Source Code for out-of-the-box workflows?
Hi,
Earlier this week, I had a customer that wanted to define a workflow for a Document Library. The workflow was very similar to an out-of-the-box workflow but had some minor variation. That's not the first time I heard this request. I guess you know the "Collect feedback", "Collect Signatures" and "Approval" and understand how powerful they can be. So, what can we do when we need exactly them - but with a twist? Can we customize them somehow?
Well, I have an answer but like everything in MOSS - it's not a simple Yes/No. I'll break it down to some good news and some bad news:
- The good news – Take a look at the MOSS SDK! There was a lot of buzz around the new BDC Editor and the added documentation but we actually got some more hidden surprises. The SDK shipped with workflows that are similar to the OOB ones but this time as actual source. You don't have to start from scratch – just use the SDK samples as a starting point. Look, it's not the source of the actual OOB ones so it's not perfect but it's still very helpful. I've managed to use them in order to create some workflows that very much resembled the OOB (even with similar GUI). After that, you can definitely customize the hell out of them…
- The bad news – Ok, the SDK is nice but basically it means you have to create a brand new workflow when all we really wanted is to customize an existing one. We can't do it. Even very minimal customization can't be done to OOB ones. That's pretty weird since almost everything in MOSS is available to some level of variation (especially using tools like SharePoint Designer or InfoPath) so I dug it up a bit with sources in Microsoft and got the same answer: no way around it. Furthermore, there are no plans on changing it for the current 2007 release.
But Alas! Don't let your spirit fall – It looks like the future looks much brighter. This is still very unofficial but it seems like Microsoft is making some major improvements in Office 14 regarding the OOB workflows. They definitely heard the "Why can't I customize your Workflows?" feedback very loud and clear so OOB workflows will become customizable to some extent. This means that customers won't have to recreate from scratch if they need to tweak a thing or two. By the way – that's not all. There is a bunch of work done on workflow in O14 with some very interesting new/enhanced features. I guess we can talk more in a few months...
Bye,
Adir Ron.