Introduction to SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflows By Quontra Solutions

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Introduction to SharePoint Designer
2010 Workflows
By Quontra Solutions
Email info_at_quontrasolutions.com Call us
404 900 9988 WebSite www.quontrasolution
s.com
2
Agenda

• Prototyping in Visio 2010
• Implementing in SPD2010
• Extending with VS2010
• Summary

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SPD Workflows?

• SharePoint Online supports declarative workflows
• Code-based workflows arent supported in the
  Sandbox
• Prototyping in Visio 2010
• SharePoint specific flowchart diagram
• Export to SharePoint Designer 2010
• Implement in SharePoint Designer 2010
• Improved workflow designer
• Integration of forms with InfoPath 2010
• Extend with Visual Studio 2010
• Custom SPD2010 actions
• Events

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Workflow in SPO?

• New Workflow targets
• Reusable Workflows can be applied to any list
• Site Workflows can execute on site
• New Workflow events
• Emitted by SharePoint Online (i.e.
  WorkflowStarted)
• Custom Events, Event Receivers

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Visio 2010
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Prototyping in Visio 2010

• SharePoint specific Workflow template
• Design in Visio using SharePoint shapes
• Provides workflow Visualization

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SharePoint Workflow Shapes

• Terminators
• Start/Terminate
• Conditions
• Data
• Permissions
• Dates
• Actions
• Send Email
• Create List Item
• Check In/Out

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Export to SharePoint Designer 2010

• Visio exports to a VWI file
• Renamed zip file containing all workflow files
• .xoml and .xoml.rules define workflow
• .vdx file contains Visio drawing

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SharePoint Designer 2010
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SharePoint Designer 2010

• Power tool for customizing SharePoint 2010
• Data
• Workflow
• Design the look and feel of your site
• Create Site Templates
• New User Interface
• Fluent UI from Office 2010/SharePoint 2010
• Easy navigation from artifact to summary to
  galleries
• Does not require developer/web skills
• Useful for Power Users, IT Pros and Developers
• Free!

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SPD2010 Workflow

• Supports List, Reusable, Site workflows
• Custom or based on built in workflows
• Workflow Summary
• Manage settings, start options, forms
• Task designer
• Define advanced settings for process
• Workflow designer
• Actions, Conditions, Steps
• InfoPath 2010 for forms customization

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Creating Custom Workflows

• New workflows are attached to a container
• List Workflows attached to a specific list
• Reusable Workflows are not attached to a list
• May be constrained to a content type
• Attached later using browser
• Site Workflows are attached to the current site

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Copy Modify Workflows

• Based on any Globally Reusable Workflows
• Approval
• Collect Feedback
• Collect Signatures
• Publishing Approval
• Can be limited to specific Content Type

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Workflows Summary

• Manage settings for workflow
• Associated lists
• Start options
• Manual Started for Human Workflows
• Item created/changed events for Machine Workflows
• Initiation Form Parameters
• Collect information for workflow
• Local Variables
• Leveraged in workflow execution
• Association Columns
• Applied to associated lists for Reusable
  Workflows

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Workflow Designer

• Improved declarative workflow designer

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Task Process Designer
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Actions

• Actions get work done in the workflow
• Examples
• Create, copy, change, or delete list
  items/documents
• Check items in or out
• Send an e-mail
• Create a task for person or group
• Collect data via task for use in the workflow
• Pause or stop the workflow
• Log workflow information to a History list
• Set workflow variables or perform calculations

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Conditions

• Control flow of the workflow
• Examples
• If any value equals value
• If current item field equals value
• Created by a specific person
• Created in a specific date span
• Title field contains keywords

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Steps

• Allow you to organize your workflow
• Steps performed in Serial or Parallel

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Impersonation

• Workflows run with permissions of user
• Use impersonation step to run as workflow author

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WorkflowSharePoint Designer 2010Implementing
Workflows

• demo

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SP2010 vs. SPO

• Cant export from SPD2010 to VS2010
• Cant build Visual Studio code workflows in a
  sandboxed solution

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Summary

• Prototype workflows in Visio 2010
• Use diagrams to get sign-off
• Implement the workflow in SharePoint Designer
  2010
• Custom or copy modify built in workflow
• Actions, conditions and steps
• Develop custom workflow actions and events in
  Visual Studio 2010

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Who can you trust??

