Tag Archives: Workflows

SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows and POST REST API

Posted on by

Following on from my last post of using GET REST API in workflows, this post will show how you can create an item in a list using the POST REST API.

Creating a list Item using REST API.

Using the same list as before, on my SharePoint site, I have a list. The list is nothing special, it’s just an example of some data.

Title: String
Person: User field
Colour: Choice field

You wouldn’t do this in real world scenario, but my demo will demonstrate when you run the workflow on any item, it will just create a new item in the list.

A better real world scenario might be when an item is added to this list, some of the information needs to be copied and created in another list, or when an item is changed a workflow fires to copy the information to another list similar to a history list.

Creating the workflow

In SharePoint Designer, I have gone to my list, and created a new workflow.

  • First, we need to add a Dictionary Item. This is so we can create a header for our HTTP Call. Type in “Dictionary“
    and then in the options to choose from select Build Dictionary.

    Click on “this”.

    A dialog will appear, and it is here we need to add two headers.
Name Type Value
accept String application/json;odata=verbose
content-type String application/json;odata=verbose

Click on Variable:dictionary, and create a new variable called Headers.

  • We need to create another Dictionary now, this is to store the “type”. When you create an item with REST API, you need to provide the __metadata with the ListItemEntityType. Typically this item is SP.Data.[ListName]Item. However, to be absolutely sure, you can use this REST API call in the browser to find out.

     

    https://<tenant>/sites/<Site>/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('	<listTitle>')/ListItemEntityTypeFullName
Name Type Value
type String SP.Data.DemoListItem

  • One more dictionary needs to be created, this is the RequestContent for the POST Call.
Name Type Value
__metadata Dictionary Variable:EntityType
Title String New Item
Colour String Blue
PersonId String Current Item:Created By (return field as: User Id Number)

When you create this, ensure that __metadata has 2 underscores in front of it.
All fields are the internal names.

User fields all have an Id field with it, in my case the Person field has a PersonId field, it is this that I set with another User Id.

Choice fields just accept a valid string.

Taxonomy fields are a little different, see section below.

  • Now we can call a HTTP web service. Underneath the dictionary, start typing “http” and press enter to insert Call HTTP Web Service.
    Click on “this” to open up the dialog box, and then click on the … for the string builder dialog box.

    I like to use as much dynamic values as possible so my URL in here looks like the following:

    [%Workflow Context:Current Site URL%]/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('[%Workflow Context:List Name%]')/items

    Set the HTTP method to HTTP POST.

    After entering the URL and setting the Method, click the dropdown at the far right on the line in SPD and select properties. Set the RequestHeaders to the Dictionary Variable:Headers you made in the first step. Set the RequestContent to the dictionary Variable:NewItemMetadata. Set the ResponseContent to a new variable, and the ResponseStatusCode to a new variable. Click OK.

    The ResponseContent will be populated with the results, and the ResponseStatusCode will be populated with Created if successful, or a different value if something went wrong.

  • After the Web service call, I add an If Statement, to test that the variable responseCode equals to Created.
  • I log success to the history list.
  • In the else statement of if “responseCode equals Created” I grab the error message from the ResponseContent dictionary and output the value to an error message. Then I display the error message in the history list. To grab the error the dictionary path is error/message/value

  • Don’t forget to Transition to Stage “End of Workflow” at the end.

Publish your workflow.

When I run the workflow against any list item, after a moment a new entry is added to the list.

Updating Taxonomy/managed metadata column in POST REST API calls.

To be able to update a Taxonomy column in a list you would need to create the following 2 dictionary’s first, then assign 2nd dictionary to the column.

TaxonomyMetadata Dictionary

Name Type Value
type String SP.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFieldValue

TaxonomyValue Dictionary

Name Type Value
__metadata Dictionary TaxonomyMetadata Dictionary
Label String <Label value>
TermGuid String <TermGuid>
WssId String -1

<Label Value> – the actual value of the taxonomy term
<TermGuid> – The guid of the taxonomy term found in the termstore.
The WssId can always be -1 as SharePoint can work that out itself, but it requires a value.

