Channel 9

Using Active Directory Searching/Lookup in a SharePoint/MOSS 2007 Workflow (with Visual Studio 2008)

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:08:47 GMT

This is the eighth in a series (the series is listed at the bottom) of "How To " Videos that I have created to show .NET Developers how to build document workflow in a SharePoint environment.

In the How to Videos that I produced on "Building Approval Workflow's" and "Escalating Workflow's (for overdue tasks), I kept things simple (focusing on the Workflow) and did not do dynamic lookups of people/users against Active Directory (AD), choosing to "hard code" the users in the workflow.

In this example, I take one of those workflow's (Basic Approval Workflow) and show you how you can do a "Dynamic Lookup or Search" of Active Directory for information (The Manager of a user) using .NET Code (System.DirectoryServices).

Code Download & Workshop Document Location: Click here

Click here to access the larger framed Hi-Resolution Version from my blog!

You can also download the Freely Downloadable "Building Custom Document Workflow with MOSS with Visual Studio 2008" workshops (Developer Content) on my blog (www.sheltonblog.com) under the SharePoint Tag, or directly by clicking here.

Checkout my other Active Directory (non-SharePoint Specific) with .NET Videos: (The same code works in SharePoint)

How to Add users to Active Directory with .NET (Click here to see it)
How to Search Active Directory (used as the bases for this video): (Click here to see it)
How to Search for/Add users to "Groups" in Active Directory with .NET: (Click here to see it)

My other SharePoint videos:

Enabling (incoming/outgoing) email for SharePoint/MOSS 2007 servers (Click here to see it)
Extracting document details from within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Extracting email addresses and sending emails (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Creating a User Task within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Escalating an Overdue Task with Visual Studio (Click here to see it)
Building an Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS 2008 (Click here to see it)
Building a Multilevel Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS2008 (Click here to see it)
Using Active Directory Search/Lookups within SharePoint Workflow's to find users (Click here to see it)

Note: If you have questions/comments, please leave them on my blog at this link, as I do not monitor this feedback URL.

Building an Multilevel Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and Visual Studio 2008

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:15:30 GMT

This is the seventh of a series (the series is listed at the bottom) of "How To " Videos that I have created to show .NET Developers how to build document workflow in a SharePoint environment.

In this scenario, I take the workflow that I built in the How To Video on Building a Basic Approval Workflow (found here) by adding a second level (and you could extend it to multiple levels) of Approval based on a SharePoint Custom Column (Expense Report Total in this case). Although I built the "trigger" on the Expense Total column, you can build it on any number of other factors within the document, SharePoint Columns, or workflow activities.

My other SharePoint videos:

Enabling (incoming/outgoing) email for SharePoint/MOSS 2007 servers (Click here to see it)
Extracting document details from within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Extracting email addresses and sending emails (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Creating a User Task within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Escalating an Overdue Task with Visual Studio (Click here to see it)
Building an Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS 2008 (Click here to see it)
Building a Multilevel Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS2008 (Click here to see it)
Using Active Directory Search/Lookups within SharePoint Workflow's to find users (Click here to see it)

Note: If you have questions/comments, please leave them on my blog at this link, as I do not monitor this feedback URL.

Building an Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and Visual Studio 2008

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:56:20 GMT

This is the sixth of a series of "How To " Videos that I have created to show .NET Developers how to build document workflow in a SharePoint environment.

In this scenario, I show you how to build a Simple 1 level Approval Workflow around a fictional Expense Report. In the video I focus on the Workflow piece, although I show that I am using a Custom ASP.NET Task Form and a Custom SharePoint Feature.

If you want to learn how to build a Multilevel Approval Workflow, then start with this video and then view the "How to video: for a Multilevel Approval Workflow (Click here)". The Multilevel Approval Video is based on extending the Basic Approval Workflow (this video).

For the Code Download & Workshop Document Location: Click here

Click here to access the larger framed Hi-Resolution Version from my blog!

You can also download the Freely Downloadable "Building Custom Document Workflow with MOSS with Visual Studio 2008" workshops (Developer Content) on my blog (www.sheltonblog.com) under the SharePoint Tag, or directly by clicking here.

My other SharePoint videos:

Enabling (incoming/outgoing) email for SharePoint/MOSS 2007 servers (Click here to see it)
Extracting document details from within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Extracting email addresses and sending emails (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Creating a User Task within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Escalating an Overdue Task with Visual Studio (Click here to see it)
Building an Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS 2008 (Click here to see it)
Building a Multilevel Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS2008 (Click here to see it)
Using Active Directory Search/Lookups within SharePoint Workflow's to find users (Click here to see it)

Note: If you have questions/comments, please leave them on my blog at this link, as I do not monitor this feedback URL.

SharePoint Document Workflow: Programmatically Escallating an Overdue Task with Visual Studio

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:51:27 GMT

Note: Due upload size limitations, I have only posted the first 10 minutes of the Screencast here. Please see my blog for the full version: Click here (to go to my blog)

This video (#5 in the series of How To Videos on SharePoint/MOSS 2007 "Document" Workflow with Visual Studio) addresses one of the most common questions/needs: "How can I build an Escalation workflow in SharePoint?". It turns out that this is a very Advanced Workflow scenario and therefore will take me a bit longer to demonstrate in video than some of the other videos that I've produced.

