Exploring SPS 2007 and Workflow

Nobody should argue that companies depend on the flow of information and documents. Often these business processes depend on the participation of people to complete a task that ultimately contributes to the final decision. With SharePoint 2007 these types of business processes are implemented and managed through workflows built on Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) component of .NET Framework 3.0. Application developers take advantage of the WF component using the Windows Workflow Foundation designers found in Visual Studio 2005 and 2008. End users can create custom workflows using the built in templates of SPS 2007 or the Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

A workflow is a natural way to organize and run the series of actions that correspond to a work process. This process can control almost any aspect of a list item in SharePoint, including the item life cycle. The workflow can include both actions performed by people (workflow participants) and actions performed by people (participants) and actions performed by the workflow. Workflow participants can interact with the workflow through the Task list, where a workflow can create a task for someone and remains paused until the task is marked complete. 

For example to create a workflow on an item in a document library use the following steps.

On the document select the drop down on a document library and then select workflows

This displays the list of available workflows. For example, to create a simple approval workflow selecting the approval workflow button.

Complete the form. When saved the the workflow generates the following email that the task has started.

A user that is part of the approval process receives the following email.

As the workflow progresses we also have the ability to review the status of the workflow.