PostRequestContent

Name Type Value
__metadata Dictionary Variable:EntityType
Title String New Item
<TaxonomyColumnInternalName> Dictionary Variable:TaxonomyValue Dictionary

It is the final dictionary above that you would set in the web service call as the RequestContent.

SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows and GET REST API

Posted on by

SharePoint Workflows have been around for a long time, and with Microsoft flow now firmly taking hold the need for SharePoint workflows might be less. However, I recently had to work with SharePoint Workflows and learnt a few things around using REST API and I wanted to share my knowledge.

Reading a list/Item using REST API.

On my SharePoint site, I have a list. The list is nothing special, it’s just an example of some data.

Title: String
Person: User field
Colour: Choice field

All I’m going to do in the workflow, is when it is run, it will grab the items in the list, and then display the results in the history list. The point of this demo is to show how to make REST API calls and grab/loop through data.

Creating the workflow

In SharePoint Designer, I have gone to my list, and created a new workflow.

  • First, we need to add a Dictionary Item. This is so we can create a header for our HTTP Call. Type in “Dictionary“
    and then in the options to choose from select Build Dictionary.

    Click on “this”.

    A dialog will appear, and it is here we need to add two headers.
Name Type Value
accept String application/json;odata=verbose
content-type String application/json;odata=verbose

Click on Variable:dictionary, and create a new variable called Headers.

Because SPD is a pain, it has already created a variable called dictionary, if you click on Local Variables from the ribbon, you can delete this variable. This will ensure you keep only the variables you are using within your workflow and save confusion later. Always give your variables sensible names, just as if you were writing code.

  • Now we can call a HTTP web service. Underneath the dictionary, start typing “http” and press enter to insert Call HTTP Web Service.
    Click on “this” to open up the dialog box, and then click on the … for the string builder dialog box.

    I like to use as much dynamic values as possible so my URL in here looks like the following:

    [%Workflow Context:Current Site URL%]/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('[%Workflow Context:List Name%]')/items?$select=Title,Colour,Person/Title,Person/Name,Person/EMail&$expand=Person

    In the above API call I’m bringing back additional information about the Person from the person column. See at the end of this post about bringing back other information on a person column.

    After entering the URL, click the dropdown at the far right on the line in SPD and select properties. Set the RequestHeaders to the Dictionary you made in the first step. Set the ResponseContent to a new variable, and the ResponseStatusCode to a new variable. Click OK.

    The ResponseContent will be populated with the results, and the ResponseStatusCode will be populated with OK if successful, or a different value if something went wrong.

  • After the Web service call, I add an If Statement, to test that the variable responseCode equals to OK.
  • Now we want to grab the results. So now we will grab a dictionary item. Type “Get” and press enter to insert Get an Item from a Dictionary.
    Click “item by name or path” and type “d/results”
    Click “dictionary” and select “ResponseContent”
    Click “item” and create a new variable. This variable is a dictionary too that will contain the individual items. I’ve called mine DemoList.
  • We need to count the number of items in the new dictionary variable. I do this to ensure that we have returned items.
    Type “Count” and press enter to insert count items in a dictionary.

    Click “dictionary” and select variable “DemoList”.
    Can leave output Variable to count.

  • Put another If statement, and check that Count is greater than 0.
  • We now need to create a variable that will be our indexloop.
  • Add a loop with a condition. (Alternatively, we could have skipped the last step and added a “loop n times” instead).
    Set the condition to read. “The contents of this loop will run repeatedly while: Variable: indexloop is less than Variable: count

  • Now I’m going to get the values of Title, Colour, Person/Title and Person/Name from the DemoList dictionary.
    Type “Get” and press enter to insert Get an Item from a Dictionary
    Click “item by name or path” and type “([%Variable: indexloop%)/Title”

    Click “dictionary” and select “DemoList”
    Click “item” and create a new variable.

    Repeat this for all the parameters.

  • Still inside the loop underneath gathering the parameters we need to raise the index variable by one.
    Type “Calc” then press enter to insert Do Calculations
    Click first “value” and select the Variable: “indexloop”

    Click second “value” and set to 1.

