Text" Overwrite="TRUE"

11:  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" />

12:  <Field ID="{3ECFF1FE-F56B-4556-8805-4570D9422FF4}" Name="Workflow1Task1_Test3"

13:  MaxLength="255" DisplayName="Test3" Description=""

14:  Direction="None" Type="Text" Overwrite="TRUE"

15:  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" />

16: </Elements>

7. Now we create a new “Module” project item named “Workflow 1 Forms”. In this module we will store the Task Form.

Remove the “Sample.txt” file from the created module.

Create a new “Application Page” project item named “Task1Form.aspx”.

This project item will stored in the folder “Layoutsik.SharePoint2010.Workflow”.

Move the project item “Task1Form.aspx” using Drag & Drop into the module “Workflow 1 Forms”.

Remove the “Layouts” folder from the project. It should be empty.

8. We open “Task1Form.aspx”

First we need to edit the “Page” tag of the ASPX site.

1:  <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Task1Form.aspx.cs" Inherits="ik.SharePoint2010.Workflow.Task1Form" MasterPageFile="~masterurl/default.master"  %>

Now we insert the following code into the “PlaceHolderMain” content placeholder.

1:     <asp:ScriptManagerProxy runat="server" ID="ProxyScriptManager">

2:     </asp:ScriptManagerProxy>

3:     <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">

4:         <tr>

5:             <td valign="top">

6:                 <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" border="0" width="100%">

7:                     <tr>

8:                         <td class="ms-vb">

9:                             &nbsp;

10:                         </td>

11:                     </tr>

12:                 </table>

13:                 <table border="0" width="100%">

14:                     <tr>

15:                         <td>

16:                             <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">

17:                                 <tr>

18:                                     <td class="ms-formlabel" valign="top" nowrap="true" width="25%">

19:                                         <b>Title:</b>

20:                                     </td>

21:                                     <td class="ms-formbody" valign="top" width="75%">

22:                                         <SharePoint:FormField runat="server" ID="ff4" ControlMode="Display" FieldName="Title" /><br />

23:                                     </td>

24:                                 </tr>

25:                                 <tr>

26:                                     <td width="25%" class="ms-formlabel">

27:                                         <b>Test1:</b>

28:                                     </td>

29:                                     <td width="75%" class="ms-formbody">

30:                                         <SharePoint:FormField runat="server" ID="ff1" ControlMode="Edit" FieldName="Workflow1Task1_Test1" />

31:                                         <SharePoint:FieldDescription runat="server" ID="ff1description" FieldName="Workflow1Task1_Test1"

32:                                             ControlMode="Edit" />

33:                                     </td>

34:                                 </tr>

35:                                 <tr>

36:                                     <td width="25%" class="ms-formlabel">

37:                                         <b>Test2:</b>

38:                                     </td>

39:                                     <td width="75%" class="ms-formbody">

40:                                         <SharePoint:FormField runat="server" ID="ff2" ControlMode="Edit" FieldName="Workflow1Task1_Test2" />

41:                                         <SharePoint:FieldDescription runat="server" ID="ff2description" FieldName="Workflow1Task1_Test2"

42:                                             ControlMode="Edit" />

43:                                     </td>

44:                                 </tr>

45:                                 <tr>

46:                                     <td width="25%" class="ms-formlabel">

47:                                         <b>Test3:</b>

48:                                     </td>

49:                                     <td width="75%" class="ms-formbody">

50:                                         <SharePoint:FormField runat="server" ID="ff3" ControlMode="Edit" FieldName="Workflow1Task1_Test3" />

51:                                         <SharePoint:FieldDescription runat="server" ID="ff3description" FieldName="Workflow1Task1_Test3"

52:                                             ControlMode="Edit" />

53:                                     </td>

54:                                 </tr>

55:                             </table>

56:                         </td>

57:                     </tr>

58:                 </table>

59:                 <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" border="0" width="100%">

60:                     <tr>

61:                         <td nowrap="nowrap" class="ms-vb">

62:                             <asp:Button Text="Save As Draft" runat="server" ID="btnSaveAsDraft" />

63:                         </td>

64:                         <td>

65:                             <asp:Button Text="Complete Task" runat="server" ID="btnComplete" />

66:                         </td>

67:                         <td nowrap="nowrap" class="ms-vb" width="99%">

68:                             <asp:Button Text="Cancel" runat="server" ID="btnCancel" />

69:                         </td>

70:                     </tr>

71:                 </table>

72:             </td>

73:             <td width="1%" class="ms-vb" valign="top">&nbsp;</td>

74:         </tr>

75:     </table>

76:

Now we add some ASP.NET code into the “PlaceHolderPageTitle” content placeholder.

