Workflow using SharePoint designer 2007

To know about the basics of the Work flows in SharePoint, read this article.

In this article, we will learn how to create a designer workflow in SharePoint designer 2007.

Scenario:

1.   Create a workflow in SharePoint designer 2007

2.   This workflow should be automatically triggered when an item is created or updated in a SharePoint Document library

3.   When the workflow is initiated, then the document created or updated in the document library should be copied to another document library

4.   Also, we will have parameter (flag) in the document library whether to move or not in the document library.

Solution:

We will create two document libraries named, “Draft Library” and “Publish Library”.

In the Draft Library we will create an additional column named Move to Publish Library of type Choice menu (YES or NO)

When a document is uploaded or updated in Draft Library with the flag value equals to yes, then the workflow should be triggered which will copy the item to the Publish Library.

Steps:

Open the SharePoint site in the designer and click on File -> New -> Workflow

Give the name of the workflow and Select the document library for the workflow to be associated (Draft Library in our case). Then Select two options Automatically starts the workflow when an item is created or change and click on Next.

In the Step1, click on the conditions and select Compare Draft Library field

Now, select the Move to Publish Library column and Value equals to Yes as shown below

Now we will apply the action for the workflow. Click on Actions -> Copy List Item. 

Now select Draft Library to Publish Library in the values as shown below

Once you click on finish, then the workflow will be associated to the “Draft Library”.

Navigate to the SharePoint Document library and when you check the workflow settings, and then you will see the MoveDocuments workflow associated with the Draft document library.

Now, we will test the workflow. Go ahead and upload a document into the “Draft Library”. Select YES in the Move to Publish Library option as shown below:

Now, our workflow will be initiated and you will see the status of the workflow (completed) in the document library as shown below:

Click on the completed in the document library where you will be navigated to the workflow information as shown below:

Now, navigate to the publish library, you will see the document being copied as result of the workflow as shown below:

Now, at the end of this article we have learned the following from this article:

1. Creating a Designer workflow in SharePoint using SharePoint designer 2007.

2. Used workflow to copy an item form one document library to another document library.


To know about the new features added in SharePoint Designer 2010, read this article.

Free to comment if this article helps you!

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The security validation for this page is invalid in SharePoint

Sometimes, when a user with least permissions in the SharePoint site, creates or updates an item, then the following error will be shown:

“The security validation for this page is invalid. Click Back in your Web browser, refresh the page, and try your operation again”

When you are creating a custom web parts or creating custom solutions, your code will run with your credentials.

Not everybody has full control in the SharePoint site, so when a user has read only rights and try to update an item in the list or SharePoint Document library, then the code will throw an access denied error. This happens, when the code needs access to objects that are not in the scope of the user credentials.

Here comes the concept called impersonation (ability to control the identity under which code is executed) in ASP.Net. This will allow you to run your code with the help of a user who has correct permissions to run it.

Namespace: Microsoft.SharePoint
Assembly   : Microsoft.SharePoint (in Microsoft.SharePoint.dll)

In SharePoint we have built-in function to accomplish this: SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges, it runs with the System Account User.

Solutions:

1. Add the “SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges = True” in the code as shown in the example below:

Check the full code usage in this post http://sharepoint-works.blogspot.com/2011/12/programmatically-creating-site-backup.html

2. Or in the Central Administration -> Application Management -> Web Application General Settings -> Select web application
In Web Page Security Validation, change security validation is off.

Note: The 2^nd solution is should not be followed as per the best practices of SharePoint.

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Workflows in SharePoint

What is a Workflow in SharePoint?

Ø  In simple words, we can say workflow is a serious of activities occurs in steps which will produce an output at the final step.

Ø  In SharePoint, workflow is an automated movement of documents or items through a sequence of actions or tasks that are related to a business process. 

Ø  Business process is a sequence of steps that occurs on a document or a task or an item and finally produces a result as an outcome.

Types of Workflows

Basically, there are two fundamental types of workflows in the SharePoint:
                       

   1.   Sequential workflow

It represents the steps that execute in order until the completion of last activity. It is represented graphically in flowchart with start, end and all the sequential activities in between.

Example

   
  2.   State-Machine workflow

It represents a set of states, transitions and actions. As sequential workflows, it does not have prescribed execution flow and need not have an end. It can have any number of states and transition and it can any items related to any transition.

Example

The different types of workflow in the various versions of SharePoint present by default are listed below:

Ways for creating workflows in SharePoint

The different ways of creating the workflows in SharePoint are as follows:

    1.   In SharePoint site directly

    2.   SharePoint Designer

    3.   Microsoft Visual Studio with workflow extensions installed (WWF- Windows Workflow Foundation) – basically called custom workflows

    4.   Third party tools like K2 Black Perl, Nintex, etc.,

What are the pre-requisites for creating a workflow in SharePoint?

