Visual Studio Workflow in SharePoint

Part I

To know about the Basics of Workflow in SharePoint, read this article.

To know about the Creating a Designer Workflow, read this article.

To know about the New Features added in SharePoint Designer 2010, read this article.

In this we will learn about Basics of Visual Studio Workflows in SharePoint.

Windows Workflow Foundation -WWF:

Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a Microsoft technology for defining, executing, and managing workflows.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Workflow_Foundation

Why Visual Studio Workflow is necessary?

From the business perspective, we need some custom workflows to be designed and developed in order to meet the requirements. By using designer, we cannot achieve all the custom actions and hence Visual Studio workflows are necessary.

Moreover, Visual Studio is a known environment to the developers (working with Microsoft Software’s) and hence the design and development is very easy.

Software Requirements

  Ø  Windows Server 2003 R2 Download

  Ø  Microsoft .NET framework 3.0 Download

  Ø  Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Download

  Ø  Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 with SP1 Download

  Ø  Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK Download

  Ø  Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation Download
   Limitations of using Designer Workflow:

  Ø  A major disadvantage is that, you can create only Sequential Workflows using designer and not the State Machine workflows.

  Ø  We cannot write custom code and custom activities for workflows while creating using designer.

  Ø  Maintenance and upgradeable methods are very less.

To know how to create a sample Sequential Workflow using Visual Studio, read this article Visual Studio Workflow in SharePoint.

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Prevent Outlook from Sending Emails with a Blank Subject

Objective:

In the IT Industry, Outlook is most popularly used as the Email client. The subject line is a very important part of any email. Many times has it happened to you that you have sent an email through Outlook without a subject line? After clicking the Send button, you realize that you have made a mistake (What if it is a case you have sent a mail without Subject to a Client or a Manager?)

By default, Outlook does not validate a mail with a blank subject and here is the solution.

Steps:

1. Open MS Outlook -> Tools -> Macro -> Visual Basic Editor

2. You will see Visual Basic Editor will be opened 

 3. Click ThisOutlookSession which will open the Code Editor paste the below code in the Editor -> Save it and Close the window.

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
   Dim strSubject As String
   strSubject = Item.Subject
   If Len(Trim(strSubject)) = 0 Then
       Prompt$ = "Subject is Empty. Are you sure you want to send the EMail?"
      If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + _
            vbMsgBoxSetForeground, _
            "Email Subject is Empty") = vbNo Then
        Cancel = True
      End If
  End If
End Sub

4. Now, restart the outlook. You will be prompted with a window where in Click on Enable Macros.

5. Now try sending an email without subject, you will be prompted for entering a Subject in the Email.

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Pillars of SharePoint 2010

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Pillars of SharePoint 2007

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SharePoint 2010 Features

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Versions of SharePoint

Ø  Microsoft Content Management Server (CMS) (Year 2002)

Ø  SharePoint Portal Server (Year 2003)

Ø  Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Year 2003) – Free Ware

Ø  Microsoft Office Share Point Server (MOSS) (Year 2007) (Built on .NET 2.0) –    

   Combination of CMS and SharePoint Portal Server

Ø  SharePoint Foundation Server (Year 2010) – Free Ware

Ø  Microsoft SharePoint Server (Year 2010)

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Databases must be empty before they can be used. Delete all of the tables, stored procedures and other objects or use a different database.

Problem:

I got this error when I tried to stop and start the Windows SharePoint Services Search service by the following:

Central Administration ->Operations ->Services on server->Windows SharePoint Services Search->Stop

Central Administration->Operations->Services on server->Windows SharePoint Services Search->Start

The below is the step by step solution to fix this issue.

Solution:

1. We have to delete some log files of database in the SQL Server by following the path:

Stop the SQL Server Express Service: Start -> All Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Services -> SQL Server -> Right click Stop

2. Now delete the following file in the below locations:

WINDIR%\SYSMSI\SSEE\MSSL.2005\MSSQL\DATA\WSS_Search_ Servername.mdf

WINDIR%\SYSMSI\SSEE\MSSL.2005\MSSQL\DATA\WSS_Search_ Servername_log.LDF

Or in this path WINDIR%\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\

3. Restart the SQL Server Express Service by following the path:

 Start -> All Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Services -> SQL Server -> Right click Start

4. Now restart the Windows SharePoint Services Search by following the path:

Restart the Windows SharePoint Services Search: Central Administration->Operations->Services on server->Windows SharePoint Services Search->Start

5. In the Configure Windows SharePoint Services Search Service Settings page, in the Search DB section, give a new DB name in the Database Name field. Click Start.

6. If you give the old DB name you will get the error. Hence try giving the new DB name.

Please free to comment and share this post if it helps you!

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The specified database has an incorrect collation. Rebuild the database with the Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS collation or create a new database

Problem:

 I have faced this error when I created a DB in the SQL server and then tried to create the Search Server DB name in the Search Server Configuration Page while configuring the Microsoft Search Server Express 2008.

Solution:

1. The problem is the database created has incorrect collation.

2. We have to change the collation to Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS collation which is specified while configuring the web applications or search server DB in SharePoint.

3.  Connect to the SQL server -> Select the Database created.

4. Right Click on the Database -> Properties -> Select Options page -> Change the collation as shown below:

5. Now try to configure the Search or Web Application in SharePoint, it will work as expected.

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