1:     <SharePoint:ListFormPageTitle runat="server" />

Furthermore we add this lines of code into the “PlaceHolderPageTitleInTitleArea” content placeholder.

1:     <span class="die">

2:         <SharePoint:ListProperty Property="LinkTitle" runat="server" ID="ID_LinkTitle" />

3:         : </span>

4:     <SharePoint:ListItemProperty ID="ID_ItemProperty" MaxLength="40" runat="server" />

At least we add the following code into the “PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead” content placeholder.

1:     <SharePoint:UIVersionedContent UIVersion="4" runat="server">

2:         <contenttemplate>

3:             <SharePoint:CssRegistration Name="forms.css" runat="server"/>

4:         </contenttemplate>

5:     </SharePoint:UIVersionedContent>

You can see the input fields for the three fields of Task 1. Furthermore you see three buttons. For them we now create some “code behind”.

1: using System;

2: using Microsoft.SharePoint;

3: using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;

4: using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;

5:

6: namespace ik.SharePoint2010.Workflow

7: {

8:     public partial class Task1Form : WebPartPage

9:     {

10:         protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

11:         {

12:             btnSaveAsDraft.Click += new EventHandler (btnSaveAsDraft_Click);

13:             btnComplete.Click += new EventHandler (btnComplete_Click);

14:             btnCancel.Click += new EventHandler (btnCancel_Click);

15:         }

16:

17:         void btnCancel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

18:         {

19:             CloseForm();

20:         }

21:

22:         private void CloseForm()

23:         {

24:             if ( ( SPContext.Current != null ) && SPContext.Current.IsPopUI )

25:             {

26:                 this.Context.Response.Write("<script>window.frameElement.commitPopup();</script>" );

27:                 this.Context.Response.Flush();

28:                 this.Context.Response.End();

29:             }

30:             else

31:             {

32:                 string str = this.Page.Request.QueryString["Source"];

33:                 if ( ( str != null ) && ( str.Length > 0 ) )

34:                 {

35:                     SPUtility.Redirect(string.Empty, SPRedirectFlags.UseSource, this.Context);

36:                 }

37:             }

38:         }

39:

40:         void btnComplete_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

41:         {

42:             SPList l = SPContext.Current.List;

43:             SPListItem li = SPContext.Current.ListItem;

44:             li[SPBuiltInFieldId.TaskStatus] = "Tasks_Completed";

45:             li[SPBuiltInFieldId.PercentComplete] = 1;

46:

47:             SaveButton.SaveItem(SPContext.Current, false, "" );

48:

49:             CloseForm();

50:         }

51:

52:         void btnSaveAsDraft_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

53:         {

54:             SaveButton.SaveItem(SPContext.Current, false, "" );

55:

56:             CloseForm();

57:         }

58:     }

59: }

We need to modify the “Elements.xml” file of the module named “Workflow 1 Forms”.

1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

2: <Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

3:  <Module Name="Workflow 1 Forms" Url="Workflow1Forms" RootWebOnly="FALSE">

4:  <File Path="Workflow 1 FormsTask1Form.aspx" Url="Task1Form.aspx" />

5:  </Module>

6: </Elements>

This specifies there to store the “Task1Form.aspx” file in the site structure.

9. In the next step we create the task list that will contain our workflow tasks.

First create a “List Definition” project item named “Workflow 1 Tasks”.

Use “Workflow 1 Tasks” as name of the list definition and “Tasks” as base type. Check “Add a list instance…”.

