Workflow Conductor widgets are the modular building blocks used to create workflows in Workflow Conductor Studio. Some widgets define the flow, or path, of a workflow, and others perform specific actions, such as sending an e-mail, updating the properties of an item, or creating a task.

Widgets are grouped by function in the widget list in the left pane of Conductor Studio. The categories in this list can be customized by an administrator in Central Administration. See Configuring WF Conductor Categories for more information. The default categories represent the major widget functions (listed below). A Frequently Used category contains widgets that administrators expect to be used most often by workflow designers.

• Workflow Logic Widgets: Workflow Logic widgets handle the “flow” of the workflow. This category includes widgets that allow workflow branching or parallel processing. Some of the widgets in this category are container widgets that allow other widgets to be dropped inside of them. For example, drop other widgets inside the two branches of a Run Parallel widget to allow two sets of actions to be executed simultaneously.
• User Interaction Widgets: User Interaction widgets request input from users or communicate to users during a workflow. Widgets that send e-mail or assign certain types of tasks can be found in this category.
• User & Group Management Widgets: User & Group Management widgets query, create, update, and delete accounts and groups. Widgets that manage Active Directory and SharePoint user accounts and groups are found in this category.
• Lists and Items Widgets: Widgets in the List and Items category read or manipulate SharePoint items, lists, and libraries. Actions such as creating, copying, or updating list items are found here.
• Site Management Widgets: Site Management widgets provide options to create and manage SharePoint sites.
• External Data Widgets: External Data widgets access data outside of the current SharePoint environment. Access to Web services, databases, and even external SharePoint environments is provided by these widgets.

See also an Alphabetical List of Workflow Conductor Widgets.

Workflow Conductor widgets can access data in the current site, other sites in the current site collection, and (in Workflow Conductor 1.5 and higher) most widgets can also access data in other site collections. If a widget can access data in other site collections, you will see the Site Collection box, which allows you to select the site collection and site to access. In addition, any widget property that supports lookups can access data in other site collections with the Field Lookup option.

To add a widget to a workflow, simply drag it from the widget list pane on the left and drop it where you want it in the Conductor Studio diagram. Most widgets require configuration, which is done in the Widget Properties tab of the settings pane. No coding is required to set the properties of a widget.

General information about features common to all widgets can be found in the following sections:

• Common Widget Properties
• Using Lookups in Workflow Studio
• Working with widgets…

The Workflow Variables lookup list contains Variables and Parameters related to the workflow. Parameters are fields that you add to a workflow initialization form.

If you haven’t created an Initialization form or any variables for your workflow yet, you won’t see anything listed here.

Just like the other lookup types, Conductor retrieves Workflow Variable lookups when the workflow reaches the widget.

The Workflow Reports Web Part allows you to create reports about workflows in the current site or site collection. The report is displayed graphically, with a summary text-based list below the chart.

It is possible to specify the range of information you wish to display in the chart. Choose:

• Start Date – the start of the reporting interval
• End Date – the end of the reporting interval
• Period – Summarize the data by period. Choose Day, Week, Month, or Quarter.
• Workflow Status – choose All, Running, Completed, Errored, Canceled, or Paused.

When ready, click View Report. If desired, choose to print the report by click Print. The print includes the graph, but not the list display beneath the chart.

For information about the configuration parameters for this web part, see How to Configure the Workflow Reports Web Part

The My Workflow Tasks Web Part displays tasks created by workflows. These tasks typically reside in lists called Workflow Tasks. My Workflow Tasks can display tasks for the current user or for all users, and can display tasks for the site, the Web application, or the entire farm.

Use the links displayed with each task to see the item that triggered the workflow (in the Item column), the workflow history (in the Workflow Name column).

For information about how to configure the My Wrokflow Tasks Web Part, see How to configure the My Workflow Tasks Web Part.

APPLIES TO
The following widgets in Workflow Conductor 1.1 and higher:

• Conditional Branch
• Compare
• Repeat While
• Wait For Field Change
• Repeat For Each Item (Workflow Conductor 1.5 and higher)
• Field Lookups
• External List Lookups

Some Widgets in Workflow Conductor allow you to specify a condition that must be met in order for the Widget to run. If the condition is comparing a value with a SharePoint Single line of text, SharePoint Multiple lines of text column, or Bamboo Rich Text column, here are some important tips:

• When matching text strings, use less specific match conditions. For example, use Contains instead of Equal To.

