Building Workflow Templates for SharePoint v3 Using Visual Studio 2008

This recently bit me and after some investigation, I thought it would be good to put this information out there.

Before Visual Studio 2008, you could build workflow templates with Visual Studio 2005 provided you installed (1) the VSeWWF to get the workflow designer, debugger, base activity library in the VS Toolbox and workflow project templates & (2) either the WSS v3 or MOSS 2007 SDK to get the SharePoint specific workflow templates. The only thing you needed to run these guys in a SharePoint v3 site was to have the .NET Framework 3.0 installed, which was no issue because that was already a prerequisite for WSS v3.

Visual Studio 2008, when you elect to include the Office dev tools as part of the install, gives you a template to create SharePoint 2007 [Sequential|Statemachine] Workflows. What's cool about this template is that it now lets developers hit F5 to do debugging without having to manually deploy and attach the debugger. Visual Studio does the association with a local SharePoint site's list. Very cool. Unfortunately it expects the Feature definition file that is used in deployment lives in the root of a project. Of course most of the world isn't doing this, rather we mimic the "12" folder in our projects. For us, the F5 debugging doesn't help a darn bit. So unfortunate... oh well, such is life.

If you haven't built a workflow in VS2008 for SharePoint, check out Robert Shelton's screencast on his blog... great little sample to watch (and a good blog to subscribe to at that).

Another thing was bugging me though: In order to get the SharePoint workflow template in Visual Studio 2008 to show up, you had to select the .NET Framework 3.5 as your target. Hmm... ok, so the Framework is now additive in nature these days. For instance, .NET 3.0 is really .NET 2.0 +SP1 + WPF + WCF + WWF + CardSpace. So does targeting .NET 3.5 really matter? Apparently it does. If you build a workflow with Visual Studio 2008 and use this template, your server MUST have .NET 3.5 installed. At present, Microsoft does not officially support SharePoint running on .NET 3.5, but rest assured, I'm sure they are working on it for a post SP1 update. Just keep this in mind when building workflows for your customers.

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,wss,moss,workflow,visual studio

posted on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 3:14 PM

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re: Building Workflow Templates for SharePoint v3 Using Visual Studio 2008 1/3/2008 9:54 AM Justin Kobel

Any idea on the support for InfoPath driven initiation, initialization, and task driven forms in Visual Studio 2008?

It appears as though Microsoft has dropped the ball on this one, requiring you to create these forms via content types in VS 2008. In my opinion, being able to create and manage the forms with InfoPath was a huge time saver, especially when an Agile methodology, where the forms would frequently change appearance at the request of the user groups.

# Workflows for MOSS using Visual Studio 2008 1/3/2008 12:39 PM Connecting Systems the Microsoft Way

It all gets easier with 2008! Check out these links: Robert Shelton's screencast on his blog... Andrew...

# re: Building Workflow Templates for SharePoint v3 Using Visual Studio 2008 1/3/2008 8:39 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Justin-
No ball has been dropped. It's still fully supported just as it was in VS 2005. You have to build the forms in InfoPath as that is the forms designer. Then you integreate them into the Feature's element manifest file just like you have always done.

# re: Building Workflow Templates for SharePoint v3 Using Visual Studio 2008 1/7/2008 8:18 AM Wouter van Vugt

For WSS workflow, I've started a project to support the creation of the forms using a templating approach. The next installment will include wizards.
http://www.codeplex.com/wss3workflow.
Hope it helps,
Wouter

# re: Building Workflow Templates for SharePoint v3 Using Visual Studio 2008 1/7/2008 6:28 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Wouter van Vugt-
Now... this is a cool project! Thanks for taking the init to build it. Looking forward to taking the time to dig in!

# re: Building Workflow Templates for SharePoint v3 Using Visual Studio 2008 1/13/2008 10:58 PM Wouter

Cool. Glad you guys like it. I am joining up with Chris Predeek to move this forward a little bit more (think wizards etc... ) Chris also has some interesting workflow code to share!

Wouter

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