10. Now open “Elements.xml” of the new list definition project item.

We need to change the identifier of the list type we create! – It must be “107”. This is the list template ID for workflow tasks lists in SharePoint. The workflow designer will search for a list with this type inside the site where a new workflow will be created.

Here is the content of “Elements.xml” after our modification:
1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2: <Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
3:  <ListTemplate
4:  Name="Workflow 1 Tasks"
5:  Type="107"
6:  BaseType="0"
7:  OnQuickLaunch="TRUE"
8:  SecurityBits="11"
9:  Sequence="360"
10:  DisplayName="Workflow 1 Tasks"
11:  Description="Tasks of Workflow 1"
12:  Image="/_layouts/images/itgen.png"/>
13: </Elements>  

11. Now we modify the “Elements.xml” file of the list instance that will be created during deployment:

Here we also need to modify the type identifier to “107”. Furthermore we change the list url: “Lists/Workflow1Tasks”.

Here is the complete content of “Elements.xml”:
1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2: <Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
3:  <ListInstance Title="Workflow 1 Tasks"
4:  OnQuickLaunch="TRUE"
5:  TemplateType="107"
6:  Url="Lists/Workflow1Tasks"
7:  Description="Tasks of Workflow 1">
8:  </ListInstance>
9: </Elements> 
In a “real world” scenario we would prevent the list from being listed on the Quick Launch bar. So the corresponding parameter must be set to “FALSE”.

12. Now we need to modify the “Schema.xml” file of the list definition.

First we set the list type to “107” and configure some other attributes:

1: <List xmlns:ows="Microsoft SharePoint" Title="Workflow 1 Tasks"

2:  FolderCreation="FALSE" Direction="$Resources:Direction;"

3:  EnableContentTypes="TRUE" VersioningEnabled="TRUE"

4:  Url="Lists/Workflow1Tasks"

5:  Type="107" BaseType="0"

6:  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

7: […]

Now remove the the content types defined in the “ContentTypes” tag in the “schema.xml” file.

Insert this content type definition into the “ContentTypes” tag:

1:  <ContentType ID="0x01080100FFbc98c2529347a5886b8d2576b954ef"

2:  Name="Workflow 1 Tasks 1"

3:  Group="Workflow 1 Tasks"

4:  Description="Content Type of Tasks 1 of Workflow 1">

5:  <FieldRefs>

6:  <FieldRef ID="{2FE15855-3CAB-44A6-AB29-1600204FCA20}" Name="Workflow1Task1_Test1" DisplayName="Test1" Required="FALSE" Hidden="FALSE" ReadOnly="FALSE" PITarget="" PrimaryPITarget="" PIAttribute="" PrimaryPIAttribute="" Aggregation="" Node="" />

7:  <FieldRef ID="{517B22A5-1B89-4C24-82BE-3D4FD99645BC}" Name="Workflow1Task1_Test2" DisplayName="Test2" Required="FALSE" Hidden="FALSE" ReadOnly="FALSE" PITarget="" PrimaryPITarget="" PIAttribute="" PrimaryPIAttribute="" Aggregation="" Node="" />

8:  <FieldRef ID="{3ECFF1FE-F56B-4556-8805-4570D9422FF4}" Name="Workflow1Task1_Test3" DisplayName="Test3" Required="FALSE" Hidden="FALSE" ReadOnly="FALSE" PITarget="" PrimaryPITarget="" PIAttribute="" PrimaryPIAttribute="" Aggregation="" Node="" />

9:

10:  <FieldRef ID="{c042a256-787d-4a6f-8a8a-cf6ab767f12d}" Name="ContentType" />

11:  <FieldRef ID="{fa564e0f-0c70-4ab9-b863-0177e6ddd247}" Name="Title" Required="TRUE" ShowInNewForm="TRUE" ShowInEditForm="TRUE" />

12:  <FieldRef ID="{c3a92d97-2b77-4a25-9698-3ab54874bc6f}" Name="Predecessors" />

13:  <FieldRef ID="{a8eb573e-9e11-481a-a8c9-1104a54b2fbd}" Name="Priority" />

14:  <FieldRef ID="{c15b34c3-ce7d-490a-b133-3f4de8801b76}" Name="Status" />

15:  <FieldRef ID="{d2311440-1ed6-46ea-b46d-daa643dc3886}" Name="PercentComplete" />