    Set the output to a number variable. I called mine NewIndex

  • Now you need to set the variable NewIndex to indexloop.
  • Lastly, for demo purpose, I’m logging the results I’ve got to the history list. This logging to history lists is still within the loop.
    Type “Log” then press Enter to insert log to History List.
    Then I’m just logging out the variables I’ve captured.
  • Don’t forget to Transition to Stage “End of Workflow” at the end.

Publish your workflow.

When I run the workflow against any list item I see the following results in my History List.

Bringing back additional Person Data in REST API calls.

To bring back a person column data (or a lookup column), you need to expand it in a REST API call, you also need to include the values you want to bring back from the expanded column. A list of all possible values you can bring back for a user column can be found if you type the following in a browser (after already signing into SharePoint that is).

https://<tenant>/sites/<site>/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('<ListTitle>')/items(1)/<UserFieldInternalNameColumn>

*I’m using XV – XML Viewer chrome extension for the layout.

Building SharePoint 2016 development environment – Part 15 – Configuring Workflow

Posted on by

A few years ago I wrote “Build your SharePoint 2013 development machine on Windows Server 2012” series, I mainly work in the cloud now, but as the blogs was so popular, I thought I would create a new series for the newer version of SharePoint.

You can access other parts of this post below.

The configuration of the Workflow Manager for SharePoint 2016 is the same as it was for SharePoint 2013. Not only do you need to install the separate Workflow Manager components, once installed SharePoint designer will show SharePoint 2013 Workflow in a dropdown when deciding which platform to build the workflow on.

We will be installing Workflow Manager 1.0 CU3. Although my instructions add all this to the SharePoint Machine, the reason why Microsoft have made the Workflow manager separate is for scaling. There is no need for this to be installed on the SharePoint box. You could create another Windows Server 2012 R2 and add that to the domain and run the Workflow manager on that. There are probably a few more steps required in configuring. Here is a full walkthrough provided by Microsoft Technet https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/SharePoint-2016-Workflow-acd5ba2a if you wish to delve in deeper.

Installing SharePoint Designer 2013

Wait! SharePoint Designer 2013? Yes.

There is no SharePoint Designer 2016, there is no plan to release one either. Microsoft have stated that they will support SPD 2013 with SharePoint 2016. We are installing SharePoint Designer here because I can use it to prove if you have correctly configured Workflow Manager with SharePoint 2016 correctly.

SharePoint Designer 2013 is a free tool from Microsoft.

  1. Download SharePoint Designer 2013 32bit from the Microsoft Site.
    https://www.microsoft.com/en-GB/download/details.aspx?id=35491
  2. Once downloaded run the file sharepointdesigner_32bit.exe
  3. Accept the License terms and click Continue.
  4. Click Install Now, (Unless you wish to customise and change file location, user information etc)
  5. Once installed, I’d recommend performing a Windows Update. From the Start Menu, type Windows Update, open the application and run any updates required. Reboot if necessary.

Check to see Workflow settings in SharePoint Designer

  1. From the start menu, type SPD and open SharePoint Designer 2013.
  2. Once it has loaded up, click Open Site
  3. Type the URL https://dev.cfcode2016.com click Open
  4. If prompted, enter your credentials
    User: cfcode2016\SP_SetupPassword: Pa55w0rd
  5. From the Navigation menu, select Workflows

  6. On the ribbon menu, select List Workflows > Documents

  7. In the Create List Workflow dialog, at the bottom you will see a dropdown box for Choose the platform to build your workflow on. Only SharePoint 2010 will be listed.

  8. When we come back to this later, we will see SharePoint 2013 Workflow. Close SharePoint Designer for now.

Configuring Workflow Manger accounts

The Workflow Manager will run under new accounts that we haven’t created yet.

  1. On the Domain Controller machine, in the start menu, type Active Directory Users and Computers and open it.
  2. Expand the tree in the left hand pane to see the Managed Service Accounts OU. Select the Managed Service Accounts OU.
  3. Right click in the right hand pane, and select New > User.
  4. Create a user called SP_Workflow. Set the full name and log on name to SP_Workflow. Click Next.
  5. In the password dialog screen, enter the following and click Next
    1. Password and Confirm Password as: Pa55w0rd
    2. Untick User must change password at next logon.
    3. Leave User cannot change password as unticked
    4. Tick Password never expires
    5. Leave Account is disabled as unticked
    6. Click Next. Then click Finished.