    1.  There should be a at least one list or document library to create and associate a workflow.

    2.   If you do not have a single list or document library in your site, you will be prompted for creating a list or library.

    3.   If you want your workflow to be associated with custom columns or settings in the site, then those changes should be made before you create the workflow so that it will be available in the designer.

Advantages

 Ø  Allow the business activities to be automated, enabling actions such as document review, approval, issue tracking and signature collection.

 Ø  Allow the document to be routed to one person to another for approval by assigning a task to each person. This is followed by analysis, review, and approval and finally the document is published. Hence making the document management easier.

 Ø  Also improves the collaboration in an enterprise.

To know about creating a designer workflow in SharePoint using SharePoint designer 2007, read this article.


To know about the new features added in SharePoint Designer 2010, read this article.

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Exporting SharePoint User Groups with Group Names

In the article Exporting SharePoint User Groups into Excel, we have learned about exporting the SharePoint user groups into excel. Here we are able to export all the users in a SharePoint site but we are unable to sort the users with the group name.

In this article, we will learn a small work around filter the users with the group name.

We can use SQL Query to fetch this data.

Connect to the SQL server and open a new query in the content database where your SharePoint site resides.

The SharePoint content DB does not expose the tables (for lists, libraries, users, etc.) in the database directly.

The below is the query which will fetch all the users in the SharePoint site with the user groups in a separate column in the result.
SELECT dbo.Groups.ID, dbo.Groups.Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Login FROM dbo.GroupMembership INNER JOIN dbo.Groups ON dbo.GroupMembership.SiteId = dbo.Groups.SiteId INNER JOIN dbo.UserInfo ON dbo.GroupMembership.MemberId = dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID

Hope this helps you!

Please free to comment. Always your comments makes me to write more!

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The Search Service is currently offline

Problem:

The search service is currently offline. Visit the services on server page in SharePoint central administration to verify whether the service is enabled. This might also be because an indexer move is in progress

You will get the below screen when you navigate to the default content access account, crawl log or default content access account in the Search Server Administration.

Resolution:

Following are the steps to fix this issue.

1. Open central administration
2. Goto Operations -> Topology and Services -> Services on Server
3. Select Search Indexing -> On “Office SharePoint Server Search” click “Stop”. This will reconfigure the service
4. Now click “start”
5. Navigate to the indexer log file location which is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data\Office Server\Applications” for me. Here you will find a folder with Guid name. At the end of that folder add “_old”. Refresh the SSP page and wait for some time and now the indexer will recreate the guid folder.
6. This will fix this issue.

If this doesn't work out, then check the service account which is running the search service (default content access account for crawling the content). If there are any changes in the account, then this might also be the problem for the search service to go offline.

Please free to comment. Hope this helps you!

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Configuring Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2010

Hi All,

Read the useful arcticle which explains about Configuring the Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2010. A step by step explanation with screens is explained in this artcile.

Configuring Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2010 

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Inserting a web part into SharePoint page without designer

In the article “Inserting a web part into SharePoint Page without designer”, we have discussed about inserting a web part in New/Edit/Display from.aspx in without using designer the lower versions of SharePoint (WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007).

Now, in this article we will discuss about inserting a web part into the New/Edit/Display form.aspx page without designer in SharePoint 2010.

Now, suppose that we have custom list named “City”

Now, go to the List Settings of the custom list “City”

Under General Settings -> Advanced Settings

In the advance settings, we have an option for the Launching the forms in dialog when click on NEW for inserting a new value in a list.

Here, now we will disable that option by selecting NO in launch forms in a dialog as shown below:

Now, we will click on “New Item” for inserting a new item in the custom list

Now, we will be navigated to the newform.aspx without popup dialog since we have disabled it.

The URL in the address bar will be as below:

http://SiteName/Lists/City/NewForm.aspx?Source=http%3A%2F%2F%2D%3A2020%2FLists%2FCity%2FAllItems%2Easpx%3FInitialTabId%3DRibbon%252EListItem%26VisibilityContext%3DWSSTabPersistence&RootFolder=

In the above URL delete the URL before NewForm.aspx, we will have

 http://SiteName/Lists/City/NewForm.aspx

In this URL in the address bar, append “?ToolPaneView=2”

http://SiteName/List/City/NewForm.aspx?ToolPaneView=2

Click Go in the address bar, then you will see the Add Web Parts option for inserting into the newform.aspx page.

In the similar way, we can insert the web part into editform.aspx and displayform.aspx

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The Parameter is incorrect crawl error Search Server

In this article, we are going to discuss about a strange issue with Microsoft Search Server.