• Comparisons are case-sensitive. “Text” and “text” are different strings and will not match.

• If you change the settings for a SharePoint Multiple lines of text column from Plain text formatting to Rich text or Enhanced rich text formatting, an Equal To condition that worked before may stop working. This is because a rich text field contains non-printing characters, even if the text does not appear formatted.

• Field Lookup conditions that require an Equals match will not match Bamboo Rich Text columns or SharePoint Multiple lines of text columns formatted as Rich text or Enhanced rich text. Perform the lookup using a different column in the list.

The Field Lookup conditions shown here will not match any items, even if the text appears to match the column text:

For Bamboo Rich Text and SharePoint Multiple lines of text columns configured for rich text or enhanced rich text formatting, be aware that any text formatting adds non-printing characters that can make the condition false.

The conditions shown below will not match if the word “text” is in bold in the list column:

The Add User to AD Group widget shown here is configured to add a new employee to a group “Conductor”.

In this example, the workflow designer has permission to enter custom LDAP paths in Active Directory widgets.

This setting is configured in the Active Directory Settings section of the Workflow Conductor Control Panel > General Settings page in SharePoint Central Administration.

Return to

Add User To AD Group

User & Group Management Widgets

See Also:

• How to Use Add User to SharePoint Group Widget
• About Workflow Conductor Widgets
• Alphabetical List of Workflow Conductor Widgets

When a workflow is started manually, Workflow designers have the option to run the workflow in Simulation Mode. Simulation Mode allows designers to test workflow functionality without affecting other users. It skips all delays, and sends e-mail and assigns tasks only to the workflow initiator.

Specifically, Simulation Mode affects workflows in the following ways:

• All Delay For and Delay Until widgets are skipped.
• The Delay Time property in any Repeat While widgets is changed to “0”.
• Approvers and Reviewers configured in Request Approval and Request Feedback widgets are changed to the workflow initiator.
• Send Email widgets will send e-mail only to the workflow initiator.
• The Assigned To property of any Create Task widgets is changed to the workflow initiator.
• Echo Test widgets will send e-mail only to the workflow initiator.

To start a workflow in Simulation Mode, check the appropriate checkbox in the workflow initiation page before clicking the Start Workflow button.

Workflow designers also have the option to override the logging level configured for widgets and specify a new logging level for all widgets for that workflow instance. To override the widget logging level, select the desired logging level in the workflow initiation page.

Workflow Conductor provides a central page to view and manage workflow solutions deployed with Workflow Conductor using the Solution Deployment method. To view the list of workflow solutions, go to Central Administration > Workflow Conductor, and then click Workflow Solution Management.

This list is similar to the Central Administration > System Settings > Manage farm solutions list in SharePoint Central Administration, but limits the list of solutions to those deployed by Workflow Conductor.

The following tasks can be performed in the Workflow Solution Management page.

View workflow solutions

Workflow solutions deployed to the SharePoint farm are listed in the Deployed Solutions section.

For more information about the solution, view the Status and Deployed To columns or click the solution name.

Retract and remove workflow solutions

Retracting a workflow solution removes it as a site collection feature. The workflow will no longer be available to associate to lists and libraries. Any workflow instances that are running will be terminated. Removing the workflow solution removes it from the list of solutions in the SharePoint farm.

IMPORTANT: Before you retract a solution, make sure you have removed its associations with lists and libraries in the site collection. If you do not, the workflow will still be associated to the list or library and users will still see it as an available workflow for list items, but it will not run, and new workflows deployed with the same name may have to be manually associated before they can run. This is a problem with SharePoint, not Workflow Conductor. To see a count of workflow associations for a workflow, go to the Workflows page in Site Settings.

For more information about removing workflow associations, see Removing a Workflow Association.

To retract and remove a workflow solution, follow these steps:

Step	Action	Result
1.	Click the solution name in the Workflow Solution Management list.
2.	In the Solution Properties page, click Retract Solution.
3.	Enter a time to schedule the retraction (which will recycle the application pool) and click OK. For more information about retracting workflow solutions, see Retract and remove the workflow solution from the Web application.
4.	After the solution is retracted, its Status in the Workflow Solution Management list will change to Not Deployed (you may need to refresh the page).	The solution is no longer available to associate to any list in the Web application. If you want to be able to deploy the workflow solution again later, you can leave it in the list. However, you will not be able to deploy any other workflows with the same name to the same Web application.
5.	To completely remove the workflow solution from the farm, click its name again and click Remove Solution.
Viewing Workflow Association Counts
1.	To view the number of associations for a workflow before retracting it, go to Site Actions > Site Settings in the top-level site as a site collection administrator. In the Site Administration section, click Workflows.
Manually Deploy Workflow Solutions Scheduled for Deployment
1.	If Workflow Conductor is configured for scheduled solution deployment, solutions that are waiting to be deployed will be listed separately. To deploy a solution immediately instead of waiting for the scheduled time, click the Deploy link for the solution.	IMPORTANT: The application pool will be recycled when the solution is deployed. Sites in the Web application may be temporarily unavailable.

