Overview

Working on a project recently, there was a requirement to export, import and publish Nintex Workflow for Office 365 between different environments. By environments, I mean SharePoint Site Collections for Testing, Staging, UAT, Prod, etc..
While it is super easy to manually export, import and publish a Nintex Workflow for Office 365, this often becomes tedious and error prone when the number of such workflows to manage increases. In the spirit of automation, I developed a simple PowerShell Script to do exactly the same.
There is a wealth of information available online regarding using Office 365 API for Workflows here.
Prerequisite
  • A source list workflow for a SharePoint Online list or library developed using Nintex Workflow for Office 365. We will export this workflow using the script.
  • A destination list workflow for a SharePoint Online list or library developed using Nintex Workflow for Office 365. We will import and publish the workflow from the step above.
  • Please contact your Nintex representative to request an API key for the REST API for use in script.

PowerShell Script

Execute the following script in your Windows PowerShell window. Please change the required variable values as per your tenant configuration settings.
  1. Function Export - NWF {
  2. Param
  3. (
  4. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext][ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] $Context,
  6. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $WorkflowSourceURL,
  7. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowSourceID,
  8. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowExportFileNameAndPath,
  9. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIBaseURL,
  10. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIKey
  11. )
  13. Try {
  15. $RestURL = "https://$APIBaseURL/api/v1/workflows/packages/$WorkflowSourceID"
  17. $creds = $Context.Credentials
  18. $AuthCookie = $creds.GetAuthenticationCookie($WorkflowSourceURL)
  19. $cookie = "cookie $WorkflowSourceURL " + $AuthCookie
  21. $HeadersExport = @ {
  22. 'Authorization' = $cookie
  23. 'Api-Key' = $APIKey 'Accept' = 'application/json'
  24. 'Content-Type' = 'application/nwp'
  25. }
  27. Invoke - RestMethod - Method "Get" - Uri $RestURL - Headers $HeadersExport - OutFile $WorkflowExportFileNameAndPath
  30. Write - host "Export-NWF for $WorkflowSourceURL executed Successfully" - ForegroundColor Green
  31. }
  33. Catch {
  34. write - host - f Red "Error when executing Export-NWF for $WorkflowSourceURL!"
  35. $_.Exception.Message
  36. }
  38. }
  40. Function Import - NWF {
  41. Param
  42. (
  43. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext][ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] $Context,
  44. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $WorkflowTargetURL,
  45. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowTargetID,
  46. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowImportFileNameAndPath,
  47. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIBaseURL,
  48. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIKey
  49. )
  51. Try {
  53. $RestURL = "https://$APIBaseURL/api/v1/workflows/packages/" + $WorkflowTargetID + "?migrate=true"
  55. $creds = $Context.Credentials
  56. $AuthCookie = $creds.GetAuthenticationCookie($WorkflowTargetURL)
  57. $cookie = "cookie $WorkflowTargetURL " + $AuthCookie
  59. $HeadersImport = @ {
  60. 'Authorization' = $cookie
  61. 'Api-Key' = $APIKey 'Accept' = "application/json"
  62. }
  64. Invoke - RestMethod - Method "PUT" - Uri $RestURL - Headers $HeadersImport - InFile $WorkflowImportFileNameAndPath
  66. Write - host "Import-NWF for $WorkflowSourceURL executed Successfully" - ForegroundColor Green
  67. }
  69. Catch {
  70. write - host - f Red "Error when executing Import-NWF for $WorkflowTargetURL!"
  71. $_.Exception.Message
  72. }
  74. }
  76. Function Publish - NWF {
  77. Param
  78. (
  79. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext][ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] $Context,
  80. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $WorkflowTargetURL,
  81. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowTargetID,
  82. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIBaseURL,
  83. [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIKey
  84. )
  86. Try {
  88. $creds = $Context.Credentials
  89. $AuthCookie = $creds.GetAuthenticationCookie($WorkflowTargetURL)
  90. $cookie = "cookie $WorkflowTargetURL " + $AuthCookie
  92. $HeadersImport = @ {
  93. 'Authorization' = $cookie
  94. 'Api-Key' = $APIKey 'Accept' = "application/json"
  95. }
  97. $RestURLPublish = "https://$APIBaseURL/api/v1/workflows/$WorkflowTargetID/published"
  99. Invoke - RestMethod - Method "Post" - Uri $RestURLPublish - Headers $HeadersImport
  101. Write - host "Publish-NWF for $WorkflowTargetURL executed Successfully" - ForegroundColor Green
  102. }
  104. Catch {
  105. write - host - f Red "Error when executing Publish-NWF for $WorkflowTargetURL!"
  106. $_.Exception.Message
  107. }
  109. }
  111. $APIBaseUrl = "mytenant.nintexo365.com"
  112. $APIKey = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
  114. $username = '[email protected]'
  115. $password = 'xxxxxxxxxxxx'
  117. $encpassword = convertto - securestring - String $password - AsPlainText - Force
  118. $cred = new - object - typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential - argumentlist $username, $encpassword
  120. # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
  122. #Export workflow from source
  124. $WorkflowSourceURL = "https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/source/"
  126. Connect - PnPOnline - Url $WorkflowSourceURL - Credentials $cred
  128. $ctx = Get - PnPContext
  130. Export - NWF - Context $ctx - WorkflowSourceURL $WorkflowSourceURL - WorkflowSourceID "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" - WorkflowExportFileNameAndPath "c:\Test.nwp" - APIBaseURL $APIBaseURL -
  131. APIKey $APIKey
  133. #Import workflow into destination
  135. $WorkflowTargetURL = "https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/destination/"
  137. Connect - PnPOnline - Url $WorkflowSourceURL - Credentials $cred
  139. $ctx = Get - PnPContext
  141. Import - NWF - Context $ctx - WorkflowTargetURL $WorkflowTargetURL - WorkflowTargetID "yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyyyyy" - WorkflowImportFileNameAndPath "c:\Test.nwp" - APIBaseURL $APIBaseURL -
  142. APIKey $APIKey
  144. #Publish imported workflow at destination
  146. $WorkflowTargetURL = "https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/destination/"
  148. Connect - PnPOnline - Url $WorkflowSourceURL - Credentials $cred
  150. $ctx = Get - PnPContext
  152. Publish - NWF - Context $ctx - WorkflowTargetURL $WorkflowTargetURL - WorkflowTargetID "yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyyyyy" - APIBaseURL $APIBaseURL - APIKey $APIKey
  153. # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
After successful execution of the script, check the Last modified, Latest Version Published and Modified By values for imported workflow as shown below,

Conclusion

In this article we saw how to export, import and publish Nintex Workflow for Office 365 between different environments.

I hope you liked this article! Please share your valuable comments and feedback with me.

Stay well and happy Nintexing...!