16:  <FieldRef ID="{53101f38-dd2e-458c-b245-0c236cc13d1a}" Name="AssignedTo" />

17:  <FieldRef ID="{7662cd2c-f069-4dba-9e35-082cf976e170}" Name="Body" />

18:  <FieldRef ID="{64cd368d-2f95-4bfc-a1f9-8d4324ecb007}" Name="StartDate" />

19:  <FieldRef ID="{cd21b4c2-6841-4f9e-a23a-738a65f99889}" Name="DueDate" />

20:  <FieldRef ID="{58ddda52-c2a3-4650-9178-3bbc1f6e36da}" Name="WorkflowLink" />

21:  <FieldRef ID="{16b6952f-3ce6-45e0-8f4e-42dac6e12441}" Name="OffsiteParticipant" />

22:  <FieldRef ID="{4a799ba5-f449-4796-b43e-aa5186c3c414}" Name="OffsiteParticipantReason" />

23:  <FieldRef ID="{18e1c6fa-ae37-4102-890a-cfb0974ef494}" Name="WorkflowOutcome" />

24:  <FieldRef ID="{e506d6ca-c2da-4164-b858-306f1c41c9ec}" Name="WorkflowName" />

25:  <FieldRef ID="{ae069f25-3ac2-4256-b9c3-15dbc15da0e0}" Name="GUID" />

26:  <FieldRef ID="{8d96aa48-9dff-46cf-8538-84c747ffa877}" Name="TaskType" />

27:  <FieldRef ID="{17ca3a22-fdfe-46eb-99b5-9646baed3f16}" Name="FormURN" />

28:  <FieldRef ID="{78eae64a-f5f2-49af-b416-3247b76f46a1}" Name="FormData" />

29:  <FieldRef ID="{8cbb9252-1035-4156-9c35-f54e9056c65a}" Name="EmailBody" />

30:  <FieldRef ID="{47f68c3b-8930-406f-bde2-4a8c669ee87c}" Name="HasCustomEmailBody" />

31:  <FieldRef ID="{cb2413f2-7de9-4afc-8587-1ca3f563f624}" Name="SendEmailNotification" />

32:  <FieldRef ID="{4d2444c2-0e97-476c-a2a3-e9e4a9c73009}" Name="PendingModTime" />

33:  <FieldRef ID="{35363960-d998-4aad-b7e8-058dfe2c669e}" Name="Completed" />

34:  <FieldRef ID="{1bfee788-69b7-4765-b109-d4d9c31d1ac1}" Name="WorkflowListId" />

35:  <FieldRef ID="{8e234c69-02b0-42d9-8046-d5f49bf0174f}" Name="WorkflowItemId" />

36:  <FieldRef ID="{1c5518e2-1e99-49fe-bfc6-1a8de3ba16e2}" Name="ExtendedProperties" />

37:  </FieldRefs>

38:  <XmlDocuments>

39:  <XmlDocument NamespaceURI="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/contenttype/forms">

40:  <FormTemplates xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/contenttype/forms">

41:  <Display>ListForm</Display>

42:  <Edit>ListForm</Edit>

43:  <New>ListForm</New>

44:  </FormTemplates>

45:  </XmlDocument>

46:  <XmlDocument NamespaceURI="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/contenttype/forms/url">

47:  <FormUrls xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/contenttype/forms/url">

48:  <Edit>Workflow1Forms/Task1Form.aspx</Edit>

49:  </FormUrls>

50:  </XmlDocument>

51:  </XmlDocuments>

52:  </ContentType>

53:

54:

You see the “FormUrls” tag? Inside this tag we specify our custom form template we created before.

The new content type is derived from the “Workflow Task” content type 0x010801. – In the “FieldRefs” section we add our fields we need inside the workflow.

