Understanding the Workflow Application

A workflow project includes one or more workflow processes and database tables. The project becomes an application when you create a user interface form that works with the database (using data access pages, for example). In the Solution Explorer of the Workflow Designer for SQL Server, you can see folders under each project that display your tables and workflow processes. There is no user interface folder, because the Web pages must be created using a separate application outside of the Workflow Designer environment, such as Microsoft® Access.

There are two ways to start a workflow project — you can create an instance of a template, which creates and registers the required database, or you can add workflow to an existing database.

• Start from a template   You can create an instance of an application from a template and then customize it to suit your requirements.

  Templates make distribution of complete workflow applications, including database schema and Web pages, a simple matter. For example, an expense-reporting workflow application created for your main office could be saved easily as a template and distributed to branch officers. Then, each branch can create an instance of the application as-is or modify it as required.

  Each template contains all of the information required to create a complete workflow application, including the database schema, workflow rules, and Web pages.

  Note   To create an instance of a template, you must be using a version of Microsoft® SQL Server™ that is the same as or later than the version in which the template was created.

• Start from a database   You can create a new SQL Server database and a new Web site, or you can use an existing database and Web site and add workflow features to them.

  A workflow application must be based on a SQL Server database. You can create that database using SQL Server Enterprise Manager or Access. The easiest method is by using an Access data project (.adp). This type of Access file provides efficient, native-mode access to a SQL Server database through the OLE DB component architecture. Before you can use an Access database, you must use the Upsizing wizard in Access to convert the .mdb file to an Access project for a SQL Server database (.adp).

  An Access project is different from an Access database, because it contains only the presentation layer of an application, such as the code-based or HTML-based database objects — forms, reports, data access pages, macros, and modules. An Access project does not contain any data or data definition-based objects — tables, views, database diagrams, or stored procedures (which also can contain application code). Instead, these database objects are stored in the SQL Server database.

A typical procedure for creating a workflow application involves the following steps:

1. Planning your workflow. Identify the states and events that are required to complete the business process, and consider the security and database schema requirements.
2. Connecting to your database in the Workflow Designer. This registers the database and creates a basic Web site at the URL you specify.
3. Defining the table hierarchy. Identify the main table and any detail and lookup tables that must be added to the project.
4. Adding a workflow process to the project.
5. Defining database roles and assigning them to workflow events.
6. Creating the Web site user interface.

See Also

Building Workflow Applications for SQL Server | Creating Workflow Applications Based on Templates | Creating Workflow Applications from Databases | Understanding the Workflow Process | Setting up a Table Hierarchy