4. Checking the Workflow Status
Once again, we open up the item workflow page. This
time we see our workflow listed under Running workflows. Clicking the
workflow title will open the information for this workflow instance. Figure 8
shows the information page where we can see general status information
at the top as well as tasks that have been assigned and a running
workflow history.
It’s not very practical for the user to have to
check the workflow information page to see what tasks have been
assigned to them, and they don’t. Typically, when tasks are assigned
through workflow, the assignee is notified via e-mail. Figure 19
shows the e-mail our assignee received in Outlook. The e-mail contains
a link directly to the document for review and also includes a button
in the ribbon to open the task where they can (in this case) approve or
reject the document.
As well as sending the e-mail, Office 2010 provides
a handy notification bar at the top of the document that also allows
the user to open the task directly (Figure 10). If he accidently closes the information bar, there is also a link to the task from the Info page under the File tab.
The task form allows the assignee to fill in feedback and to action the task by approving, rejecting, and so on (Figure 11). For our approval workflow, the user can also request a change or even reassign the task.
The workflow templates that SharePoint
Server 2010 provides have plenty of functionality that will suit the
majority of simple approval workflows. However, the user is not limited
to these workflows alone. The next section discusses using SharePoint
Designer to take workflows to the next level.
