Your Comments.

• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  

  This is the seventh of a series of "How To " Videos that I have created to show .NET Developers how to build document workflow in a SharePoint environment.

  
  
  Seventh or sixth? Or am I missing the sixth one?

  Left by Hüseyin at 11/22/2007 3:45 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Huseyin,
  
  You are right, It is the sixth. It was a typo on my part, which should be corrected now. Hopefully, you will see the 7th video within the next few weeks.
  
  Thanks for catching that and letting me know.
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 11/22/2007 8:26 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Sheldon:
  
  Great video! Very informative. And its giving me a jump start.
  
  Do you have a PDF file (similar to your custom workflows) that walks me through this process?
  
  Thanks
  
  Tom

  Left by Tom at 1/15/2008 11:34 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Thnx Sheldon,
  
  Really great post!
  
  I wanted to know a sample workflow.xml and feature.xml format for the above custom workflow scenario.
  
  As you know, when u call infopath form instead of .aspx form, u need to provide the FormURN in workflow.xml.But what could be the value when u deal with .aspx pages?

  Left by Srikrushna Patro at 1/21/2008 5:06 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Srikrushna,
  
  I am not sure if I am answer your actual question, but I can tell you that that the FormURN for the ASP.NET page is the URL for the Custom ASP.NET Form that you would build.
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 1/21/2008 3:07 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi! A could not find the Approval form aspx. Where can i find that? thx

  Left by Attila at 1/24/2008 9:20 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Attila,
  
  It's in the Layouts folder, which is here on my machine: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\CustomApprovalForms. That's where SharePoint requires that it lives.
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 1/24/2008 7:04 PM
• # CustomApprvaoForms

  I cannot find there. which feature install that into the Layouts folder?
  or can you send me that ASPX form? atka20@freemail.hu
  Thanks

  Left by Attila at 1/31/2008 4:21 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  I am unclear how the custom ApprovalForm.aspx got associated with the workflow. I did not see you specify it anywhere.

  Left by Andrew at 2/13/2008 12:29 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Nevermind, this entry had the information I was looking for: http://www.sheltonblog.com/archive/2007/10/05/free-sharepoint-document-workflow-workshop---part-3-asp.net-workflow.aspx
  
  
  Thanks for the fantastic how-to videos and workshops. I do not even want to count the number of hours of banging my head on my desk that these have likely saved me from.

  Left by Andrew at 2/13/2008 3:06 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Thanks Andrew,
  
  I am happy to have saved you the pain that I incurred on our collective behalf. You'd think it would be easy for me to learn this stuff, since I work for Microsoft, but that's farrrrrrr from the truth! :)
  
  Thanks again,
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 2/13/2008 5:09 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Great post Robert!
  
  one question: how can I set the approver dynamically, for example that I can choose from a member ship group?
  
  best regards,
  
  Juergen

  Left by Juergen at 2/22/2008 7:54 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Thank Juergen for you kind words. You should take a look at the video that I posted on the subject (in my example, I did an Active Directory lookup and used that to dynamically set the user), found here: http://rshelton.com/archive/2007/11/29/how-to-video-using-active-directory-searchinglookup-in-a-sharepointmoss.aspx.
  
  Hopefully that will be a good enough example (with Video and Source code) to help you along.
  
  Good luck with your project,
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 2/22/2008 9:15 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Robert,
  Great Work..
  Just what I was looking for!
  Thanks

  Left by Pat Tormey at 2/24/2008 12:33 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Thanks Robert, this is exactly what I'm looking for!
  
  best regards,
  
  Juergen

  Left by Juergen at 2/27/2008 7:30 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  You're welcome Juergen. Good luck with your project.
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 2/27/2008 9:14 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  How to work with BDC in Sharepoint 2007?

  Left by Sagnik Chakraborty at 3/10/2008 1:30 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Sorry Sagnik, but I haven't done much with the SharePoint BDC.
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 3/10/2008 7:47 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  I'm facing a problem with the custom approval form, I can only approve or reject a task for the first time, subsequence approval process will not trigger back the workflow. Meaning the workflow still remain as "Not Started", but when I check back the approval task, the "Approval Field Notes" was updated.
  