In the video I show how to escalate a task based on an expired (i.e., Overdue) Task Due Date, and automatically sending emails to the Original Owner of the Task and the person who has been Re-Assigned the task (using Outlook email/tasks).

For the Source Code: Click here

For a High Resolution version: Click here (to go to my blog)

You can download the Freely Downloadable "Building Custom Document Workflow with MOSS with Visual Studio 2008" workshops (Developer Content) on my blog (www.sheltonblog.com) under the SharePoint Tag, or directly by clicking here.

My other SharePoint videos:

Enabling (incoming/outgoing) email for SharePoint/MOSS 2007 servers (Click here to see it)
Extracting document details from within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Extracting email addresses and sending emails (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Creating a User Task within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Escalating an Overdue Task with Visual Studio (Click here to see it)
Building an Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS 2008 (Click here to see it)
Building a Multilevel Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS2008 (Click here to see it)
Using Active Directory Search/Lookups within SharePoint Workflow's to find users (Click here to see it)

Note: If you have questions/comments, please leave them on my blog at this link, as I do not monitor this feedback URL.

SharePoint Document Workflow: Programmatically Creating a User Task

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:49:49 GMT

The question that I get most often when I talk to developers about SharePoint Document Workflow is on Sending and Tracking tasks for the people participating in a document workflow. So, in this 4th part of the series that I am doing on "Building Document Workflow" in SharePoint/MOSS 2007, I am demonstrating how to send a basic SharePoint Task with Visual Studio and at the end you will see how to connect an Outlook Client to the Portals Task List, so that a user can see the tasks within their Outlook desktop Client.

For the Source Code: Click here

For a High Resolution version: Click here (to go to my blog)

You can download the Freely Downloadable "Building Custom Document Workflow with MOSS with Visual Studio 2008" workshops (Developer Content) on my blog (www.sheltonblog.com) under the SharePoint Tag, or directly by clicking here.

My other SharePoint videos:

Enabling (incoming/outgoing) email for SharePoint/MOSS 2007 servers (Click here to see it)
Extracting document details from within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Extracting email addresses and sending emails (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Creating a User Task within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Escalating an Overdue Task with Visual Studio (Click here to see it)
Building an Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS 2008 (Click here to see it)
Building a Multilevel Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS2008 (Click here to see it)
Using Active Directory Search/Lookups within SharePoint Workflow's to find users (Click here to see it)

Note: If you have questions/comments, please leave them on my blog at this link, as I do not monitor this feedback URL.

SharePoint Document Workflow: Extracting email addresses and sending emails

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 03:05:17 GMT

In this 3rd part of the series that I am doing on "Building Document Workflow" in SharePoint/MOSS 2007, I am demonstrating one of the more widely used functions in document workflow: Sending Emails. In this scenario, I have a SharePoint List configured to receive email from outside of the corporate firewall (see the links below to learn how to configure your server to do the same), and from that document I extract the email address and then send an automated email response within the workflow.

For the Source Code: Click here

You can download the Freely Downloadable "Building Custom Document Workflow with MOSS with Visual Studio 2008" workshops (Developer Content) on my blog (www.sheltonblog.com) under the SharePoint Tag, or directly by clicking here.

My other SharePoint videos:

Enabling (incoming/outgoing) email for SharePoint/MOSS 2007 servers (Click here to see it)
Extracting document details from within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Extracting email addresses and sending emails (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Creating a User Task within a workflow (Click here to see it)
Programmatically Escalating an Overdue Task with Visual Studio (Click here to see it)
Building an Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS 2008 (Click here to see it)
Building a Multilevel Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS2008 (Click here to see it)
Using Active Directory Search/Lookups within SharePoint Workflow's to find users (Click here to see it)

Note: If you have questions/comments, please leave them on my blog at this link, as I do not monitor this feedback URL.

SharePoint Document Workflow: Extracting document details with your workflow

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:47:37 GMT

This is a 2nd part of a series that I am doing on "Building Document Workflow" in SharePoint/MOSS 2007 that I am producing. You can find the freely downloadable workshops that accompanying these videos on my blog here.

The scenario is a company has created a portal which will accept resume's for job postings, and that via workflow, the MOSS 2007 portal will handle the workflow (automatically and with human interaction where needed) to process the resume's (documents).

In this example, I will show how to use the WorkflowProperties Object to get information about the file being uploaded. With SharePoint Workflow you get a variety of detailed information about your workflow item (i.e., Document), including the file name, who uploaded/emailed it, when it was last check in/out, etc.

In this demonstration, I assume that the resume file (our sample document) was emailed to the SharePoint list. See my earlier screencast to see how to enable MOSS SharePoint List to receive email (see below for the link).

You can download the Freely Downloadable "Building Custom Document Workflow with MOSS with Visual Studio 2008" workshops (Developer Content) on my blog (www.sheltonblog.com) under the SharePoint Tag, or directly by clicking here.