13. Now we need to add the field definitions of our custom fields to the “Schema.xml”. Copy them from the “Elements.xml” file of project item “Workflow 1 Fields” into the “Fields” tag of “Schema.xml”:

Furthermore you need to add a field definition for the field “Completed”:

1:  <Field ID="{35363960-D998-4aad-B7E8-058DFE2C669E}" Name="Completed"

2:  SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3"

3:  StaticName="Completed" Group="Base Columns" Type="Boolean"

4:  DisplayName="Completed" Hidden="TRUE" Sealed="TRUE"

5:  Overwrite="TRUE" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

6:  <Default>FALSE</Default>

7:  </Field>

14. Now deploy the project.

While deployment you may get this dialog:

Check “Do not prompt…”. Press “Resolve Automatically” – it’s your only option .

15. Have a look into the site using the browser. – We will test our “Edit” form. Remember that we did not specify special “New” form or “Display” form. This you could do the same way as you created the “Edit” form.

We see our lists in the Quick Launch.

Open the “Workflow 1 Tasks” list. On the Ribbon open the “Items” tab. We see our Content Type in the New Item submenu:

Create an item of this type. You see a standard “New” form and on it you see our three “Test” fields:

Enter some data and press “Save”.

Open the item in “Edit” form. Now you should see our custom list form.

If you click “Save As Draft” your changes will be stored in the task item. If you click “Complete Task” two item fields will be changed in addition to the changes made in the form: It sets “Status” to “Tasks_Completed” and “% Complete” to “100”. You can see this in the Code Behind file of the list form.

Test all buttons.

After “Complete Task”:

You see: “% Complete” is set to “100 %”.

So far our projects works as expected.

See Part 2 for the next steps… There I will show you how to create a simple Sequential Workflow that uses our Task Form.

Here is part 2: https://blog.kenaro.com/2011/03/30/walkthrough-creating-a-simple-sequential-workflow-with-a-custom-task-form-in-sharepoint-2010-using-visual-studio-2010-part-2-of-2/

Walkthrough: Creating a simple Sequential Workflow with a custom Task Form in SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010 (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on March 30, 2011 by ikarstein

To reproduce the following steps you need to create a SharePoint site. – In the walkthrough I’ll use a Site Collection located at “http://sharepoint.local/sites/workflow”.

This blog post is part 2 of 2. It describes the steps 16 to 27. Read part 1 here: https://blog.kenaro.com/2011/03/30/walkthrough-creating-a-simple-sequential-workflow-with-a-custom-task-form-in-sharepoint-2010-using-visual-studio-2010-part-1-of-2/

You can download – and help to develop – the whole demo project source code at Codeplex: http://spworkflowdemo.codeplex.com/

Let’s start (again)…

16. Now we need to add a list that we use to connect a workflow with. We create a “List Definition” project item named “Workflow 1 Host List”.

We change the “Elements.xml” file of the List Instance project item.

We change the Title, URL and Description.

17. Deploy the project.

18. Now we start creating a Sequential Workflow.

Create a “Sequential Workflow” project item named “Workflow 1”.

Create the workflow as “List Workflow”.

You will see all the lists we created in the previous steps. Remember: You have to (successfully) deploy the project before you can use the lists that will be created during deployment. – Without previous deployment the wizard may fail before you see the following dialog page.

In the first dropdown list choose “Workflow 1 Host List”. All other lists should be selected automatically because there is only one usable list of every needed type.

Select all “Workflow start” options: “Manually”, “Item Created”, “Item Updated”.

You get:

19. We will add a “Create Task With Content Type” workflow activity that will use our “Workflow 1 Task 1” we created in the steps 1 to 15 (blog post “part 1”).

Open the “Toolbox” pane and drag “CreateTaskWithContentType” into the Workflow Designer.

After you did this you get:

Now we need to configure the workflow activity in the “Properties” pane.

Set “correlationToken” to “task1” and the sub element of “correlationToken” named “OwnerActivityName” to “Workflow_1”.

Now we need to create code behind properties for some activity properties. As example I’ll show how to create a code behind property for “ContentTypeId”.

Click on the Button “…” at the activity property edit box:

In the dialog select the tab “Bind to a new member”. Enter the name “New member name” and select the “Create Property” radio button. Press “OK”.