  I noticed that, if there are more than on approval tasks, the custom approval form will not trigger back the workflow.
  
  Please advice.

  Left by chewyf at 3/10/2008 11:23 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Chewyf,
  
  The most likely reason is that one you've issued a "TaskCompleted" activity, from a SharePoint-perspective, that task is no longer available/active. So, if I understand you correctly, once the workflow has been either accepted or rejected, the only way to re-initiate the process is by creating a new task, which will get a new TaskID. BTW, you will want to switch from the hardcoded TaskID like I show, to the software generated (Guid.New()) method instead, so that it has a new ID.
  
  I hope that this was clear and helpful,
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 3/11/2008 5:09 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  I couldn't find out the Approval form aspx.It's not in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\.Please give the solution.It's urgent.

  Left by Sagnik Chakraborty at 3/13/2008 9:07 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Great job posting these how to videos. They were really helpfull and now I have a running workflow that does what I wanted.. Just one thing...
  
  The workflow I made I want to get it working on another site that has the same lists, with the names and columns, content type etc. How ever.. even though the workflow feature is active and all seems the same, the workflow doesnt work there, it starts fine until the custom edit form is supposed to be desplayed.At that point it just gives an "error occured" message. I think i followed the steps for creating the workflow ok... but i have run out of ideas on what might be going wrong.

  Left by Luis Galaz at 3/13/2008 7:54 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Luis,
  
  Unfortunately that error doesn't help me any more than it helped you. :)
  
  What I would do, if I were you is do some "Remote Debugging" of my workflow on that server, and put some break points in my workflow to see where/what the error actually is.
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 3/16/2008 3:59 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  yes i did that.. or what i think you ment. but it stayed the same.
  
  What fixed the problem was to start over, do the exact same thing again and double check that everything was the same. So I didnt get why it was going wrong but its not any more..
  
  Thanks for the help with all those tutorials.
  

  Left by Luis Galaz at 3/17/2008 8:35 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Luis,
  
  That's pretty strange, but I'm happy that you got it working.
  
  Good luck with your project,
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 3/17/2008 9:25 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Thanks for sharing your this video. I'm just wondering, why my workflow task didn't created after changing the list advance setting (Allow management of content types? = yes and click ok). Do you have any idea what I am missing here.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Jay

  Left by Hi Robert at 3/26/2008 1:19 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Thanks for sharing this video. I'm just wondering, why my workflow task didn't created after changing the list advance setting (Allow management of content types? = yes and click ok). Do you have any idea what I am missing here.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Jay
  

  Left by Hi Robert at 3/26/2008 1:20 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Robert,
  
  your videos/tutorials have helped me a bunch in developing a custom request system for my company. I've almost finished with the custom coding of my project, but I've hit a snag:
  
  The Workflow isn't hitting the 'while' loop to check for Task completion. When I debug, it skips right over the 'while' and goes straight to 'completed'.
  
  Is this something that you've seen before, or can you point me in a direction to look?
  
  Thanks a bunch!!
  Rob

  Left by Rob at 4/1/2008 12:49 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Rob,
  
  Typically I have seen this when the condition of the While Loop is either set incorrectly or changes just before the while loop. I would debug it by using a "Code Condition" for my while loop, and setting the break point in the code and manually (via code) set my result=true, when I want to exit the loop.
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 4/3/2008 7:03 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Great Videos.
  I have built a custom approval Workflow like the sample.
  I also am reading email id and completion status from a document library form.
  The problem I ma facing is that workflow never completes.
  My task gets completed but Workflow remains In Progress State.
  Please let me know the solution as it is urgent
  
  Thanks
  Jignesh

  Left by Jignesh Thakkar at 4/5/2008 8:55 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Brilliant!!
  Thanks Robert, now that I can see more code, I can debug my (stupid) mistakes.

  Left by Rob at 4/7/2008 12:50 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi Shelton,
  
  I am not pretty sure that yhis is the right place to post my query or not.Please let me know how i can convey my isue to you.

