Blog change: Now using a Code Sharing Tool

Since last post I started to use Pastie to share source code. It's a nice free tool which helps to share and embedded code in other sites, a Pastebin Application. Today I updated the last posts also with embedded source codes from Pastie.

I hope you like it!

http://pastie.org/

How to create a Custom Report on Nintex Workflow 2007

Since last week I was looking forward on how to deal with custom reports on Nintex. And it's very nice, the way they developed it gives the users some great capabilities on querying workflow information. This post shows the necessary steps to create a custom report using the data already available on Nintex Workflows. I also suggest a previous reading on the SDK document, available here:

http://connect.nintex.com/files/folders/sdk/entry122.aspx

Nintex have it own database separated from SharePoint. The developers are capable of creating new tables, stored procedures and what else is necessary to improve the workflow customizing. On the Reporting case, we can create Stored Procedures to handle our custom queries. This How to create a query which looks for how many tasks the users handled. It's quite simple, but is a good way to check how reporting works.

How to create links to the Workflow Status and Details on a List

This post is quite simple, because it uses some common Nintex variables, but it born from a real user needing, and before I realized it was partially available. My first approach to create the links to the Workflow Status and Details pages was to create the URLs manually. And it worked! But then I realized that it is not necessary. Below I explain step by step how to do it!

How the delegation works on Nintex Workflow 2007

After reading a good article on Let's SharePoint blog, I decided to do some tests about delegation on Nintex Workflows 2007, and I found interesting results.

Let's SharePoint post, Nintex Best Practice Task Delegation:

http://aknauer.blogspot.com/2009/10/nintex-best-practice-task-delegation.html

First of all, the way I'm doing the delegation is for all tasks, using the top menu, as I have described in my first HOW TO post on this blog:

http://workflowexperience.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-get-delegated-user-of-task.html

Nintex Workflow 2010: Just Released

Hello!

Yes, it was released today! And with a many improvements, comparing to the 2007. Check it by yourself!

http://www.nintex.com/en-US/Products/Pages/NintexWorkflow2010.aspx

I also recomend a look on the two flyers who describes the product, and the comparative table between the 2007 and 2010 versions:

Product Brochure
Edition Comparison Table

In my opinion, the most interesting features available on this new version are:

• Fluent ribbon interface (Office 2007-2010 like)
• Create “User Defined Actions” using the drag and drop workflow designer (if it allows to export this actions)
• Export workflows to Visual Studio 2010 (it’s very useful to customize the workflow, adding new capabilities)
• InfoPath form generation/support (no idea how it works yet, there are no info available, but sounds nice)

I hope I can play with it soon! :)

Changes on the Blog design

Hello friends

I decided to make the blog posts smaller on the start page of the blog. I decided it because my last post/article is really big, and the other posts was really down on the blog.

So, for the future posts I will use the Read More>> link, to make the reading experience of this blog better.

Thanks and good weekend!

How to create a multi-view web-based InfoPath form controlled by a Nintex Workflow

This post explores the capabilities of the integration between InfoPath 2007 + Nintex Workflow 2007. The idea is to create a form which is handled and modified by the Workflow. In order to do that, some customization on the form is needed to show and allow the users to manipulate the data on the form.

Bellow I will explain the step by step how to create this form and the workflow to manipulate it. It's necessary some coding behind the form, in order to control the default view of the form.

How to easily find the internal names of the columns

In order to use some Web Services of SharePoint methods, like UpdateListItems, we usually need the columns internal names. How is the best way to find this internal names? There are some ways. I usually used the Web Service Response from the same UpdateListItems method, because it returns the internal names of the columns as attributes on the XML (with an ows_ in the beginning of the attribute).

I also found this nice post on the SharePoint Tricks and Tips Blog:

http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/04/one-of-more-field-types-are-not.html

OK, but is there a simple way to do it? In my opinion, yes, there is. I do it without using an external application, just using Nintex.

Twitter: @workflowxp

I just created a twitter for the blog!

http://twitter.com/workflowxp

How to get the delegated user of a task

The current build of the nintex workflow 2007 (11004) isn't capable to get the delegated person by itself. Explaining better this scenario, the idea is to know when a User Task (e.g.: Flexi Task or Approval) is sent to a specific user, but this user have delegated all of his tasks using the task delegation from Nintex.

After searching for many days for a solution, I found a way to solve the problem. On this post I will show how is possible to get the user name of a delegated user. But one question before I start: Why do I need that? Well in my case, I needed the user name for 2 reasons:

• Update a list collum with the name of the user who handled the task;
• Give this user permissions on the List Item;

In my scenario, I was blocking the permissions for specific users, as a requirement of the Workflow. In order to give the delegated users correct permissions to view or modify the List Item, because for the workflow, just the original approver have permission, not the delegated. Just to clarify, I'm not talking about the task itself, the delegated user for who the task is assigned, get the permission to the task automatically from the workflow.

OBS: The approach described here don't works for direct task delegation on the action, it just works if the user delegates all of his tasks. A good example of how to handle a directly delegated task can be found here:
http://connect.nintex.com/files/folders/wflowactions/entry436.aspx

Below the workflow is explained step by step.

Starting a new Blog

Hello all!

The idea of this blog is to share my experience with Nintex Workflow development. I started working with it this year and I haven't found many content about this topic outside of the nintex forum.

So, I hope it's useful!

Enjoy.