How To Create A Workflow In SharePoint

By reading this article, we will learn the below points.

How to create a new workflow for the Library
How to apply the created workflow to the libraries
How to assign the task to resource
How to email a trigger sample

Firstly, let’s see how to create workflows in Office 365 / SharePoint 2013.

Before starting to talk about new workflows, it's also essential to know about workflow and the uses of it.

The main purpose of Workflows is given below.

It allows us to automate our business process.
This business process can be as simple as document approval process with a single approver.

Example

A bank account opening process requires manager to review and approve our documents. If it is accepted by manager, then document is ready for opening an account and notifies the team; otherwise it goes to initiator to update the document. This process is continued until the document is approved.

Now, let’s see how to create a new workflow in Office 365 online. Open the site collection from your site, as shown below.

Now, in our demo, we shall consider document library to create a new workflow.

Click on "Documents" and then click on "Library" from the top ribbon, as shown below.

Now, click on "Workflow Settings" as shown below and select "Add a workflow" option.

Upon selecting "Add workflow" option, the page navigates to the below screen to create a new workflow.

Select a desired workflow template as per your need. In our demo, let us select Approval-SharePoint2010.

Give a proper SharePoint workflow name. In my case, it is “Document Approval”.

Now, select Tasks (news) in "Select a task" dropdown.

Select the workflow history. It means the new workflow will use new history list.

And, select the check boxes as shown below then click "Next" to proceed.

We shall see "Document Approval" page, as shown below.

How to assign the Task to Resource

Assign to resource in the system, as shown below.

Type in custom request in the "Request" textbox.

As per your requirement, select the check boxes and click on "Save".

The page will navigate to "Settings" page.

How to apply Workflow to a Document in Document library

Now, open the document library, select any document, and click on "Files" ribbon as shown below.

Click on "workflows" option as shown below.

Note

Select a document to enable workflows option in the above screenshot.

Once you are done with the above task, the "Document Register" will be opened.

You can see that our new workflow has been created. If you have more than one workflows, it will be listed in the above screenshot.

Now, click on "Document Approval" as shown below, which will navigate to the page where Workflow is going to start. If any changes are required, you can do that and click on "Start", as shown below.

The workflow gets instantiated and then goes back to document library.

You can see the status of the workflow in above screenshot.

Email Trigger Sample

In our next article, I will show how to approve the Workflow with Workflow Visualization.

Thanks for reading my article. I am always open for questions & suggestions, so feel free to comment.