  Left by Vivek Singh at 4/9/2008 2:38 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi Robert,
  Great video!
  I was wondering if you did workflows for the InfoPath forms and if you did, have you tried to take the Approver(s) names from the form and pass them to the workflow as Approvers.
  Thanks,
  Dmitri.

  Left by Dmitri at 4/24/2008 3:01 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Dmitri,
  
  I have not done any workflows with InfoPath as of yet, it will be my summer project, so no I have not tried passing anything from InfoPath to a workflow.
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 4/24/2008 3:27 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Thanks anyway Robert!
  I'm sure it's got to be something simple.
  Dmitri.

  Left by Dmitri at 4/24/2008 3:52 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi shelton i was looking through the taskedit code and i never see you disposing your sharpoint object like SPsite which i thought you always should do(according to the sharepoint model) Cause otherwise you will eventually get you memory overloaded or am i wrong?

  Left by Miggel at 4/25/2008 10:30 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Miggel,
  
  You are absoluetly correct on the disposing of objects. I've tried to minimize my code (for demonstration purposes), but you are absolutely correct.
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 4/25/2008 7:29 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Ok thank you.
  Im test building an workflow atm. And i have this problem i want to show the item that created the workflow(a customlist item) on the custom approval page do you have any idea how i can show sharepointlist items in the custom approval form should be like you history in the vidao but then all the fields of the item so people can see what they are approving without having to click an url.
  
  Greets Miggel

  Left by Miggel at 4/29/2008 8:47 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Miggel,
  
  I am running out to go to work, but I saw you post. I understand that you want to give more than the URL. Are you saying that you want to show more of the metadata fields, or am I not understanding you correctly? In other words, what specifically do you want to show, other than the URL?
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 4/29/2008 9:23 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  ok i have a customlist named employee
  
  which has 2 columns a name and an address
  when a new employee is filled in the wf gets triggerd and someone had to accept that the data is correct now in your example they would get a link to that employee data i just want to show the name and address that are filled in!
  
  Greetz Miggel

  Left by Miggel at 4/29/2008 10:00 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Ah, now I understand. What you need to do is to use the getFormattedValue("fieldname") method to read those values, and then using the appropriate control (probably a label control) to display that information.
  
  Check out my workshops (link on left navigation) on Building SharePoint Custom Document workflows. I describe how to create custom pages and how to surface metadata within those custom pages.
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 4/29/2008 10:16 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  ok ty verry much m8:)

  Left by Miggel at 4/29/2008 11:38 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi Robert i think i found the problem why it was so hard in the custom Approval form you initiate the workflow on the taskItem not on the custom list item therefor you get the taskItem name etc if you ask for the parent item now i found a simple solution change the code from
  
  this._activeWorkflow = new SPWorkflow(this._TaskListItem, this._workflowInstanceGuid);
  
  To this._activeWorkflow = new SPWorkflow(this._TaskListItem.Web, this._workflowInstanceGuid);
  
  and you can ask the cutomlistdate with
  
  this._activeworkflow.parentItem.Title for example:)
  
  Hope it also helps other fokes
  
  Kind regards
  
  Miggel

  Left by Miggel at 5/2/2008 5:20 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi Robert my workflow with custom approval form is almost finished i just maked few changes i put the taskcompleted to the end so i can set the taskoutcome to approved or rejected but now i want just like the standard sharepoint approval workflow to show that on my custom item now it just says completed in the tasklist it says rejected or approved.
  You have any idea how i can set the status in the custom item to the same as in the task list so i do not want him to say completed but accepted or rejected which stands in the outcome column of the taskitem
  
  Kind regards Miggel
  ps sorry for diffrent post but i cant edit my previous

  Left by Miggel at 5/2/2008 10:21 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi Robert,
  
  I've finished and deployed the workflow with a few changes, put the CustomApprovalForms folder with the aspx file into the layouts folder and deployed the Custom Content Types. The workflow starts without any problems and enters a new task in the task list, but when I want to edit the task to approve or reject it, it links to the correct aspx page, but I only see a blank page with no code in it.
  Do you know where the problem could be?
  Thanks Steffi
  

  Left by Steffi at 5/7/2008 10:07 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Steffi,
  
  It's hard to say. I guess I would start with the obvious question of, "Did you create the custom approval form?" And if so, are you sure that you are pointing to the right URL?
  