Scenario:

Usually with the SharePoint, we will install Microsoft Search Server for providing the users a search function.

We will configure the content source in Search Server Admin page and crawler indexes the contents and will display the results in the search depending upon the user query.

The below figure shows the Search Server Overview:

Content Sources – The link where the SharePoint site is configured for crawling

Crawl Log – The logs of the crawler

Sometimes we will get the “The Parameter is incorrect” in the crawl log and then onwards, the search server stops crawling the new contents and no results will be displayed in the search result.

Root Cause:

This is due to a limit that a SharePoint user group cannot have more than 1000 users in a single SharePoint group.

Resolution:

The only way is to either decrease the number of users in the group which has exceeded the 1000 users or to split the user groups (Check the reference article below).

The reason behind is

During the indexing process, the system stores the ACE of each user who was added to a SharePoint group instead of the ACE of the SharePoint group itself. This process supports approximately 1000 users per access control list (ACL), after which the "Parameter is incorrect" error causes crawling to fail.

Reference Article:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc850696.aspx

Thanks for reading. Share your feedback!

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Export SharePoint User Groups in Excel

In this article, we are going to discuss about a SharePoint tip which is not present in the User Groups by default.

Scenario:

From any list in the SharePoint, you can export the whole list in to a excel file or you can edit and save the excel file.

But is that possible in SharePoint User Groups?

Yes, it is possible.
Solution:

1. Go to Site Settings (http://sitname/_layouts/settings.aspx) -> Under Users and Permissions Select People and groups 

2. You will be seeing a URL like this http://sitname/_layouts/people.aspx?MembershipGroupId=5

3. Then navigate to the List Settings in the people and groups of a particular group which you want to export to the excel file

4. Now, in the URL you will see like this:

http://sitname/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List=72bcbfee-c10e-41ba-b128-2769c8fe9cc9&Source=%2Fpeople%2Easpx%3FMembershipGroupId%3D5
5. If you want you retrieve the users list from any view, then click on the view from the views list as shown below:
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the view you want to export

6.Now, copy the URL from the address bar and keep it in a notepad which is something like below:
http:// sitname /_layouts/ViewEdit.aspx?List=%7B72BCBFEE%2DC10E%2D41BA%2DB128%2D2769C8FE9CC9%7D&View=%7B4A52DE00%2D9B7C%2D4FDC%2DAC39%2D960FDF18F1F3%7D&Source=%252F%255Flayouts%252Flistedit%252Easpx%253FList%253D72bcbfee%252Dc10e%252D41ba%252Db128%252D2769c8fe9cc9%2526Source%255Flayouts%25252Fpeople%25252Easpx%25253FMembershipGroupId%25253D5

From the above URL, we have to copy the LIST ID and VIEW ID (marked bold in the above URL)

7. Now, we can easily export the people and groups in to excel using the following dll from the SharePoint server.

http://[sitename]/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?CS=109&Using=_layouts/query.iqy&List=[LISTID]&View=[VIEWID]&CacheControl=1

8. Now, replace the site name, LIST ID and VIEWID in the above URL:

I will get the final URL as:

http://sitename/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?CS=109&Using=_layouts/query.iqy&List=%7B64DAB4AC%2DD043%2D4DA4%2D85C7%2D9D4521C3F4CC%7D&View=%7B0FAE8D90%2D59D5%2D48F4%2DA54E%2DF02333777C7F%7D&CacheControl=1

Note:

To know more about the owssvr.dll please read this article

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd588689(v=office.11).aspx

Open the above URL in the address bar, you will get an option to save an EXCEL FILE.

9. Open the Excel file, you will be asked for authentication, enable the external content and open it.

10. That’s it. You will see all the users in the groups with their details exported to the excel file.
11. This excel file exported using this method has all the users from the user groups but it is not filtered by user group name.

Read this article to achieve exporting the SharePoint user groups with the group name Exporting SharePoint User Groups with Group Names.
Read this article to know How to Programmatically get the users with the Group Name in SharePoint 

Programmatically get SharePoint Users with Group Name.
See Also

Check if current user is member of a SharePoint group using JQuery

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SharePoint Web Part Maintenance Page

In this post, we will come to know how to navigate to the web part maintenance page.

Why we need this page in SharePoint ?

In the webpart maintenance page, we will see the web parts present in a SharePoint page.

By adding “?contents=1” at the end of the page URL, you can navigate to the web part maintenance page.

For Example:

http://severname/default.aspx?contents=1

Here, you can see the web parts present in the SharePoint page and you can delete the web parts if it is corrupted or not used in the particular page.

Advantage:

There will be scenarios like; you will get an error while opening the SharePoint page in the SharePoint designer. Read this article to know more Deafult.aspx is not opening in the SharePoint Designer

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