Here are the property bindings you need to create:

“ContentTypeId” = “task1ContentTypeId”

“TaskId” = “task1Guid”

“TaskProperties” = “task1Properties”

In “MethodInvoking” type “createTask1Invoke” and press ENTER. – You’ll be directed to the code editor.

(The activity properties look like this after you finished: )

In the method we initialize the task1-Properties we created before. The “ContentTypeId” is taken from the “Schema.xml” file of our “Workflow 1 Tasks” list where we created the Content Type “Workflow 1 Task 1”.

After that your method looks like this:

20. Back in the workflow designer. We drag a “While” activity from the Toolbox pane into the workflow behind the “Create Task” activity.

Into the “While” activity we drag a “Sequence” property from the Toolbox pane. We get:

Into the “Sequence” activity we drag a “OnTaskChanged” activity from the Toolbox pane. We get:

Now we edit the properties of the created “OnTaskChanged” activity. We have to set the “CorrelationToken” as described above. Additionally we specify new property bindings:

“AfterProperties” = “task1Changed1_AfterProperties”

“BeforeProperties” = “task1Changed1_BeforeProperties”

“TaskId” => Bind to the existing member “task1Guid”!!!

In the “Invoked” property add the method name “task1Changed1Invoke”. – The code editor will be opened.

(The activity properties look like this after you finished: )

21. In the code we add a property at class level:

This property we set inside the “OnWorkflowItemChanged” activity. It will contain the information whether the Workflow Task Item we created before was “Completed” by the assigned user.

In the “task1Changed1Invoke” method we set the “isFinished” property.

22. Now we need to specify the condition for the “While” activity. In the workflow designer select this activity. In the “Condition” property select “Code Condition” and expand the property. Enter “while1Invoke” in the subproperty with (the same) name “Condition”.

In the code editor enter the code for “while1Invoke” like this:

The “e.Result” property has to be “TRUE” as long as the while loop should run. It should not run anymore (“e.Result = false”) if “isFinished” is TRUE.

23. In the workflow designer add a “CompleteTask” activity behind the “While” activity. Drag the “CompleteTask” activity from the Toolbar pane into the workflow designer. We get:

Select the “completeTask1” activity and edit it’s properties in the Property pane.

Bind “TaskId” to the existing member “task1Guid”

Create a new member namend “task1Outcome” for binding to “TaskOutcome”

Set the “CorrelationToken” to “task1”

24. Whew! Smile

25. Deploy the project. – It deployed successfully ?! – Congratulations!

26. Open the browser and navigate to “http://sharepoint.local/sites/workflow”. Open the “Workflow 1 Host List”. Add a new item… – The “Workflow 1” should start automatically.

(After F5 / page refresh:)

Click “In Process”. We see the Workflow Status page:

In the “Tasks” section open the context menu of the element “(no title)”. – We did not set a title for the created “Task 1”. This could be done in the method “createTask1Invoke”.

Click “Edit Item”.

There it is!!! :

Just edit a property and click “Save As Draft”.

On the Workflow Status page you see that the workflow is still running but was modified (“Last run”).

Then edit the task again. Click “Complete Task”.

After that the workflow is “Completed”:

27. We have done it! – Now we could add a “Task 2” for this “Workflow 1” where some other data is requested from users.

With that method you will be able to add custom forms for Workflow Tasks. You could also use forms you create with Silverlight !!!

Thank you for your kind attention!

Error while creating a Enterprise Wiki sub site in SharePoint 2010

Posted on March 24, 2011 by ikarstein

A customer of mine had a problem in a it’s SharePoint 2010 farm. An error occurred while creating a sub site of type Enterprise Wiki. The user that tried to create the sub site was not a site collection administrator and did not have Full Control permissions.

Steps:

1. Try to create the sub site:

2. Press “Create” button:

Error: “An error has occurred while processing your request.”

3. Retry with the same name for the sub site:

Error: “The Web site address … is already in use.”

At the same moment a site collection administrator could successfully create a Enterprise Wiki sub site!

I could solve the problem and reproduce it in my testing environment: The security settings of the site collections masterpage catalog had broken inheritance and nobody had any rights on this list. This does not seems to be a problem in most cases but it’s a problem while creating a Enterprise Wiki sub site. – Adding “read” access for “All authenticated users” solved the problem.