  It's really, really hard to debug SharePoint problems from a far, but those would be my guesses.
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 5/7/2008 10:16 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi Robert,
  
  I just put the custom approval form folder, that I downloaded from your site, into the layout folder. In ApprovalForm.aspx the form is defined. What do you mean exactly with create the form?
  
  To edit the task, it points to the ApprovalForm.aspx file, so I think should be correct.
  
  Steffi

  Left by Steffi at 5/7/2008 10:55 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  This is great tutorial, thank you for it!
  Question:
  My workflow starts when user adds item with list of users who need to approve document.
  How to create tasks for N users, and then listen to all those item changes to check if all of them have approved?
  
  Is it possible through designer, or i should do 'manual' code?
  
  Is this concept OK or am i missing something?
  Thank you!

  Left by Maxx at 5/8/2008 3:44 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Maxx,
  
  I am not sure how you would pull this off with Designer. I mean you could issue the Tasks in Parallel, but I am not sure how your would pull of the "wait until they are all completed" easily in Designer. That would be more of a Visual Studio type of workflow. In this case, I would use a Visual Studio Parallel Activity to send them within a State Machine workflow to monitor the state of all of the task list items. Unfortunately, I don't have any examples of doing a State Machine workflow on my site, so you will have to look elsewhere (probably the SDK) to find out how.
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 5/8/2008 6:24 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Thank you for your answer,
  I think real question is how to monitor (from workflow) task that are created for other users.
  All examples i can find respond to onCreate/onChange events of item which started workflow.
  That's why i am wondering if i'm using right approach.
  Do you have suggestion how to solve multiuser (NOT predifend users) approval?
  Thank you!

  Left by Maxx at 5/9/2008 2:39 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Maxx,
  
  The answer would depend on how you would want to get the users into a multi-user workflow. For example, you could have the workflow choose the users, based on some logic, and if so, then you'd save the users domain login name in a variable within the workflow and then use that variable when you assign the workflow task. Or, you could prompt the user, using an Workflow Initiation Form, as to who the Approval should go to, and then have the workflow get the names from the Initiation form. Or, you could have a scenario where you get the user for an approval of a workflow task from Active Directory or some other directory, based on organizational hierarchy and then pump that name into the Workflow Task. In any event, after you find the user, you can either send the tasks in a While Loop Sequentially, or in a Parallel Activity (all at the same time).
  
  I have examples of a few of these options in my How-to Videos (left navigation), but they are all done with Visual Studio versus SharePoint Designer and not in parallel workflows.
  
  ~Robert

  Left by Robert Shelton at 5/11/2008 8:59 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  I found this very vey useful, thank you.
  Currently I am having issue in showing the custom content type in sharepoint. Under site content types it is not showing.
  
  My feature installed and activated sucessfuly, I can see the custom columns but the content type is not showing, hence I can not associate my task with it.
  
  I followed the same steps in the workshop #4 to create the custom content type and deploy it to sharepoint
  
  I am using ID ="0x010801003819e850-25e2-11dd-be66-0050c2490048" Hidden is set to FALSE
  
  At this point I have no idea what went wrong, any idea/help is greatly appriciated.
  
  Thank you

  Left by Frey at 5/19/2008 5:25 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Well I found the solution, I used ID 0x01080138, as explained in http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa543822.aspx
  
  I am not sure why the other one is not working, but I am happy.
  
  Thank you Robert, your how to videos and the workshop helped me a lot!

  Left by Frey at 5/20/2008 10:06 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Frey,
  
  Thanks for following up, as I am working through a lot of emails this morning trying to answer questions. It makes it easier when people follow up with solutions, as it reduces the load on me! :)
  
  Thanks again, and I am happy that things are working for you.
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 5/21/2008 7:56 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hello Robert,
  
  It is my pleasure, well you saved me a great deal of time and effort, following up is the least I can do.
  
