UPDATED 04/07/2012: I had issues with SkyDrive and lost the files but the WSP file has been retrieved by one of the previous downloaders. The link is fixed.
UPDATED 28/08/2008: I released an updated version (0.2.0) that solves a previous bug when choosing the action in SharePoint Designer didn’t add the action to the workflow actions list. Please download the new version if you need to use these activities. The installation instructions have also been revised.
UPDATED 07/07/2008: I finally corrected the issue with the feature activation and web.config modifications. The files for download are updated.
I finally decided to post some useful code for the SharePoint community. I present you the “User Profile related SharePoint Designer Activities“. It’s a solution package (.WSP file) that contains four SPD actions (workflow activities) for the SharePoint Designer workflows. This package is only for MOSS 2007 installations. It will not work on WSS 3.0 machines. (I’m preparing a similar package for WSS).
The available actions are:
- Get user title – use it to get the user job title, when you need to route the workflow to different people depending on the originating user, for example.
- Find manager of the user – it retrieves the Manager property of the specified user profile. The most frequent use of this action would be to set an approval task for the manager of the user.
- Find display name of the user – it resolves the user display name instead of DOMAINusername, useful if you combine text in task descriptions or in emails.
- Find department of the user – use it to route workflows depending on the originating user deparment or to check that the workflow can only be initiated by a specific department, for instance.
HOW TO GET IT
You can download the WSP file here: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=27D6A3274BDD6131!1496
HOW TO INSTALL
The WSP package is easy to install:
- Copy the EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.wsp file to a folder of your choice
- Open a command prompt (CMD) with path access to the STSADM tool
- stsadm -o addsolution -filename EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.wsp
- stsadm -o deploysolution -name EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.wsp -allowgacdeployment –immediate -allcontenturls
- If the solution package fails when it tries to register itself in web.config, you will have to manually add this line to your SharePoint web.config, under the System.Workflow.ComponentModel.WorkflowCompiler / authorizedTypes tag:
<authorizedType Assembly=”EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow, Version=0.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=968b39d77135aa09″ Namespace=”EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow” TypeName=”*” Authorized=”True” />
- Do not forget to activate the feature “User Profile SharePoint Designer Activities 0.2.0” in SharePoint Central Administration site, under Applications/Web Application Features
HOW TO FEEDBACK
I’d appreciate any comments about these actions/activities. Feel free to use the comments feature of this post.
The Legal Mumbo-Jumbo
I release this code under the Ms-PL (Microsoft Public Licence).
Edin, realmente felicitaciones por el AddIn estan muy bien elaborados y son de muchisima utilidad en la construccion de Workflows Empresariales.
Saludos, Hector.
Gracias Héctor. Me alegro que sean de utilidad. 🙂
These look like some really useful SPD activities.
Any idea why I keep receiving the following error when deploying the solution from Central Admin pages?
“Failed to create feature receiver object from assembly “EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=968b39d77135aa09”, type “EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow.Install.SPDActivityReciever” for feature 32d318b0-28c0-11dd-bd0b-0800200c9a66: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: type
at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFeatureDefinition.get_ReceiverObject()”
Any ideas appreciated.
Greg
I am getting the same error as Greg.o above.
Name: edinkapic.sharepoint.workflowactions.wsp
Type: Core Solution
Contains Web Application Resource: Yes
Contains Global Assembly: Yes
Contains Code Access Security Policy: No
Deployment Server Type: Front-end Web server
Deployment Status: Error
Deployed To: None
Last Operation Result: The installation of features failed during deployment of the solution.
Last Operation Details: USCSTDEV04 : Failed to create feature receiver object from assembly “EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=968b39d77135aa09”, type “EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow.Install.SPDActivityReciever” for feature 32d318b0-28c0-11dd-bd0b-0800200c9a66: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: type
at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFeatureDefinition.get_ReceiverObject()
USCSTDEV04 : Failed to create feature receiver object from assembly “EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=968b39d77135aa09”, type “EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow.Install.SPDActivityReciever” for feature 32d318b0-28c0-11dd-bd0b-0800200c9a66: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: type
at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFeatureDefinition.get_ReceiverObject()
Any ideas?
Todd T
Greg.O and Anonymous, the error you mention is corrected in the updated solution package.
There was a mismatch between class names in the feature and the code itself.
Hi Edin,
Thanks for updating the solution. I have now been able to deploy it fine. The custom actions will definitely come in handy.
Thanks again,
Greg Osimowicz
Does this only work with MOSS? I tried deploying it to an instance of WSS 3.0 but cant get it to do anything in the SPD workflow…the action shows up but when selecting it nothing happens.
You’re right, it’s only for MOSS. The reason is that the WSS doesn’t have User Profiles as a feature. It won’t be hard to make a similar feature for WSS User Information List, if is should be useful.
I’m trying to use this with MOSS 2007 Enterprise, but when I try to add the action in SharePoint Designer, nothing happens.
I have activated it in Web Application features. I also have the CodePlex custom workflows activated.
Hi Edin,
I am having the same problem as Thomas. I also had the codeplex activities installed. Uninstalling them did not change the problem.
Thanks for further investigating this.
