Part 2. No-code SharePoint workflows

In part 1 of this book, we looked at adding workflow functionality to SharePoint using one of the out-of-the-box workflows. Well, it is often the case that these out-of-the-box workflows do not meet your company’s unique business requirements and, when this happens, custom workflows are what’s needed to bridge the gap. Parts 2 and 3 focus on custom workflows.

In this part of the book, you’ll see that no-code workflows in SharePoint 2010 are very powerful and that you can meet very complex business requirements with them. Chapter 3 opens the custom workflow discussion by leading you through custom workflows with SharePoint Designer. Even developers may find that they use tools like SharePoint Designer for workflows more often than Visual Studio (covered in part 3). This discussion is continued in chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 focuses on task processing within workflows, and chapter 5 focuses on advanced techniques such as working with external data in workflows.

Once SharePoint Designer is well understood, we transition to diagramming workflows with Office Visio in chapter 6. You’ll learn how to take a Visio diagram and import it into SharePoint Designer. Chapter 7 focuses on custom forms. Workflows frequently revolve around human interaction, and you can get humans to interact with a workflow by having them enter data into a custom form. InfoPath is the tool of choice to build custom forms.