  Currently I am stack on other issue, I have layed out my workflow it looks good but the while activity that contains ontask changed is not seen by the workflow. For the past 2 days I tried all I can think of, my create task, ontaskcreated, while loop(with the ontask changed) and task completed are all under if else activity which in turn is under another while activity.
  
  When the workflow is started it goes until ontask created and after that shows it has been completed, it looks like the ontaskcreated is the last activity, it does not see all the activites under it, I have double checked many times the loop condition, even set it like 1==1 but it is not seen.
  
  I am not sure if it is related some how or not but my dev envt does not have exchange e-mail account for the sharepoint accounts.
  
  Please help. Also any idea on how to create a task for multiple approvers whose number is not known in advace is grately appriciated, I managed to get the accounts dynamically but I need to create task for all and if any one of them edit the task it needs to be captured the same place, or it is like multiple approvers and decision from any one of them is enough to move on.
  
  Thanks again Robert.

  Left by Frey at 5/25/2008 3:50 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  I was looking on the first issue in depth; it is due to code activity I have before create task activity.
  
  When I remove the code activity it is works (workflow moves to while activity and waits for the user to edit the task), this code activity is needed to retrieve content type of the item the work flow is started for and this is an important part of the work flow.
  
  It looks like there is some exception in my code, I tried to use throw and fault handler activity but it does not look like it is working or I do not know how to implement that.
  
  Please help.

  Left by Frey at 5/25/2008 11:13 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hey Robert,
  Ure awesome...Keep ure good work...
  By the way,as ure post I created the ApprovalWorkflowFeature project and install the feature using the command prompt argument given.It was succesfully installed but when I try to activate it says "Value does not fall with in the excepted range"
  y is dat Robert...? Can u pls tell me...
  Thankx.
  tc.
  

  Left by Harshana at 5/27/2008 7:06 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hey,
  
  I had the same issue, and it resolved when I used -force in the activate command. I am not sure if it will resolve yours or not.

  Left by Frey at 5/27/2008 2:43 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Harshana,
  
  That's one of the vague errors that SharePoint can give you. It could mean a thousand different things, like: In your feature you reference a SharePoint column that doesn't exist by the name that you used, or you've chosen a column type that is "out of bounds". Again, it could mean many things, so it's hard for me to say for sure without taking your solution and running it myself, and unfortunately I cannot do that from a time perspective.
  
  You can try what Frey suggests, which may work, depending on the error, but it could be something within your feature (maybe something mistyped) that is causing the issue.
  
  When you figure out what happened, please let us know (via the blog), so that you can help the next person who runs into the error.
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 5/27/2008 3:34 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hello Robert,
  
  My issue seems to be resolved, my workflow is hitting the while loop.
  
  Now I have another one, I could not retrive approval status using System.Convert.ToBoolean(onTaskChanged1_AfterProperties1.ExtendedProperties["_ApprovalStatus"]);
  
  though I can see the value, which I set in my form to true or false,in onTaskChanged1_AfterProperties1.ExtendedProperties
  
  I just can't retrive it with the key : _ApprovalStatus, any ideas?
  
  Thank you;

  Left by Frey at 5/27/2008 3:59 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Frey,
  
  I am going to have to be short with this response, as I get a ton of email EVERY DAY (sigh). So, please accept my appologies.
  
  What you need to do is to get the GUID for the _ApprovalStatus Field and then use that to get the value. I wish that I could spend more time in roughing out the code for you, but I still have 30 more emails to try to respond to and not much time today. However, I use it in some of my worklows to get the Workflow Status field. You might be able to find it in one of my examples.
  
  

  Left by Robert Shelton at 5/27/2008 4:06 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Thank you so much Robert. I found it in your "Escalating a SharePoint Task Based On Due Date" workflow, I used the GUID and it worked.
  
  Thank you so much !!!

  Left by Frey at 5/27/2008 5:23 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Frey,
  
  I am happy that the solution worked for you. Good luck with your project!
  
  ~ Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 5/27/2008 6:42 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Robert,
  
  Thank you, I have one more issue and I think if fixed it will be the end of my project. My workflow has more than one approvers and the approvers are not known in advance, I retrive it dynamically from a custom list, if I found the next approver I have to repeat all the activites. Hence I used while loop and assigned the task to a group name which varies from approver to approver, the issue is task can not be created more than once, it will error out.
  
