One of my clients worked with a previous contractor to build out a small but useful HR application for the enterprise. That contractor used SharePoint Designer to implement the workflow portion of the solution. It’s a bit of a mess. Byvoorbeeld, there are nine SPD workflows in support of a single logical workflow process and up to five of them may fire simultaneously at any given time given the right conditions. It’s not easy to debug 🙂
My kliënt het 'n aantal steeds uitstaande vereistes, one of which is to generally provide more context when the system sends out email alerts – both in the email itself as well as associated task forms. As SPD workflow implementers know, the “collect data from user” SPD action actually creates a task with a custom content type. When we use that action, we don’t get to specify much. We can prompt for some values (bijv. "Goedgekeur" of "ontken") and we can specify a hard coded value in the title and description. That’s about it.
My kliënt se behoefte is tweeledig:
- Wanneer SharePoint stuur 'n e-pos oor 'n taak te voltooi, 'n baie inligting oor die taak in die e-liggaam.
- Meer belangrik, by verre – Wanneer die gebruiker op die taak skakel in die e-pos, the task form should have all the information the approver needs in order to make his/her approve or deny decision. Right now, the manager needs to click on the item link itself to drill down into the underlying details and no one likes that. You have to click in the email. Then you need to click a sort of obscure link on the task item. Then you can look at the underlying data (n Path vorm in hierdie geval). Then you click back/back, ens.. Everyone hates it.
Ek het hierdie ietwat slordig tegniese oplossing geërf, en ek wil die veranderinge in die minste indringende manier moontlik te maak.
The approach I’m taking right now is to create a custom alert template. Jy kan lees oor wat hier. The flow works like this:
- SPD workflow lopies.
- Op 'n sekere punt, dit ken 'n taak om 'n bestuurder.
- SharePoint system automatically sends out an alert to that manager. This is not part of the SPD workflow but rather “what SharePoint does.” (Die SharePoint timer, Ek glo).
- 'N persoonlike waarskuwing hanteerder wat opgeroep word ten gunste van die standaard wakker proses (volgende magie reëls soos beskryf in die hierbo vermelde artikel).
- Wanneer my persoonlike wakker hanteerder loop, it generates a beautiful email. Meer belangrik, aangesien dit die taak in die hand, versier dit ook die taak met al die konteks inligting wat nodig is om die vereistes te voldoen.
- Die gebruiker kry die e-pos en dit is vol nuttige inligting oor konteks..
- Gebruiker op die taak skakel en die taak self is vol nuttige inligting oor konteks.
- Almal gaan huis waatlemoen en roomys te hê.
I did a quick POC and it works well in a lab environment. I get my custom email alert as expected. I also get to update the task description and title itself.
Die enigste moeilike bietjie, so ver, is 'n situasie te vermy waar die waarskuwing updates die item, triggering another alert. This doesn’t worry me.
Lyk belowend so ver ...
The great thing about this is that I don’t need to muck about with any of the existing SPD workflows. They are blissfully unaware that an alert handler is “IIZ hardloop in da BAKGROUND, DECORATIN TEH Takenlijst WIF MOAR konteks".
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