Deploy Workflows to Host Web with Integrated Workflow Apps

Update (19/08/2015): Integrated Workflow Apps are now part of Visual Studio 2015. You do not need to manually edit any XML files now. You will just need to:

1) Use Visual Studio 2015 (I was using the Enterprise version)

2) Create a SharePoint App (Add-In as it's now called)

3) Add a Workflow to your Add-In Project. (Your Add-In cannot be an Integrated Workflow Add-In unless there is a Workflow in it)

4) Go to the Project Properties and set the "Integrated App" property to True. That's it!

Original Article:

In the recent Office 365 Developer YamJam on the Office 365 Technical Network, there were lots of great questions asked to and answered by the Office 365 Engineering Team. You can view all the questions over here: https://www.yammer.com/itpronetwork/#/threads/inGroup?type=in_group&feedId=4419638

One thing which I was interested in was the Integrated Workflow Apps. I have seen a lot of people ask about this as they want to deploy Workflows to their Host Web (or Content Site) from their Apps. I had known that something was in the pipeline as I had seen a glimpse of it in this video from SPC 2014 http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/SharePoint-Conference/2014/SPC3994 

Luckily, Tim McConnell who is the speaker in the video was part of the YamJam and he answered that Integrated Workflow Apps are already available on SharePoint Online but they are waiting for tooling support so no official announcement has been made till now.

I have tested them on my development Office 365 Tenant and it works! In this post, I will be detailing the process by which you can get it working too. 

You will need to have installed Visual Studio 2013 and Microsoft Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2013 for this. My test project is available on GitHub here: https://github.com/vman/Integrated-Workflow-Apps

1) Start Visual Studio 2013 > New Project > App for SharePoint

2) Enter the SharePoint Online Site Url and select the hosting model for your app. I have selected SharePoint Hosted.

3) Right Click App Project > Add > New Item

 4) Select Workflow and type in a name for your Workflow

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5) Select the type of Workflow as Site Workflow

(List Workflow Deployment is shown at the end of the post) 

6) Select "Create New" for History List and Task List.

7) Add some sample activities to your Workflow.

I have added a LookupWorkflowContextProperty to get the current Site Url and a WriteToHistory activity which will write the Current Site Url to the History List

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8) Give your App Manage Permissions on the Web:

9) Right click App Project > Publish > Package the app. A window will pop up showing you the packaged .app file.

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10) Now the interesting part. Open the .app file as an archive with a tool of your choice.

 I have used 7-Zip which is a really awesome tool. You can download it from here: http://www.7-zip.org/

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11) Once opened, look for the WorkflowManifest.xml file and open it. It will be empty to start with. Copy the following in the file and save it.

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12) After Clicking save, you will get the following prompt. Click Ok. 

13) Now your .app package is ready to be deployed to your App Catalog. Go to your App Catalog and upload the .app file in the "Apps for SharePoint" document library. 

14) Once uploaded, go to your Team Site > Site Contents > Add an App > Select your app and add it to your Team Site.

15) You will be prompted to trust your App. Click on "Trust It".

16) Once the App is installed on your site, go to Site Contents > Site Workflows

17) Click on your App to see your Site Workflow deployed on the site. Click on the Workflow to start it. 

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18) Let the workflow complete. After it has completed, click on the Internal Status to see what the workflow logged to the History List 

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19) You can see that the Workflow logged the url of the Team Site on which it was running. 

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This proves that the Workflow was deployed to and ran on the Host Web (Content Site).

Deploy List Workflow:

The process to deploy the list workflow is quite the same except in step 5, select List Workflow.  

Do not associate your workflow to any List. We will do the association after the deployment of the Workflow.

Select when you want your workflow to start. 

Add a Sample Workflow Activity in the Workflow to Log the Current List Name and the Current Item Url:

Steps 8 to 15 are the same as for a Site Workflow. After the Workflow is deployed, Go to a list > List Settings > Workflow Settings > Add a Workflow

Click on your App, Associate your Custom Workflow by giving it a name and configuring other settings. Click on OK.  

After you associate the Workflow, Start it either manually, or create an item, or update an item depending on the method you selected in the Workflow Designer in the App. 

After the Workflow Completes, Click on the Internal Status to see what the Workflow Logged to the History List:

Thanks for reading!