See Also:

• Workflow Association
• Removing a Workflow Association
• Disabling a Workflow
• Removing a Workflow
• Retract and remove the workflow solution from the Web application (for Site Administrators only!)
• Changing Workflow Options

Workflow Conductor provides a number of tools and web parts to help you run, manage, and view the status of workflows in your environment. You can find each of these topics separately in our documentation and we include them here grouped by permission level.

For SharePoint contributors:

• Running Conductor Workflows on List Items
• Running Site Workflows (for workflows published as site workflows)
• My Workflows Web Part
• My Workflow Tasks Web Part
• Workflow Reports Web Part
• Resolving Workflow Errors

For workflow designers:

• Viewing Workflow Status
• Managing Workflow Associations
• Running Workflows in Simulation Mode
• Log Viewer Web Part

For SharePoint administrators:

• Workflow Solution Management

APPLIES TO

• Workflow Conductor 1.0 and higher

While workflows can be associated with specific Content Types in a list or library, sometimes your workflow only has one or two steps that differ depending on the item’s Content Type. In that scenario, you may not want to maintain multiple workflows for each Content Type. Instead, consider branching your workflow using the Conditional Branch widget with a condition that checks for the item’s Content Type.

Branching a Workflow

Step	Action	Result
1.	Add a Calculated column to your list or library with a value of =Content Type, as shown below. Make sure to associate this column with all Content Types.	The column will auto-populate with the name of the Content Type used to create the item. The column does not have to be included in any views.
2.	In your workflow, insert a Conditional Branch widget wherever your workflow needs to branch depending on Content Type. Configure at least one of the conditions for the widget to include checking the value of the Content Type column, similar to the example shown here:
3.	If you have more than two Content Types and your workflow takes a different action for each one, you can nest Conditional Branch widgets:

To learn how to associate separate workflows to each Content Type, see How to Associate a Workflow Conductor workflow to a Content Type.

How do I configure a workflow to run when items are added or changed?

When you design a workflow in Conductor Studio, you can configure the workflow Start Options in the Workflow Settings tab. Workflow Conductor supports the same start options as SharePoint, including starting a workflow when an item is created or changed. To change workflow start options after the workflow has been deployed, follow the instructions in Changing Workflow Options.

The Get Previous Version Data widget allows a workflow to query and return the value of a field for the previous version of an item if Item Versioning is enabled in the targeted SharePoint list.

IMPORTANT: This widget requires versioning to be enabled in the targeted list.

NOTE: This widget is available in Workflow Conductor version 3.5 or later.

Widget Properties:

Return to Lists and Items Widgets

See Also:

• How to Use Workflow Conductor Widgets
• Alphabetical List of Workflow Conductor Widgets

The Get User Info widget retrieves a single SharePoint user profile property for a user and stores it in a workflow variable.

Notes for MOSS Users: This widget uses the MOSS User Profile Account property in the Workflow Conductor Control Panel > Account Settings page. This setting specifies a user account that has the Manage User Profiles Shared Services right in Shared Services Administration > Personalization services permissions. This account is used to access the SharePoint User Profile Properties list. Access to specific user profile data is security trimmed at runtime based on the permission of the user account configured for the widget in the Run As property.

Notes for WSS Users: The widget will retrieve profile data from the User Information List in the current site collection. Access to SharePoint user profile data is security trimmed at runtime based on the permission of the user account configured for the widget in the Run As property.

Widget Properties:

Example Using Get User Info Widget

Return to User & Group Management Widgets

See Also:

• Overview of Lookup Selector
• Using Lookups in Workflow Studio
• About Workflow Conductor Widgets
• Alphabetical List of Workflow Conductor Widgets

Workflow Conductor allows Designers and Administrators to easily create custom workflows using a simple drag-and-drop interface. We call that interface Workflow Conductor Studio, or Conductor Studio for short. It is a browser-based design interface that runs within SharePoint and can be accessed directly from a list or library. For more information about using Conductor Studio, visit the following sections:

To start Conductor Studio, first make sure that the account you are using has the Design or Full Control permission level for the list or library. Then, navigate to a list or library and click the Create or Edit Workflows button in the List or Library tab of the Tools ribbon.

