How sloppiness and SPWorkflowTask.AlterTask() could inadvertantly lock your workflow task


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The SPWorkflowTask.AlterTask() method is handy dandy. It allows us to alter task details from outside of the workflow itself. I was using it in a couple of custom task forms I had created to update the task based on some user input. It’s pretty simple. You get a reference to the active workflow task item, create a hashtable that you populate with the data you want to change, then use AlterTask() to update the task.

This is pretty much exactly what I was doing, except I threw in an item.Update() after my SPWorkflowTask.AlterTask() call for good measure. I wasn’t sure if the AlterTask() actually did an Update() internally so I figured it couldn’t possibly hurt, right? Continue reading

Speaking at the Prairie Dev Con, in November


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Prairie Dev Con logoI will be doing a session on  SharePoint 2010 workflows at the Prairie Dev Con in Winnipeg this fall. The event takes place at the Viscount Gort Hotel on November 21 and 22. This session will feature part of the presentation I did earlier this year, but will focus on and delve deeper into workflows. Be sure to check it out to see how to develop a complete workflow with custom forms using Visual Studio 2010 (without InfoPath). Also make sure you check out their website and get your tickets while the early bird offer is still on. Hope to see you there!

How to force InfoPath forms to open in the browser when linked in an email


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We recently put a rather complex SharePoint workflow into production. Our workflow is creates a lot of tasks, and each time a task is created a custom email is sent to that user with a link to the task. We create the body of this email ourselves, including the link to the task. The user clicks on the link and the task opens up in Internet Explorer and they can do whatever they need to do. We always want the forms to open in the browser and to begin with everything was peachy.

However after a few pilot users had been upgraded to Office 2010, which included the InfoPath client, it came to our attention that when they clicked on the link in the email it would open it up in the InfoPath client rather than opening it up in the browser. We would want the experience to be consistent so obviously this was not desirable. Continue reading

Slide deck and demos from yesterdays presentation


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Thanks to everyone who showed up at yesterdays event. This was my first public presentation and based on the feedback I guess I did good. I hope you enjoyed the content, and that you learned something in the process. I’ll be out of the country for the next 2 weeks, but you’re welcome to tweet/email me questions and comments if you have any. I’ll try and get back to you as soon as I can.

You can find the slides from my presentation at the bottom of this post, along with the Visual Studio solutions for the three demos that I did. These are the actual demos that I created during the presentation, complete with grammar mistakes and everything, so you should be looking at the same thing that you saw then. You’ll need a dev machine setup with SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 to be able to try these out.

As a last note, I should give credit where credit is due. The fourth slide in my presentation was borrowed from Eric ShuppsTechEd 2010 presentation. Continue reading

Speaking at the Regina Technology Community, on May 11th


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I will be doing a presentation on SharePoint 2010 development for the Regina Technology Community. This event is free to anyone who wants to attend, and there will be food, so make sure you sign up if you’re interested. This is an entry level presentation, so I’m expecting most people haven’t worked on SharePoint and will gear the presentation as such. If you have previous SharePoint experience you may find some of the examples and topics to be pretty basic (although you’re still welcome to participate, of course). Continue reading