• The blogs I trust through all of the noise.
• Maurice Prather http//www.bluedoglimited.com/defa
  ult.aspx
• Andrew Connell http//www.andrewconnell.com/blog
• Spence Harbar http//www.harbar.ne
  t
• Jim Duncan
• Heather Solomon http//www.heathersolomon.com/blog
  
• Todd Klindt http//www.toddklindt.com/default.asp
  x
• Todd Baginski http//www.toddbagin
  ski.com/blog
• Todd Bleeker http//bit.ly/edlSm5 Jan
  Tielens http//weblogs.asp.net/jan
• Patrick Tisseghem http//www.u2u.info/Blogs/Patric
  k/default.aspx
• Wictor Wilen http//www.wictorwilen.se
• Ted Patisson http//blog.tedpattison.net/default.
  aspx
• Lars Fastrup http//www.fastrup.net
• Carsten Keutmann http//keutmann.blogspot.com
• Keith Richie http//blog.krichie.com
• Bill Baer http//blogs.technet.com/b/wbaer

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What's on the Flash drive

• Extras

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Extras

• SharePoint 2007
• SharePointSolutionInstaller
• WSPBuilder
• KerberosBuddy
• SharePoint Sushi
• SharePointManager2007 / 2010
• SPViewPermissionSetting.wsp
• 2007 Office SDK1.5
• SQL Scripts
• SharePoint 2010
• AutoSPInstaller
• 2010 Documentation
• BusinessIntelligenceLabs
• 2010 Tips and tricks
• SQL Scripts
• npp.5.8.6
• Search.StandardMasterPageAdapter.wsp

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Resources

• Download SharePoint Designer 2010
• http//www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx
  ?displaylangenFamilyIDd88a15052D849b2D45872D
  b8542Da7054ee28d66
• Introducing SharePoint Designer 2010
• http//office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-desig
  ner-help/introducing-sharepoint-designer-2010-HA10
  1782482.aspx
• SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflow
• http//office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-desig
  ner-help/introduction-to-designing-and-customizing
  -workflows-HA101859249.aspx
• Creating SharePoint Workflow Solutions
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee231606.a
  spx
• Walkthrough Create a Custom Site Workflow
  Activity
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee231574.a
  spx

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Performance

• Addendum

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Top Performance killers
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Top Performance Killers

• Search
• Search uses SQL in a very I/O intensive fashion.
  It is sensitive to I/O latencies on the TempDB
  and the Query and Crawl file groups. One of the
  more difficult and time consuming jobs for a
  Search Administrator is to schedule the Crawls so
  they are not over lapping while keeping Search
  results fresh
• Indexing/Crawling
• Crawling and indexing a large volume of
  information, documents, and Web pages requires a
  large amount of computer processing. The crawl
  process also consumes network and other
  resources. The SharePoint environment must be
  configured properly and monitored, to ensure that
  the crawling and indexing process does not
  adversely affect the service available to users.
  For example, content is usually crawled and
  indexed during off-peak hours when servers are
  underused in order to maintain peak-hour services
  for users.
• Applications that may be crawling content in your
  production environment
• Coveo Full and Incremental crawls to enable
  search
• Newsgator to Update all of the colleague
  information and RSS feeds
• DocAve for Reporting on and Performing SharePoint
  Management tasks
• WSS Search indexes the Help information provided
  with SharePoint
• SharePoint Profile Import syncs people profile
• Office Search Full and Incremental updates Coveo
  would replace
•  

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Top Performance Killers

• Profile Import
• Profile imports are used with NGES to sync your
  AD user details to provide access to your feed
  subscriptions and with SharePoint to sync your AD
  user details with your SharePoint User Profile
• Large List Operations
• Having large lists by itself is not necessarily a
  performance issue. When SharePoint Server renders
  the many items in those lists, that can cause
  spikes in render times and database blocking. One
  way to mitigate large lists is to use subfolders
  and create a hierarchical structure where each
  folder or subfolder has no more than 3,000 items.
  Identify large lists and work with the owners of
  the sites and lists to archive items or pursue
  other mitigation strategies
• Heavy User Operation List Import/Write
• Another scenario of users having power they dont
  realize.  Importing large lists using excel or
  synchronizing an access db. In SQL theres little
  difference between these types of user
  operations. 
• Backup (SQL Tape)
• Serious CPU and write disk I/O performance hit.
  SQL Litespeed or SQL 2008 backup with compression
  all help to lessen the performance hit.