  Is it possible to use the same CreateTask activity to create a task more than once(with varring properties, like assigned to)?
  
  If you can give me a clue that will be very helpful, I have to finish all in the next 24 hours.
  
  Thank you!

  Left by Frey at 5/27/2008 10:53 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hello Robert,
  Great demo. I do have a problem though. I can't seem to get my VS 2008 to open a new Sharepoint 2007 Sequential project. I am creating this project on my development machine without MOSS 2007 installed. I copied all the Microsoft.Sharepoint.*.dll and Microfost.Workflow*.dll from the MOSS 2007 server's 12/isapi folder into my local machine and pasted it to my GAC. I assume this is automaticalled registered? But I still can't create the sequential workflow project. Keeps giving me an "Object feference not set to an instance of an object" error. When I click OK, it then brings me to the New office Sharepoint Workflow window and prompts me for a workflow name and local site for debugging. I tried entering the actual document library (existing) url for one of the MOSS 2007 sharepoint site, as well as entering http://localhost/docs.
  It always comes back with this message: "Sharepoint server not installed. Please run Microsoft Office Sharepoint server 2007 setup". When you're creating the projects, are you running it from the MOSS 2007 server itself? Please help. Been searching everywhere for an answer.
  

  Left by Winnie at 6/2/2008 1:29 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  WOW. Greatly appreciate you posting your knowledge up here and sharing it with the rest of the world. You've even got a video !!!
  
  THANK YOU

  Left by Mr Happy at 6/4/2008 2:30 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi Robert,
  
  It seems that you made some changes to your site over this past weekend (06/07/08). Today Monday, I amnot being able to watch your hi-resolution videos anymore. broken links?.
  
  

  Left by Pepe at 6/9/2008 3:21 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Pepe,
  
  I just double-checked and I am able to access the video without a problem. I am not sure how to explain why you cannot.
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 6/9/2008 3:24 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Hi Robert,
  I appreciate your response. It was a driver conflict between windows media player and another player that I recently installed that caused the problem with the videos.
  I am half way with this project. I have copied the CustomApprovalForms folder (including the web.config in the subdirectory) to C:/...TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\CustomApprovalForms but still get an error when browsing the ApprovalForm.aspx page. Need advise on how to deploy this folder and its files. Thank you in advance.

  Left by Pepe at 6/11/2008 2:42 PM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Pepe,
  
  Good to hear on the video issue. It's tough to say on why you are running into the problem with the page deployment. In most cases where I have had people tell me that they've had a problem, it has boiled down to one of two problems: Either they have misspelled something in the URL, including the page name, or they have Virtual Headers in their IIS setup, which cause the page not to be correctly served up by the web server.
  
  It's hard for me to say, because in my configuration, I don't have the Virtual Headers problem, as my machine only runs SharePoint in a Virtual Environment. Unfortunately, with the 10+ thousand downloads of the source code and videos, I've had a few people who have had various configuration problems, but I have had no luck in helping them solve it, because I don't have the same setup as they do.
  
  Sorry I can't be of more direct help.
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 6/11/2008 2:49 PM
• # Custom content type is not visible in site content type

  hi Robert,
  
  I have followed the procedure as given for custom feature and content type.
  
  I can view the custom columns in column in site columns but not able to view the newly added content type in site content type.
  
  
  
  please help me to resolve this issue..
  
  

  Left by Rizwan at 6/17/2008 6:49 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  Rizwan,
  
  I can't say for sure why you can't see the content type. If I were to guess, I would say that maybe you forgot enable "Mangement of Content Types" in the Document Library Settings (Advanced link, I believe).
  
  ~Robert Shelton

  Left by Robert Shelton at 6/17/2008 8:29 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio

  hello, a big thanks to the author...but i have a problem......
  
  i downloaded the source and copied the CustomApprovalForms into \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS
  
  i run the workflow but i cant find the forms for approve action......
  
  what am i missing?

  Left by frikouflios at 6/26/2008 9:45 AM
• # re: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio