Walkthrough: Creating a simple Sequential Workflow with a custom Task Form in SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010 (Part 3 of (2+1))

 

This article belongs to these previous posts:

You should read this article if you have problems to deploy my sample project on Codeplex (http://spworkflowdemo.codeplex.com/) in Visual Studio 2010.

1. Download the code and copy them into your sources folder.

2. Create a site collection in SharePoint 2010, e.g. “http://sharepoint.local/sites/workflow”. Use “Blank Site” site template.

3. Open the solution file in Visual Studio 2010 (file with extension “.sln”).

4. In the Solution Explorer pane select the project node.

5. Set the “Site URL” property to your previously created SharePoint Site (see step 2 above).

image

6. In the Solution Explorer pane select the “Workflow 1” node in the project.

7. In the Properties pane modify the value of “Display Name”. Set it to “Workflow 1”.

8. Now click into the values edit box of “History List” (or “Target List” or “Task List”). This will open a wizard.

9. In the wizard specify the values of the Workflow Association. Choose the values shown in following screenshot:

Step “A”:

image

Click “Next”.

Step “B”:

image

Click “Next”.

Step “C”:

image

Click “Finish”.

10. Now you should be able to deploy the project.

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

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.

image

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

image

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

image

3. This is the project structure at start:

image

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”.

image

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”.

image

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.

image

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

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

image

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

image

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

image

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”.

image

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

image

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

image

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:

image

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.

image

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.

image

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”:

image

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:

image

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

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.

image

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

image

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

image

Enter some data and press  “Save”.

image

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

image

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”:

image

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)

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 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/

(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 (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”.

image

image

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

image

We change the Title, URL and Description.

image

17. Deploy the project.

18. Now we start creating a Sequential Workflow.

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

image

Create the workflow as “List Workflow”.

image

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.

image

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

image

You get:

image

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.

image

After you did this you get:

image

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”.

image

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:

image

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”.

image

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: image)

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:

image

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

image

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

image

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

image

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”!!!
    image

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

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

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

image

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.

image

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”.

image

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

image

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:

image

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.

image

image

(After F5 / page refresh:)

image

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

image

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”.

image

Click “Edit Item”.

There it is!!! :

image

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”).

image

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

After that the workflow is “Completed”:

image

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!