My other SharePoint videos:

Enabling (incoming/outgoing) email for SharePoint/MOSS 2007 servers (Click here to see it)

Extracting document details from within a workflow (Click here to see it)

Extracting email addresses and sending emails (Click here to see it)

Programmatically Creating a User Task within a workflow (Click here to see it)

Programmatically Escalating an Overdue Task with Visual Studio (Click here to see it)

Building an Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS 2008 (Click here to see it)

Building a Multilevel Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS2008 (Click here to see it)

Using Active Directory Search/Lookups within SharePoint Workflow's to find users (Click here to see it)

Note: If you have questions/comments, please leave them on my blog at this link, as I do not monitor this feedback URL.

Enabling (incoming/outgoing) email for SharePoint/MOSS 2007

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:19:58 GMT

This is a first part of a series that I am doing on "Building Document Workflow" in SharePoint/MOSS 2007 that I am producing. You can find the freely downloadable workshops that accompanying these videos on my blog here.

This is the first step in the process: Enabling incoming/outgoing email on the portal (9 minutes in length).

You can find the text (with pictures) walkthrough that matches this video here.

You can download the Freely Downloadable "Building Document Workflow with MOSS with Visual Studio 2008" workshops (Developer Content) on my blog (www.sheltonblog.com) under the SharePoint Tag, or directly by clicking here.

My other SharePoint videos:

Enabling (incoming/outgoing) email for SharePoint/MOSS 2007 servers (Click here to see it)

Extracting document details from within a workflow (Click here to see it)

Extracting email addresses and sending emails (Click here to see it)

Programmatically Creating a User Task within a workflow (Click here to see it)

Programmatically Escalating an Overdue Task with Visual Studio (Click here to see it)

Building an Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS 2008 (Click here to see it)

Building a Multilevel Approval Workflow with SharePoint/MOSS 2007 and VS2008 (Click here to see it)

Encrypting your web.config file with ASP 2.0 (Visual Studio 2005)

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:35:44 GMT

Federal Developer Evangelist, Robert Shelton, Jr., takes you through a short (8 minute) demonstration of how Encrypt portions of your web.config with ASP 2.0 (Visual Studio 2005). This walkthrough shows you how to encrypt two sections of your web.config (AppSettings and ConnectionStrings) with the DPAPI (DataProtectionConfigurationProvider). In addition to these two sections, you can also encrypt your Identity and SessionState sections.

My blog URL: http://sheltonblog.com

Channel 9 Article: Encrypt Configuration Sections in ASP.NET 2.0 Using RSA

MSDN Article: How To: Encrypt Configuration Sections in ASP.NET 2.0 Using DPAPI

Please check out some of my other screencast by clicking this search link. Including a 3 part series on programming Active Directory with Visual Studio 2005.

~ Robert Shelton, Jr.

Searching Active Directory with .NET (Visual Studio 2005)

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 02:56:19 GMT

Federal Developer Evangelist, Robert Shelton, takes you through a 12 minute walkthrough/demonstration of how to search Active Directory for users, groups, and other AD Objects. This demonstration is using the DirectoryServices namespace of the .NET framework. The demonstration is using Visual Studio 2005, but the code will also work as written for Visual Studio 2003.

You can find the code at my blog: http://sheltonblog.com

My other AD Screencasts:

- Adding user to AD with .NET

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=130700
- Adding groups and users to groups with .NET

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=132400

- AD Searchfilter (Querying) Syntax:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/adsi/adsi/search_filter_syntax.asp

- List of SearchScope options:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemdirectoryservicesdirectorysearcherclasssearchscopetopic.asp

~ Robert Shelton

Adding Groups (and users to groups) to Active Directory with .NET

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 03:28:05 GMT

Federal Developer Evangelist, Robert Shelton, takes you through a 8 minute walkthrough/demonstration of how to create a group in active directory with .NET and to add users to that group. This demonstration is using the DirectoryServices namespace of the .NET framework.

You can find the code at my blog: http://sheltonblog.com

My other Programming AD Screen Casts:
- Searching AD with .NET:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=132740
- Adding users to Active Directory with .NET
http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?PostID=130700
List of Group attributes for Active Directory:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/adschema/adschema/c_group.asp
List of values for the groupType Attribuet:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/adschema/adschema/a_grouptype.asp

~Robert

Adding users to Active Directory with .NET

Robert Shelton, Jr. — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 23:08:56 GMT

Federal Developer Evangelist, Robert Shelton, takes you through a 10 minute walkthrough/demonstation of how to add a user and set the users Active Directory properties with .NET (C# in this case).

My Other AD Screencasts:

Adding Groups and users to groups with .NET: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=132400

Searching AD with .NET:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=132740

Resource links (shown at the end of the screencast):

My blog: www.sheltonblog.com (where you can download the code).

Complete list of AD Attributes: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/adschema/adschema/attributes.asp

List of values for the "userAccountControl" attribute: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/adschema/adschema/a_useraccountcontrol.asp