NOTE: Administrators can further restrict who can design workflows in Conductor Studio using the Workflow Designers settings in Central Administration >Workflow Conductor. If you are a SharePoint Designer but do not have the Create or Edit Workflows option in the Settings menu, contact your SharePoint administrator.

You can learn more about the four sections of the Workflow Conductor Studio interface by clicking an item below:

• Workflow Conductor widget pane
• Workflow Conductor workflow diagram pane
• Workflow Conductor settings pane
• Workflow Conductor Studio menus

When working with Workflow Conductor, your list of templates may grow quickly and span multiple pages. When this happens, use the Sort and Filter features of the Template Gallery to quickly and easily find the template you need.

NOTES:

1. The sort and filter features of the Template Manager changed a bit in Workflow Conductor Release 3.5. This page describes how they work in the latest release. If you are using an older release, please see Filter or Sort the List of Templates in the Template Gallery in Release 3.2 and Earlier.
2. The screen shot shows the Manage Templates tab because the logged in user is a template manager. If you are not a template manager, you will not see that tab.

To filter or sort the list of templates shown, follow these steps:

Step	Action
1.	In the Template Gallery, hover over the heading of the column that shows the information you want to sort or filter on. A menu arrow () will appear. Click it to see the menu. NOTE: The menu option won’t appear until you hover over the column heading.
2.	To filter the list, hover over Filters to see the text entry box. Enter filter text in the box. The list will be filtered to only those templates that have the text anywhere in the column. For example, the screen shot shows how to filter the list to show only the templates with the word “test” anywhere in the Template Name. As you enter the filter string, the list is filtered dynamically. To remove the filter, uncheck the Filters box.
3.	To sort the list, simply click the header text. Clicking the same header a second time, will reverse the sort order. Alternatively, you can choose Sort Ascending or Sort Descending from the menu displayed in Step 2.
4.	The font of the header will change to indicate a filter is applied to the list using that column. A small arrow () will appear to indicate the list is sorted by that column. The arrow will point up or down, depending on the sort order selected.

Export a template for

• safe keeping,
• to be able to import it to another SharePoint environment, or
• to send a copy to Bamboo’s Support Team if you are having an issue.

Export a template

Import a template

Step	Action
1.	To import a workflow template, select Import from the Workflow area of the menu in the Workflow Conductor Studio.
2.	In the dialog box that appears, browse for the *.xoml file to import and then click Import. NOTE: If the template imported refers to hard-coded server URLs and other things that don’t exist in your SharePoint environment, you may need to make a few adjustments to the workflow before publishing it to your list, site, or site collection.

This is a high level overview of the types of External Data Widgets available. Click on the name of the widget to get details and examples.

• Access SP via REST: Read and update items in an external SharePoint list.
• Call Web Service: Call a SOAP Web service.
• Query Database: Query a database.
• Run PowerShell Script: Run a PowerShell script on the SharePoint server.

Return to About Workflow Conductor Widgets

See also an Alphabetical List of Workflow Conductor Widgets.

Any designer can share a workflow template. However, you may want to highlight specific templates as those that are commonly used, approved for use by all designers, or maybe just good examples for other designers. The template gallery includes a Featured Templates area for this purpose.

IMPORTANT: Designating a template as a Featured Template can be done only from the Workflow Conductor Control Panel in SharePoint Central Administration.

To add a template to the Featured Templates tab, follow these steps:

Step	Action
1.	Go to Central Administration and click the Workflow Conductor section.
2.	In the Workflow Conductor Control Panel, click Template Management.
3.	In the Template Management page, use the table to locate the template you want to feature. You can browse for templates in either the User Templates or Shared Templates tabs. Click the column header to sort the display by that column. Click the same column a second time to reverse the sort order. There is no filter capability for the lists on these tabs.	When you locate the template you want to feature, click the Add to Featured link () for the specific template. NOTE: Previous to Release 3.5, the Add to Featured link was displayed as the word Add.
4.	To remove a template from the Featured Templates list, click on the Featured Templates tab in the table and click the Delete icon ().	Template managers can also delete featured templates from the Manage Templates tab in the Conductor Studio template gallery.