Eilene Hao, a Program Manager in the SharePoint team gives an introduction to workflow in the Microsoft platform …
My name is Eilene Hao, and I’m a Program Manager on the Office Document Lifecycle workflow team, specializing in custom workflow development. I’m really excited to meet you all, and I hope that you’ll find this blog entry helpful and that you’ll continue to journey with me in exploring the wonderful world of workflow :- )! …
Read on : Introduction to SharePoint Workflow
Yet another workflow product? Isn’t this like the fourth one in ten years?
Ed,
Not sure what different products you are referring to over the last 10 years.
You’ve been more than clear (and sometimes very spot on) on Microsoft’s attempts and changes over the last 10 years.
However … it’s a much different story today I would say. The Microsoft platform has taken shape and is evolving. Workflow is based on the Windows Workflow Foundation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/technologies/workflow/default.aspx)…
I was thinking of
“BizTalk Server 2004 Human Workflow Services (HWS)”
“Exchange Workflow Designer”
“Outlook Forms Designer”
etc.
OK, you’re right about those.
It was about time Microsoft thought of Workflow as a platform capability instead of someting uniquely developed in / for certain point solutions.
I can’t denie the learning curve MS and it’s clients have had to go through in certain area’s.
the post`/ link I provided refers espeacialy to SharePoint Server 2007 leveraging Windows Workflow Foundation. Many organsiations using SharePOint have expressed the need of more advanced workflow which will be provided in this new release …
@David
No matter how much I would like to comment on your statements, I don’t have the specific detailed knowledge to do so.
I would like to suggest that you challenge the SharePoint team if you want. I would be curious as to what they would answer …
Just trying to figure out why WWF is having this type of exposure. Quite honestly, MS needs to keep this under the hood for another year or two. Yes, the SDK looks pretty nifty and long, but the methods and properties and classes just look like a bunch of extra garbage made to look like something of substance.
Take for example : Microsoft.Sharepoint.Workflow.WorkflowModfication class. Well, isn’t this interesting. I can modify my workflow… ahhh but we look under the covers and see methods that honestly look like placeholders for something… but nothing in particular.
Oh wait, lets look at Microsoft.Sharepoint.Workflow.SPListItem.DoesUserHavePermission
Hey, this is a beta I know, but isn’t security and permissions a BIG part of workflow… and I can’t use it because it is not ready???? I hope there a few more betas because this is not just a little icing on the cake.
Well, I have some other stuff to do. There are plenty more problems that I will post at a later time.
@David,
if you want to get a feeling about workflow check the WWF documentation. I am not sure what these specific SharePoint classes do. but the core is the Workflow foundation.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/reference/workflow/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/wfintro.asp
I think the foundation is pretty cool stuff. What you need on top of (every) the foundation is a great UI to customize the workflow. THis is done with SharePoint Designer for SharePoint. Or if you need to go techy you can use Visual Studio.