Non Document Centric SharePoint Workflow
- by Dan Revell
SharePoint workflows are document centric in that the base thing the workflow runs on has to be a thing; be it a document or just a list item. The workflow itself is task based, so stuff a user has to do. Now I can put any sort of code in these tasks that I want to and even put complex InfoPath forms in for the user to perform the task. This has been fine on all my previous workflows. But what if I want the tasks to be actual official forms themselves.
The item that the workflow runs on is just some abstract concept like an event. An example could be an accident has happened. There isn't an accident form, but a whole set of forms that need to be completed by different people. Task forms aren't really a nice way to go, because it locks all the forms into the task list. You can only access the forms by not deleting the tasks when complete and going to the workflow summery and following the task links to the InfoPath forms or going straight to the tasks list and doing a filter on particular "accidents".
These are official documents so ideally there would be a library for each type of document and the workflow would orchestrate the completion of the right forms. It would mean each task would have to create a new blank form and then link the user to that form. The user would go complete the form but then have to go back to the task form and click yes I've completed it until the workflow could progress. Well this is short of the workflow monitoring the forms library form for some completion trigger. But then it all gets messy with the user experience from clicking the link in the task email, to open the Infopath task form, to clicking the link in the subsequent Infopath library form and then return through these forms on completion.
It just gets messy trying to retrofit this non document centric sort of workflow into SharePoint. I would really appreciate any input on what might be the best way to do this.
Store the forms as task forms
Store the forms as library forms and create/link from the task forms
Store the forms as different infopath views, and use a forms library. The workflow would trigger variables that progress the view the infopath form shows.
Using the same form template for both task forms and a forms library and when a task form is complete, copy the xml into the forms library to have a official record outside of the workflow.
Thanks
