Workflows for SharePoint 2013

Given below is the slide-deck from my session on Workflow which was held on 12th February. Your comments and feedback is much appreciated.

Installing and configuring Workflow for SharePoint Server 2013

When you open SharePoint Designer 2013 connected to a site to build a workflow, you will notice a new option called platform type. If it’s only “SharePoint 2010 Workflow” that you see, you need to install and configure “workflow manager”.

As MSDN recommends, you need to consider the following two key factors before configuring Workflow Manager to work with SharePoint Server 2013.

• Is Workflow Manager installed on a server that is part of the SharePoint farm?
• Will communication between Workflow Manager and SharePoint Server 2013 use HTTP or HTTPS?

These factors translate into four scenarios. Each scenario configures a SharePoint Server 2013 farm to communicate and function with the Workflow Manager farm. Follow the scenario that matches your circumstance.

1. Workflow Manager is installed on a server that is part of the SharePoint 2013 farm. Communication takes place by using HTTP.
2. Workflow Manager is installed on a server that is part of the SharePoint 2013 farm. Communication takes place by using HTTPS.
3. Workflow Manager is installed on a server that is NOT part of the SharePoint 2013 farm. Communication takes place by using HTTP.
4. Workflow Manager is installed on a server that is NOT part of the SharePoint 2013 farm. Communication takes place by using HTTPS.

Mine is the 1st scenario. Workflow Manager can be downloaded from here. Workflow Manager installation uses Web Platform Installer as shown in the below screen.

 
Then you need to install the prerequisites. 



Clicking continue will bring the configuration options.
 
I prefer to go with the custom setting as I can get to know what’s going on behind scene. If you select the “Configure Workflow Manager with Default Settings (Recommended)”, it will install a Workflow Manager farm. So let’s move with custom :)
In the below screen you need to specify the database server, where it will create the DBs needed for WM(Workflow Manager).

Make sure you remember or keep safe the Certificate Generation Key, as it’s needed when you want to add more servers to the WM farm.

Service account will be used to run the Application pool of the WM Website.
 
Below screen looks nice so added that too :D




Three screens below show the full configuration summary.



You can even see the full PowerShell script for the configuration.




Great!! You are done with the installation and the configuration of Workflow Manager. Yet one more step left for the Workflows to work in 2013 Platform. Open IIS Manager to see the WM Site and the port you configured.

Open SharePoint Management Shell with Admin rights and execute the below cmdlet (replacing the site and the Workflow Manager host site).

Register-SPWorkflowService –SPSite "http://www.whiteknight.com/Hr" –WorkflowHostUri "http://workflow.whiteknight.com:12291" –AllowOAuthHttp

Finally to check whether everything works fine… Open the above site (registered with workflow host uri) in SharePoint Designer 2013 and check the Platform type in workflow.

When you install Workflow Manager on a WFE it automatically installs the Workflow Manager Client on that WFE. You will still need to install the Workflow Manager Client on any additional WFE servers.

Configure Excel Services in SharePoint 2013

Finally I got some time to configure my SharePoint 2013 farm. So I thought of using the chance to update my blog too. "Two birds with one stone".
Central Administration > System Settings > Manage services on server
Start "Excel Calculations Services"

Once it's started the next step is to create a new instance of "Excel Service Application" (in one doesnt exist already).
Central Administration > Application Management > Manage service applications and create  a new "Excel Service Application"

You are done with configuring Excel Servcies. As the next step you need to configure the tusted locations where Excel Service will only load Excel Workbooks from.

Central Administration > Application Management > Manage service applications > Excel Servce Application (This will change based on how you named the servcie instance on the previous step) > Trusted File Locations

Fill the Address with a Document Library location. I have created a document library called "Excel Documents" in a site called "Team".

In the External Data section you have "Allow External Data", select the Trusted data connection libraries and embedded option.

Set both the Automatic refresh and Manual refresh values to 0 (But this is not recommend as it will consume more resources by refreshing workbook results immediately).

Now as we have a trusted file location, we can now publish data-connected workbooks with embedded data connections. But for Excel Services to correctly render data-connected workbooks with external data connections, we must configure a trusted data connection library.

Central Administration > Application Management > Manage service applications > Excel Servcie Application > Trusted Data Connection Libraris
Make sure you have a "Data Connection Library" type library. Name of my data connection library is "Data Connections" which is created in a site called "Team".

Now you have successfully completed with Excel service configuration.

Looking back at SharePoint Sri Lanka User Group

2011 was a successful year for the SharePoint community in Sri Lanka. Few of us with the help of Microsoft, started the SharePoint Sri Lanka User Group.  I will never forget the great help and encouragement received from Dinesh Priyankara and Gogula in making this dream come true. Oh! special thanks goes to Wellington Perera. Thanks all who contributed by conducting sessions and to all who attended and making each session a success.

I gave a promise of giving T-Shirts to the first 10 users. Let’s see, what if someone sponsors to give T-shirts to the first 100 users .

Keep on counting… it’s 2012, we have a lot planned for you.

1st Session

2nd Session

3rd Session

4th Session

5th Session

6th Session

7th Session

8th Session

9th Session

Launch of www.SharePointSriLanka.org

This was a dream came true. Finally on 12th of January 2011 we were so happy to announce the launch of the Sri Lankan SharePoint Forum. The online forum which can be reached at www.SharePointSriLanka.org or www.SharePointSriLanka.com or www.SharePointSriLanka.net. The offline forum which will take place on second Wednesday of every month.

These forums are the official Microsoft Approved forums dedicated to SharePoint and related products. What you see above is the  logo of SharePoint Sri Lanka Forum. This logo has the meaning of collaboration which is the idea behind the product SharePoint. Its represented by the 4 colored people.

For the launch there were over 130 attendees. And there were two technical sessions held. The first sessions which was a the 1st of a series, on SharePoint branding hosted by Abul Azad a SharePoint UX Expert. The second session was on Claim-based Authentication hosted by me.

I’m so happy to be one of the founders of SharePointSriLanka forum. Also my special thanks goes to Gogula (One of the founders of SQLServer Universe and MVP SQL Server) who came up with the idea and was behind me nagging all times till we launch it. How can I forget, Dinesh Priyankara (One of the founders of SQLServer Universe and MVP SQL Server) the BI Guru for being there for me always (even paid for the soft drinks ) and helping in all matters to make the SharePoint Forum a success.

Also many thanks to Dinusha Kumarasiri and Abul Azad for the sleepless nights spent to bring the www.SharePointSriLanka.org up and running. And not to forget the one and only Wela, Wellington Perera, without your support this wont be a success, you know it well buddy.

Okay, this offline forum is not only for SharePoint Experts. We have planned to have two sessions each day, giving a chance for a newcomer to do a session on any SharePoint related technology or product. And the second session will be hosted by a person with more experience on the product.

Now you know, you have a place to publish your articles, blogs, ask questions on related technologies. So guys get registered soon and help make SharePointSriLanka a better place for you.