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How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007

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:

(This is the SHORTENED, Low-resolution version. Click here for the Full/Hi-Resolution version)

The Full Hi-Resolution video download (WMV file): Click here

Source Code download: Click here

Checkout my entire collection of SharePoint "How To" 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)

~ Robert Shelton

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Technorati Tags: Free Training,Code Examples,How to,MOSS 2007,Video

Monday, October 29, 2007 5:59 PM

Your Comments.

# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Amazing series...

Im having a problem ,

createTask1.TaskProperties.SendEmailNotification = true;

is not sending a notification, although the task is being created???

Left by Bilal Shouman at 1/24/2008 8:19 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Bilal,

That method call is pretty straight forward. If you SharePoint Server is setup to send mail and your email address is correct, that command will send an email when a task is created. There's really no way to mess that one up.

If I were you, I would double-check my server setup to see if it can send email, by creating a workflow with just a SendEmail Activity and hardcode an email address that you have sent email to before, and see if that works. If it does, then I would go back to my Task Workflow and use the same hard-coded email address.

The other possibility is the amount of time it takes for your mail client to send/receive emails. With Microsoft Outlook the default time is 15 minutes, I believe, which you can change. Also, make sure that the email isn't going to your Junk Mail folder (that happened to me, and it took me a while to realize it).

Good luck,

~ Robert Shelton

Left by Robert Shelton at 1/24/2008 8:25 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Great Videos, Thanks!

Left by RMS100 at 2/12/2008 1:03 PM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Great Blog , but I have problem in assigned to , i am adding the value to assigned to field but in the list it always null. do u have any ideas????

Left by Danya at 3/13/2008 11:10 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Great Video.
I see your video is done on MOSS 2007. I am using WSS 3.0 and when I try to deploy the solution, microsoft.office.workflow.tasks reference could not be resolved. I understand that this is a MOSS feature. If I remove this reference, I am still unable to deploy because the solution is looking for this reference.
Can you please provide some assistance on how I can do this on WSS 3.0
Thanks
Shankar

Left by Shankar at 4/16/2008 8:38 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Never mind of the previous post. I figured it out. I had to remove the reference made in the "Feature.xml" file.
Thanks
Shankar.

Left by Shankar at 4/16/2008 9:35 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
I`m having problems when I take the status field value

Guid statusFieldID = workflowProperties.TaskList.Fields["Status"].Id;

string taskStatus = onTaskChanged1_AfterProperties1.ExtendedProperties[statusFieldID].ToString();

Any idea?
the error is
the value is not in the interval

Left by Hello from Spain at 6/25/2008 9:54 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Thanks for the great videos which have greatly helped me in writing workflows in Sharepoint!. They are extremely helpful and hope there is more to come.

One issue I ran into was I get a null reference on theis line of code:

string taskStatus = onTaskChangedForTechnologyRequirements_AfterProperties1.ExtendedProperties[statusFieldID].ToString();

the statusfieldID returns a varaible but I have no idea why it wont assign it to taskStatus. Any help would be great.

thanks!

Left by Ralph at 7/21/2008 1:32 PM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Great Videos , Thanks a lot

Left by Muralee at 7/30/2008 8:23 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Hi,

Indeed a great video. It helped me a lot in creating my first Workflow.

However I have a problem in my workflow. In the first step of Workflow i.e. OnWorkflowActivated1, I have put code to get some data from another list. I've used CAML to query data and all runs fine in terms of geting data. Problem is when ever I execute the Query.Getlist method, my workflow status becomes Complete. If I leave all code as it is except calling the last line - Query.GetList(query) then my worklfow works fine, i.e. it shows - In Progress.

Why is it happening like that?

Left by guptashail at 8/4/2008 12:05 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Hello,
I love your video - in fact, all of your videos have helped me out a great deal.
However, I am having a problem. I am creating a workflow. I added the create task activity and the on task created activity. I set the taskID for the create task activity to a new GUID. when I go to bind the taskID for the on task created activity, I don't see my create task activity in the binding screen where I would normally bind to the other taskID.
this task is nested in an ifElse activity - will that have any impact on it?

Thanks

Left by carl at 8/12/2008 11:17 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Hello,

Your video helped alot.
One Question. How do I get TaskId of task created so that I can send a custom email with link to task?
TaskProperites.TaskItemID is -1.

Thank you

Left by Anil at 9/3/2008 4:14 PM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Hi,

I could the task id in onTaskCreated.
_Taskid = onTaskCreated2_AfterProperties.TaskItemId.ToString();

Thank you
Anil

Left by Anil Kumar at 9/30/2008 1:10 PM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
Great Video, it really helped me
But I have a problem:
I am having the following problem:
I have a workflow WF1, on list:A that creates several tasks in tasklist:B in replicator. My tasks get created fine, and the workflow completes. Now have a 2nd workflow WF2, that gets started when a new item is added in the tasklist:B. the problem is WF2 never starts.

Apparently the tasks created by WF1 are using content type "Workflow Task", which cannot see association with any workflow whatsoever. But if I myself create a task in the tasklist:B on content type "Task", WF2 starts properly and executes. Can you please help? I have tried several ways, but could not strike a solution!!

Left by Priyanka at 10/15/2008 6:47 AM
# re: How to Video: Programmatically Creating a User Task in a Document Workflow for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
I use
Guid TaskStatusFieldID = workflowProperties.TaskList.Fields["TaskStatus"].Id;

string TaskStatusFieldID = onTaskChanged1_AfterProperties1.ExtendedProperties[TaskStatusFieldID ].ToString

ANd work
Very thanks

Left by adriakuma Adrian M at 11/20/2008 10:12 PM