Setting up SQL with the correct Security Accounts

  1. On the SharePoint Machine, from the start menu, type SQL Server Management Studio and open up the application
  2. In SQL Server click Connect. (This should be to SQL2016 database instance).
  3. In the left hand menu expand Security. Right click Logins. And select New Login…
  4. In the Login – New dialog box, click the Search button.
  5. Click the Locations button and select Entire Directory.
  6. Type SP_Workflow in the Enter the object name to select, and click Check Names. This will resolve the name. Click OK.
  7. In the left hand panel select Server Roles.
  8. Tick both securityadmin and dbcreator then click OK.
  9. Close down SQL Server Management Studio

Giving SP_Workflow administrative rights on the SharePoint machine.

  1. From the start menu, type Edit local users and groups and open up the application.
  2. In the left hand panel, select Groups
  3. In the right hand pane, double click Administrators
  4. On the Administrators Properties dialog box, click Add
  5. Type SP_Workflow in the Enter the object name to select, and click Check Names. This will resolve the name. Click OK.
  6. Close Edit local users and groups.

Install the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 5.0

  1. Go to the URL https://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx and download the latest Microsoft Web Platform Installer
  2. Once downloaded run the file wpilauncher.exe
  3. If like my machine it is already on there, it will just open the Web Platform Installer 5.0 else it will install it for you. Accept the License Agreement and click Install. Then click Finish when complete.

Install Workflow manager

  1. From the Start menu, type Web Platform Installer and open the application

  2. In the search box in the top right of the screen, type Workflow Manager and press Enter.
  3. Click Add on the Workflow manager 1.0 Refresh (CU2) and click Install at the bottom.

  4. Click I Accept

  5. When complete, click Continue.

  6. Click Finish.

  7. Close the Workflow Manger Configuration Wizard that has popped up.

Apply Cumulative Update 3.0 for Workflow Manager 1.0

  1. Close and re-open the Web Platform Installer 5.0 we are going to install the CU 3. (You need to close and re-open otherwise the installer thinks Workflow Manger 1.0 hasn’t been installed)
  2. Type Workflow Manger and press Enter in the top right search box.
  3. Click Add for Workflow Manager 1.0 Cumulative Update 3, then click Install at the bottom.
  4. Click I Accept. Once installed click Finish. Click Exit on the Web Platform Installer.

Configure the Workflow manager

  1. From the start menu, type Workflow Manager Configuration
  2. Click on Configure Workflow Manger with Custom Settings
  3. In the Configure Farm Management Database,
    1. Enter your SQL Server Instance: sql2016.cfcode2016.com
    2. Tick Use the above SQL Server Instance and Settings for all Databases
    3. Enter the Database Name: WF_ManagementDB
    4. Click Test Connection button to ensure all working OK.
  4. In the Configure Instance Management Database
    1. Enter the Database Name: WF_InstanceManagementDB
    2. Click Test Connection button to ensure all working OK.
  5. In the Configure Resource Management Database
    1. Enter the Database Name: WF_ResourceManagementDB
    2. Click Test Connection button to ensure all working OK.
  6. In the Configure Service Account
    1. Enter the User ID: CFCODE2016\SP_Workflow
    2. Enter the Password: Pa55w0rd
  7. In Configure Certificates
    1. Leave Auto-generate ticked
    2. Certificate Generation Key: Pa55w0rd
    3. Confirm Certificate Generation Key: Pa55w0rd
  8. In Configure Ports leave default port numbers
    1. https: 12290
    2. http: 12291
    3. Leave Allow Workflow management over HTTP on this Computer unticked
    4. Leave Enable firewall rules on this compute unticked (As we have disabled our firewall)
  9. In Configure Admin Group
    1. Leave BUILTIN\Administrators
  10. Click Next button
  11. On the Service Bus Configuration page, please provide the following
  12. In Configure Farm Management Database
    1. Enter the Database Name: Sb_ManagementDB
    2. Click Test Connection button to ensure all working OK
  13. In Configure Gateway Database
    1. Enter the Database Name: Sb_GatewayDB
    2. Click Test Connection button to ensure all working OK
  14. In Configure Message Container Database
    1. Enter the Database Name: Sb_MessageContainerDB
    2. Click Test Connection button to ensure all working OK
  15. In Configure Service Account
    1. Tick Use the same service account credentials as provided for Workflow Manager
  16. In Configure Certificate
    1. Tick Auto-generate
    2. Tick Use the same certificate generation key as provided for Workflow Manager
  17. In Configure Ports
    1. https: 9355
    2. tcp: 9354
    3. Message Broker Port: 9356
    4. Internal communication Port Range: 9000
    5. Untick Enable firewall rules on this computer (as we have disabled out firewall)
  18. In Configure Admin Group
    1. Leave BUILTIN\Administrators
  19. Click Next button
  20. On the Summary page, click the Tick button at the bottom right of the screen to start installation.
  21. The configuration process can take up to 10 minutes to complete. Once complete, you will see a success pag

