Professional Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Workflow Programming [Paperback]

Dr. Shahram Khosravi (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470402512 | ISBN-13: 978-0470402511 | Publication Date: September 29, 2008 | Edition: 1

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 provide you with a rich framework for collaborative applications. Packed with practical, real-world examples, this book offers you clear instructions for implementing workflow, custom activities, and conditions into SharePoint applications. You’ll discover how to deploy workflow template files and features, program SharePoint external data exchange, send WCF messages from a SharePoint workflow, and develop custom Office SharePoint Designer 2007 actions and conditions.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Professional Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Workflow Programming

SharePoint 2007 Workflow offers a vast array of rich workflow programming facilities so that you can implement and deploy your own custom workflows and activities, allowing you to create features and functions that were never before possible. Packed with practical, real-world examples and step-by-step recipes, this book presents you with detailed code walkthroughs and in-depth technical discussions to help you gain the skills, knowledge, and experience you need to develop and to deploy your own custom SharePoint workflows and activities.

You'll discover the similarities and differences between workflow programming and traditional procedural programming languages such as C#. You'll also explore workflow association and initiation input forms and examine how SharePoint takes advantage of the extensibility points of Windows Workflow Foundation to add support to specific functions of SharePoint. Along the way, you'll discover how to implement data description and manifest files to deploy your custom workflows and actions through SharePoint solution packages.

What you will learn from this book

• The standard SharePoint activities inherited from CallExternalMethodActivity and HandleExternalEventActivity activities

• How to take advantage of workflow security in your own custom workflows

• Techniques for implementing a custom workflow edit task input form and deploy it as part of the deployment of a site content type

• How to develop, deploy, and test a custom Office SharePoint Designer 2007 action

• Ways to use the XML markup language to describe your own custom actions and conditions to Office SharePoint Designer 2007

Who this book is for
This book is for SharePoint developers who have a basic understanding of Windows Workflow Foundation and SharePoint 2007, but are looking for more advanced coverage of SharePoint 2007 workflow and activity programming.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (September 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470402512
• ISBN-13: 978-0470402511
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #914,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Shahram Khosravi is the sole author of the following four books:

1) ASP.NET 2.0 and .NET 3.0 Programming:
ASP.NET 2.0 Internals Plus ASP.NET AJAX, IIS 7.0, Enterprise Library Application Blocks, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows Communication Foundation

2) Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Server Control and Component Development

3) Professional IIS 7 and ASP.NET Integrated Programming

4) ASP.NET AJAX Programmer's Reference

Shahram is a senior software engineer, consultant, author, and instructor specializing in ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET, IIS 7 and ASP.NET integrated programming, WCF, WF, and XML technologies.

He has more than 10 years of experience in object-oriented analysis, design, and programming.

Shahram has written number of magazine articles on various .NET technologies for the industry leading magazines such as Dr. Dobb's Journal, asp.netPRO magazine, and Microsoft MSDN Online.

He is a great enthusiast for using, teaching, and writing about latest Microsoft technologies and provides consulting and training services to help others use them in their own software applications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good information with fluff, September 11, 2009

By 

Justin Tolchin (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Workflow Programming (Paperback)

I was looking for a book that satisfied 4 criteria: 1. Must be SharePoint 2007. 2. Must have a large section about custom workflows. 3. Must be written with Visual Studio 2008 in mind. 4. Must be able to answer the questions I needed answer to.
Had I found this book when I was just starting off with custom workflows, I would have been elated! The author has some really good bits of information and he did indeed answer the questions I needed answers to.
The downside of this book is that it is filled with lots of "fluff". Code snippets were repeated over and over and sections of text seemed to be cut from one section of the book and pasted into another.
He also goes into detail about how the Windows workflow API would be coded when, in Visual Studio with SharePoint extensions, you just drag and drop a control and it writes the required code for you. I'm sure there are those who want to know every detail about how the controls work, but I am not one of those. Interestingly, he delved deeply into the API, but skipped over setting up the environment (VS2008). It would have been nice to see how he structured the projects in VS 2008 since the layout is completely different from VS 2005.
Of the almost 600 pages, probably 250 of those were useful. I would recommend this book to those working with custom workflows, especially to those just starting off with them. Just skip a few pages now and again and you will be happy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a SharePoint Designer book, January 23, 2010

By 

Dimitri Shvorob - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Workflow Programming (Paperback)

I am way out of my SharePoint depth as far as this book is concerned, and cannot competently discuss its pros and cons. (Too bad I cannot leave a blank rating). I just wish to caution prospective buyers that this is a book about advanced Visual Studio-aided SharePoint development, not about workflows that can be made with SharePoint Designer. (SPD is discussed in Chapter 8, but not in a way that would be instructive for a Designer developer).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not very helpful., March 31, 2010

By 

D. Dickey "DD" (King Of Prussia, PA, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Professional Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Workflow Programming (Paperback)

For me, the book was not very helpful. It seemed overly academic at times, and then at other times it seemed to just be a very wordy rehash of what is available in MSDN.