Kerberos error in event log on every SharePoint 2010 farm server.

Posted on March 17, 2011 by ikarstein

I had an error in the event log on every SharePoint 2010 farm server:

A Kerberos Error Message was received:
 on logon session 
 Client Time: 
 Server Time: 13:1:13.0000 3/17/2011 Z
 Error Code: 0x7  KDC_ERR_S_PRINCIPAL_UNKNOWN
 Extended Error: 0xc0000035 KLIN(0)
 Client Realm: 
 Client Name: 
 Server Realm: xxxxx.NET
 Server Name: HTTP/xxxxx.net
 Target Name: HTTP/xxxxx.net@xxxxx.NET
 Error Text: 
 File: 9
 Line: efb
 Error Data is in record data.

This happens after migration of the old MOSS 2007 farm to SharePoint 2010. – On the new farm I used new accounts for the application pools.

I created SPNs on the new Application Pool accounts for the web applications.

BUT I forgot to remove the same SPNs from the old Application Pool accounts!!! – This was the (big) mistake.

ADSIEdit let me create the same SPN on different accounts. Sad smile

After removing the SPNs from the old Application Pool accounts everything works fine!

use SETSPN-Tool to find the accounts:

setspn Q HTTP/xxxx.net

You’ll get a list of all accounts that have the specified SPN “HTTP/xxxxx.net”

Additional Ribbon Sample: Custom Ribbon Tab generated by a delegate control that lists all associated list workflows and allow to start a workflow on a selected list item. (Part 3)

Posted on March 3, 2011 by ikarstein

In the last weeks I’ve extended the sample project that I’ve created for “Ribbon Customization”. You find the project source code on Codeplex:

http://spcustomribbondemo.codeplex.com/

The related articles on my blog are:

Part 1: How To Activate SharePoint Ribbon Tab by JavaScript Code
Part 2: Sample Visual Studio 2010 project for creating a custom SharePoint 2010 Ribbon tab on runtime (!)
Part 3: Additional Ribbon Sample: Custom Ribbon Tab generated by a delegate control that lists all associated list workflows and allow to start a workflow on a selected list item.

I’ve created a new feature for my sample project: With a delegate control a Ribbon tab will be created dynamically on list view pages if there are workflows associated with the list. For every associated workflow a button will be created. - But only for workflows that can be started manually.

To use the demo follow these steps:

1. Create a sharepoint site http://sharepoint.local/sites/ribbon.

2. Download the project from codeplex and deploy it.

3. Create one ore more workflows on the Shared Documents library at http://sharepoint.local/sites/ribbon using SharePoint Designer 2010. (I just added two list workflows on Shared Documents and added a simple “Add Comment” step to both of them.)

4. Open the document library. Upload at least one document. You get:

You see the “Workflows” tab ??

OPEN IT!!

The dynamically generated workflow buttons are disabled!

NOW SELECT THE DOCUMENT!!

Now the workflow buttons are enabled!

CLICK ONE WORKFLOW BUTTON!!

You get a result window:

(It can contain an error message if one occurred.)

THAT’S ALL.

Next steps:

An error occures if the workflow is already associated with the item. It would be possible to create a server request while “enable check” to check on the server whether the workflow is already associated to the item.

Tests. Tests. Tests. => It’s not in a stable state!!

Ingo Karstein's Blog @ kenaro

kenaflow, SharePoint, Workflows, Microsoft Certified Master: SharePoint, PowerShell, Enterprise Web Development

Monthly Archives: March 2011

Walkthrough: Creating a simple Sequential Workflow with a custom Task Form in SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010 (Part 1 of 2)

Walkthrough: Creating a simple Sequential Workflow with a custom Task Form in SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010 (Part 2 of 2)

Error while creating a Enterprise Wiki sub site in SharePoint 2010

Kerberos error in event log on every SharePoint 2010 farm server.

Additional Ribbon Sample: Custom Ribbon Tab generated by a delegate control that lists all associated list workflows and allow to start a workflow on a selected list item. (Part 3)