Add Workflow Manager Certificate into SharePoint

  1. In Start Menu, type IIS and open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
  2. Expand your server name, and Sites. You will now see a site called Workflow Management Site

  3. Click on Workflow Management Site, then on the right hand pane, click Bindings
  4. Select https and click edit.

  5. On the Edit Site Binding, under SSL certificate you will see a Certificate that matches your Server Name. Click the View button.

  6. On the Certificate dialog, click on the Details tab.
  7. Then click Copy to File button.
  8. On the Certificate Export Wizard click Next.
  9. On the Export Private Key page, select No, do not export the private key, click Next

  10. On Export File Format page, select DER encoded binary X.509 (.CER) Click Next
  11. On File to Export page, select a path and filename on your machine. Click Next.

  12. Click Finish. You will receive a successful export message.

Import Certificate into SharePoint Trust

  1. Open SharePoint 2016 central administration
  2. Under Security > General Security click Manage Trust
  3. Click the New button in the ribbon.
  4. On the Establish Trust Relationship page, enter following information:
    1. Name: Workflow Manager
    2. Root Authority Certificate: <Select your file from previous steps>
  5. Click OK.
  6. You will see your certificate in the store.

Register Workflow Service Proxy

  1. In Start Menu, type SharePoint 2016 management Shell (run as administrator) and open the application
  2. In the console type:
    Register-SPWorkflowService -SPSite "https://intranet.cfcode2016.com&quot; -WorkflowHostUri "https://cfsp2016.cfcode2016.com:12290&quot;
    view raw RegisterWorkflow.ps1 hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Verify the Configuration of Workflow Manager.

  1. Open SharePoint 2016 central administration
  2. Click Application Management
    > Manage services applications
  3. At the bottom of the Manage Services Applications page, there will be Workflow Service Application Proxy

  4. If you click on Workflow Service Application Proxy it will take you a status page that will show you that workflow is now connected.

Check to see Workflow Settings are working in SharePoint Designer

  1. From the start menu, type SharePoint Designer and open the application
  2. Once SharePoint designer has opened, click Open Site.
  3. Type the URL https://dev.cfcode2016.com click Open.
  4. If prompted, enter your credentials
    User: CFCode2016\SP_Setup
    Password: Pa55w0rd
  5. From the Navigation menu, select Workflows
  6. On the ribbon menu, select List Workflow > Documents
  7. In the Create List Workflow dialog, at the bottom you will see a dropdown box for Choose the platform to build your workflow on. Both SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 should be listed if the Workflow is set up correctly.

We are almost at the end. You SharePoint farm is configured to give you a good start as a development machine. Only thing left now is actual development tools. That will be covered in my final post of the series. Shut down your machines, take a checkpoint. (We will remove checkpoints in the last post)

Nintex.Workflow.Activities.Adapters.SPUpdateItemAdapter is not allowed on site

Posted on by

I’ve recently been working on the wonderful world of Nintex Workflow and forms. There will be a future post soon on Custom Actions.

