Visio is basically used for creating the UML, flowchart and other graphical diagrams. In the new version of Visio 2010 beta, the customers/developers can also design the sharepoint workflow and implement the same in sharepoint in just few steps. In this article I am going to cover the implementation of the sharepoint workflow using visio 2010.
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Visio 2010 provides a new template called “Microsoft SharePoint Workflow”. Using this template I am going to create a workflow diagram. | ||||
Once the “Microsoft SharePoint Workflow” template is selected, the below shapes are available in the visio 2010 beta.
Using the above shapes, I have quickly created the below simple sharepoint workflow diagram. In the visio 2010 beta, you can create the workflow diagram and you cannot specify any properties in the workflow shapes. |
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Once the diagram is created, using the “Process > Check Diagram” menu option to verify my visio diagram for any issues.Using “File > Save” to save the visio diagram. |
Using “Process > Export” menu option I have exported the visio workflow. The exported workflow will be saved with file extension as ‘.vwi”.  The “.vwi” file is a compressed zip file. To find out the contents in the above file, Change the file extenion from “.vwi” to “.zip”. The “.vwi” file contains the below files.  |
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Launch the sharepoint designer 2010 and open the sharepoint site. Using the ” Import workflow”, import the visio 2010 workflow into the sharepoint site. Enter the correct location of the exported visio 2010 beta workflow (.vwi).  Enter the workflow name and select the “List” or “Document Library” to attach the workflow.  Click ‘Finish” to import the workflow into the sharepoint site. Once the workflow is imported, the sharepoint designer will display the workflow.  Now I have to configure the workflow. Once the workflow is configured, the workflow will be displayed as below.  After the workflow configuration is done, publish the workflow to the sharepoint site.
Download: Visio 2010 workflow |
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