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SharePoint Performance
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Database Performance

• Database Volumes
• Separate database volumes into unique LUNs
  consisting of unique physical disk spindles.
• Prioritize data among faster disks with ranking
• SQL TempDB data files
• Database transaction log files
• Search database
• Content databases
• In a heavily read-oriented portal site,
  prioritize data over logs.
• Separate out Search database transaction log from
  content database transaction logs.

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Database Performance

• SQL TempDB Data Files
• Recommended practice is that the number of data
  files allocated for TempDB should be equal to
  number of core CPUs in SQL Server.
• TempDB data file sizes should be consistent
  across all data files.
• TempDB data files should be spread across unique
  LUNs and separated from Content DB, Search DB,
  etc
• TempDB Log file separated to unique LUN.
• Optimal TempDB data file sizes can be calculated
  using the following formula MAX DB SIZE (KB) X
  .25 / CORES DATA FILE SIZE (KB)
• Calculation result (starting size) should be
  roughly equal to 25 of the largest content or
  search DB.
• Use RAID 10 separate LUN from other database
  objects (content, search, etc).
• Autogrow feature set to a fixed amount if auto
  grow occurs, permanently increase TempDB size.

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Database Performance

• Content Databases
• 100 content databases per Web application
• 100GB per content database
• CAUTION Major DB locking issues reported in
  collaborative DM scenarios above 100GB
• Need to ensure that you understand the issues
  based on number of users, usage profiles, etc
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) requirements for
  backup and restore will also have an impact on
  this decision.
• KnowledgeLake Lab testing demonstrated SharePoint
  performance was NOT impacted by utilizing larger
  DB sizes tests included content DB sizes that
  were 100GB, 150GB, 200GB, 250GB, 300GB and 350GB.

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Database Performance

• Content Databases - Continued
• Pre-construct and pre-size
• Script generation of empty database objects
• Autogrow feature on
• Use RAID 5 or RAID 10 logical units
• RAID 10 is the best choice when cost is not a
  concern.
• RAID 5 will be sufficient and will save on costs,
  since content databases tend to be more read
  intensive than write intensive.
• Multi-core computer running SQL Server
• Primary file group could consist of a data file
  for each CPU core present in SQL Server.
• Move each data file to separate logical units
  consisting of unique physical disk spindles.

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Database Performance

• Search Database
• Pre-construct and pre-size
• Script generation of empty database objects
• Autogrow feature on
• Use RAID 10 logical units
• Should be a requirement for large-scale systems
• Search database is extremely read/write intensive
• Multi-core computer running SQL Server
• Primary file group could consist of a data file
  for each CPU core present in SQL Server.
• Move each data file to separate logical units
  consisting of unique physical disk spindles.

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Database Performance

• Search Database
• Search database is VERY read/write intensive!
• Do not place any other database data files on any
  logical unit where search database files reside.
• If possible, try to ensure that the RAID 10
  logical units for the search database data files
  do not share their physical spindles with other
  databases.
• Place the search database log files on an
  independent logical unit.

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Database Performance

• Database Maintenance
• Physical Volume File Fragmentation
• Defragment your physical volumes on a regular
  schedule for increased performance!
• LUNs need to be 20-50 larger than the data
  stored on them allow for effective
  defragmentation of the data files.
• Performance Monitor Counters to watch
• Average Disk Queue Length
• Single Digit values are optimal.
• Occasional double-digit values arent a large
  concern.
• Sustained triple-digit values require attention.

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Page Performance

• Minimize HTTP Requests
• 80 of the end-user response time is spent on the
  front-end. Most of this time is tied up in
  downloading all the components in the page
  images, stylesheets, scripts, Flash, etc.
  Reducing the number of components in turn reduces
  the number of HTTP requests required to render
  the page. This is the key to faster pages.
• For static components implement
• "Never expire" policy by setting far future
  Expires header
• Avoid Redirects
• Redirects are accomplished using the 301 and 302
  status codes. Heres an example of the HTTP
  headers in a 301 response
• Optimize Images
• After a designer is done with creating the images
  for your web page, there are still some things
  you can try before you uploading the images to
  your web server
• Avoid Empty Image src
• Image with empty string src attribute occurs more
  than one will expect.

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Thank you!!