However during my deployment to a test environment, I found that Nintex wasn’t performing the way it should. Mainly when I was activating a feature that contained a new workflow it failed to activate the feature. In the event logs all it said was:

“Nintex.Workflow.Activities.Adapters.SPUpdateItemAdapter is not allowed on site http://cfsp.cannonfodder.local/system/NintexSite“

After searching through the Nintex Forums I was unable to find any answers. In the end I had to resort to comparing my dev farm to my test farm.

First thing I noticed was that my Development domain had more entries in the Web.config than my test environment.


<WorkflowServices>

      <WorkflowService Class="Nintex.Workflow.Activities.Services.ReadWriteWorkflowVariablesService" Assembly="Nintex.Workflow, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=913f6bae0ca5ae12" />

       <WorkflowService Class="Nintex.Workflow.Activities.Services.WorkflowInstanceService" Assembly="Nintex.Workflow, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=913f6bae0ca5ae12" />

    </WorkflowServices>

This was a simple fix. The Nintex Workflow hadn’t been properly activated on the Web Application. Now I don’t know if there is a way to do this directly with a feature, but in Central Administration -> Nintex Workflow Management there is a link to Web Application activation. By clicking this link and selecting the correct Web Application and then clicking Activate, the web config will be correctly updated with the relevant configuration information required to run Nintex Workflow.

However, this didn’t solve my problem when I activated my feature. The next thing I compared between environments was Managed allowed actions. You can find this by going Central Administration -> Nintex Workflow Management -> Manage allowed actions

In allowed actions on my test environment I noticed that all items apart from the Custom Actions that I had added in a feature (how in a future post), we unchecked.

However in my Dev environment they were all checked. I therefore checked them all, Clicked OK on the page, and then went back to my site and retried to activate my feature. The feature activated without a problem.

Now I know what the problem was the error message makes a little sense.

Nintex.Workflow.Activities.Adapters.SPUpdateItemAdapter is not allowed on site – Each Custom Action does have an adapter, and the purpose of the Administrative page in Central admin is to allow the Custom Action to be used across the farm.

Building Your SharePoint 2013 development machine on Windows Server 2012 – Part 9 – Configuring Workflow

Posted on by

UPDATE: SharePoint 2016 development machine

I am doing a collection of blog posts, you can access the other parts of this post below.

Install SharePoint Designer 2013

I have noticed in my blog I haven’t yet told you to install SharePoint Designer 2013. There is a good reason to install it now, because I can use it to prove if you have correctly configured Workflow Manger with SharePoint. SharePoint Designer 2013 is a free tool from Microsoft.

  1. Download SharePoint Designer 2013 32bit from the Microsoft site http://www.microsoft.com/en-GB/download/details.aspx?id=35491
  2. Once downloaded run the file sharepointdesigner_32bit.exe.
  3. Accept the License terms and click Continue
  4. Click Install Now.
  5. Once installed, I’d recommend performing a Windows Update. From the Start Menu type Windows Update, open up the application and run any updates required. Reboot if necessary.

Check to see Workflow settings in SharePoint Designer.

  1. From the start menu, type SharePoint Designer and open the application.
  2. Once SharePoint Designer has opened, click Open Site.
  3. Type the URL http://dev.cannonfodder.local click Open.
  4. If prompted, enter your credentials User: Cannonfodder\Administrator Password:Pa55w0rd.
  5. From the Navigation menu, select Workflows
     
  6. On the ribbon menu, select List Workflow > Documents.

     
  7. In the Create List Workflow dialog, at the bottom you will see a dropdown box for Choose the platform to build your workflow on. Only SharePoint 2010 will be listed.  
  8. Close down SharePoint Designer.

Configuring Workflow Manager

First we need to create a Workflow account.

  1. In the Start Menu, type Active Directory Users and Computers. Select the application.
  2. Expand the tree in the left hand pane to see the Users OU. Select the Users OU.
  3. Right Click on User and select New > User. Create a new user called SP_Workflow. Set the Full Name and Log on name to SP_Worflow. Click Next.
  4. In the password dialog screen, enter the following and click Next.
    1. Password and Confirm Password as: Pa55w0rd
    2. Untick User must change password at next logon.
    3. Leave User cannot change password as unticked.
    4. Tick Password never expires
    5. Leave Account is disabled as unticked.
    6. Click Next. Then click Finish.

