Workflows in SharePoint 2013

Overview of workflows in SharePoint 2013

• SP 2013 workflows are powered by Windows Workflow Foundation 4.
• SP 2013 workflows run in Microsoft Azure.
• SP 2013 workflows are declarative only (XAML).
• SP 2013 workflows are designed to interact with cloud and work with SharePoint 2013 apps.
• SP 2013 workflows are hosted and run outside SharePoint environment.

Workflow Manager Client 1.0

• Provides the management of workflow definitions.
• Hosts the execution processes for workflow instances.
• New workflow execution host.
• In SharePoint 2010, workflow execution was hosted in SharePoint itself.
• In SharePoint 2013, workflow execution is moved outside SharePoint (in Workflow Manager Client).
• Workflow Manager Client 1.0 interacts with SharePoint 2013 via Workflow Manager Client 1.0 Service Application proxy.
• Server-to-server authentication is provided using OAuth.
• SharePoint events are routed to Workflow Manager Client 1.0 using Microsoft Azure Service bus.
• REST API is used by Workflow Manager to call back SharePoint.

What’s new in workflows for SharePoint 2013

1. Enhanced SharePoint Designer 2013 authoring support

• SharePoint Designer 2013 provides workflow authors with both a designer surface and a text based workflow authoring environment.
• It can import custom actions (created in Visual Studio 2012).
• Custom actions can be accessed from Workflow designer.
• Can be effectively used by both non-developers and developers.

2. Visual Studio 2012 workflow project type support

• Visual Studio 2012 introduces SharePoint workflow project types.
• It also provides workflow custom action-item type that lets developers create custom actions.

3. Completely redesigned workflow infrastructure

• SharePoint 2013 workflows are powered by Windows Workflow Foundation 4.
• Uses messaging functionality provided by WCF 4.
• Microsoft Azure is the new workflow execution host.
• Workflow execution engine is outside of SharePoint in Microsoft Azure.

4. Fully declarative, no-code authoring environment

• Workflows are fully declarative.
• They are no longer compiled into assemblies.
• No longer deployed to assembly cache.
• XAML files define workflows and frame their execution.

5. Tool support for SharePoint workflows

• Visual Studio 2012 provides templates and support for creating SharePoint 2013 workflows.
• SharePoint 2013 workflows can also be created using SharePoint 2013 Designer

6. New workflow actions 

• Many new workflow actions have been added in SharePoint 2013 workflows.
• New workflow actions enables workflows to integrate with Project 2013 by creating Project based workflows

SharePoint workflow interop

• Enables SharePoint 2010 workflows to be executed from within SharePoint 2013 workflows.
• SharePoint 2013 includes a SharePoint 2010 workflow host i.e. Windows Workflow Foundation 3 engine. 
• This is used for executing for SharePoint 2010 workflows.
• Helps in backward compatibility.

Workflow Authoring Components

1. SharePoint Designer 2013

• Create and deploy both SharePoint 2010 and 2013 workflows

2. Visual Studio 2012/2013

• Provides a designer surface for creating declarative workflows
• Create SharePoint apps and solutions that fully integrate with Workflow Manager Client 1.0 functionality.