Setting up SQL with the correct Security Accounts.

  1. From the start menu, type SQL Server Management Studio and open up the application
  2. In SQL Server click Connect. (This should be to SQL2012 database instance).
  3. In the left hand menu expand Security. Right click Logins. And select New Login…
  4. In the Login – New dialog box, click the Search button.
  5. Type SP_Workflow in the Enter the object name to select, and click Check Names. This will resolve the name. Click OK.
  6. In the left hand panel select Server Roles.
  7. Tick both securityadmin and dbcreator then click OK.
  8. Close down SQL Server Management Studio

Giving SP_Workflow administrative rights.

  1. From the start menu, type Active Directory Users and Computers and open up the application.
  2. In the left hand panel, expand Active Directory users and Computer > cannonfodder.local > Builtin.
  3. In the right hand panel, right click Administrators and select Properties.
  4. In the members tab, click Add.
  5. Type SP_Workflow in the Enter the object names to select box, click Check Names, then click OK.
  6. Click OK to the Administrators Properties dialog box, and close Active Directory Users and Computers.

Installing Workflow Manager

  1. Go to the URL http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx and download the latest Microsoft Web Platform Installer.
  2. Once downloaded run the file WebPlatformInstaller_amd64_en-US.msi
  3. Accept the license terms and click Install.
  4. Once installed, you can open from the start menu by typing Web Platform.
  5. Once loaded, type Workflow in the top right search box and press Enter. Find Workflow Manager 1.0 and click Install.
  6. On the Prequisites page, click I Accept.
  7. Once installer has complete, Click Continue and then Finish to start the configuration process.

Configuring Workflow Manager

  1. From the Start menu, type Workflow Manager Configuration and open the application.
  2. On the Welcome Page, click Configure Workflow Manager with Default Settings (Recommended).
  3. On the New Farm Configuration Page set the SQL server Instance to SQL2012
  4. Set the User ID to SP_Workflow@cannonfodder.local and the password to Pa55w0rd
  5. Tick the Allow Workflow management over HTTP on this computer.
  6. Click the Test Connection button to ensure your credentials work.
  7. In the Certificate Generation Key and Confirm Certificate Generation key enter Pa55w0rd into both textboxes.
  8. At the bottom right of the dialog box click the right arrow button to proceed to next screen.
  9. A summary will appear. You can either click the tick icon at the bottom right to continue, or Get PowerShell Commands to obtain the powershell scripts to run later. In this instance, click the tick icon.
    (Please note the screen shot was taken during my first attempted, I used the wrong RunAs Account)
  10. Once the process has completed everything should have been configured.

Connecting Workflow to SharePoint 2013.

  1. From the start menu, type Workflow manager powershell and open the application.
  2. Type
     Get-WFFarm | ft HttpPort
  3. Take note of this port (12291), as this is the port number that you will connect SharePoint 2013 to the Workflow Manager 1.0 farm.
  4. Close Workflow Manager PowerShell.
  5. From the start menu, type SharePoint 2013 Management Shell and open the application.
  6. Type
     Register-SPWorkflowService –SPSite &quot;http://intranet.cannonfodder.local&quot; –WorkflowHostUri &quot;http://cannonfodderser:12291&quot; –AllowOAuthHttp
  7. Once you get the command prompt appearing again your SharePoint 2013 farm in now connected to the Workflow Manager 1.0 farm.

Check to see Workflow settings are working in SharePoint Designer.

  1. From the start menu, type SharePoint Designer and open the application.
  2. Once SharePoint Designer has opened, click Open Site.
  3. Type the URL http://dev.cannonfodder.local click Open.
  4. If prompted, enter your credentials User: Cannonfodder\Administrator Password:Pa55w0rd
  5. From the Navigation menu, select Workflows
  6. On the ribbon menu, select List Workflow > Documents.
  7. In the Create List Workflow dialog, at the bottom you will see a dropdown box for Choose the platform to build your workflow on. Both SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 should be listed if the Workflow is set up correctly.
  8. Close down SharePoint Designer.