I’m having the same problem as Thomek and Thomas and am using MOSS with SPDActivities. The package seems to install fine, I can activate the web application feature and can add the function in SPD – but nothin happens it just returns to the workflow. Removed SPDActivities as a test but still the same. Shame as it would have been very useful…
Thomas, Thomek and Baxtersoup:
I’ve installed the solution to a clean MOSS install and it works flawlessly. The only issue I can think of is that you have no English MOSS setup. In that case, you have to manually copy the 12Template1033WorkflowEdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow.ACTIONS file to your local culture ID folder.
(for instance, instead of “1033” folder it’s “3082” for Spanish-language MOSS)
Hi Edin,
Thanks for your comments. My site is British English and the file is in the right folder. It’s actually a test VM image so as clean as it can get… but still no luck.
Craig
I’m also using an English installation of MOSS, with 1033 as the culture ID.
I am using a 64-bit version of SharePoint running on Server 2008 Standard, though – could there be issues with this?
These are great SPDA’s. So thanks. I too am having the same problem. Everything installed fine IAW your instructions. I also verified that things are in the proper directories. I’m Running Sharepoint 2007 SP1 Enterprise and I’m using SPD 2007 SP1. I do have the Useful Sharepoint Designer Activities 0.5.0 Alpha from codeplex.com installed. When I’m in SPD, Workflow Designer and click Actions>More Actions. Select Task Actions from the Pulldown and click one the newly listed actions and click add. I am returned to the work flow but the new action is not listed.
Hi Edin,
I appreciate how difficult it can be to solve a problem that doesn’t present itself when you use the software… I can give you RDP access to the test box that I having the problems with if that helps.
Craig
Edin,
A quick update – I’ve installed this on my production server and it has the same problem there.
It’s 2003 Enterprise with MOSS 2007 Enterprise, high-end box and on a different domain.
The only thing that might help is that this command: stsadm -o deploysolution -name EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflofActions.wsp -allowgacdeployment -immediate didn’t work, I had to deploy the app through central admin.
Regards,
Craig
Add another user here with nothing happening when adding the action to a Workflow. My site is American English.
These actions would be very benefitial for me.
Baxtersoup:
It would be benefitial if I could access your environment by RDP, sure. As I mentioned, in my test environments it works OK.
Gschwendt, Thomas Bottrill:
The “nothing happens” symptoms are familiar when adding new actions in SPD. I wrote about it last year (http://edinkapic.blogspot.com/2007/07/common-pitfalls-in-sharepoint-designer.html). Check if a IISRESET or clearing the SPD cache works for you.
I’ll keep investigating the issue and I hope that it will be remedied soon.
I’ve checked those things and they all look fine. In the SPD cache, there’s a file called ProxyAssembly.xml which contains the following data:
<ProxyAssemblyCache>
<Assembly N=”EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=968b39d77135aa09″ Path=”C:Documents and SettingstbottrillLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftWebsiteCachembilontestEdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow.Proxy.dll” />
<Assembly N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0298457208daed83″ Path=”C:Documents and SettingstbottrillLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftWebsiteCachembilontestDP.Sharepoint.Workflow.Proxy.dll”>
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.ResetListItemPermissionInheritance” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.AddListItemPermissionAssigment” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.DeleteListItemPermissionAssigment” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.SetInfoPathFormValueInnerText” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.LookupUserInfo” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.GetInfoPathFormValueInnerXml” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.CollectDataExtentedActivity” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.GetInfoPathFormValueInnerText” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.SetInfoPathFormValueInnerXml” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.StartAnotherWorkflow” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.InfoPathBaseActivity” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.SendMailWListItemAttachments” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.SendMailWHttpFileAttachment” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.SendMailWHttpFileAttachment2″ />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.CopyListItemExtended” />
<Y N=”DP.Sharepoint.Workflow.SendEmailExtended” />
</Assembly>
</ProxyAssemblyCache>
I tried to install and it seemed to work fine but I don’t see it in my Web Application Features. what am I doing wrong?
Hello everyone,
I’ve throughfully checked to solution and I isolated the culprit.
You have to change the web.config entry to this one (the offending entry is shown in bold):
<authorizedType Assembly=”EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=968b39d77135aa09″ Namespace=”EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow” TypeName=”*” Authorized=”True” />
I’m doing a rewrite of the solution that will correct this error and add other improvements as well. I’ll publish it as soon as it’s ready.
Thank you for your patience and your feedback!
Cheers – that’s worked!
Hi
thanks for your product, where can I find newest version ? I followed the link above but it seems there’s no newest version ( from 28.8. )
thanks in advance
The download link is the same, I updated the files with the new versions.
I added the description file to the download pages in order to avoid any misleading clues 🙂
Thanks for your answer Edin
I instaaled your solution without problem but when I choose an action it doesn’t add into the workflow action list.
Therefore I asked you if it updated version.
i cannot find Description file on the download page
Thanks in advance
you’re kind
Here it is:
http://cid-27d6a3274bdd6131.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/User%20Profile%20Workflow%20Activities/EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.wsp
You can see the comment and the description line just below the file icon.
Thanks for your answer Edin
I have installed the package as you’ve described but whne I’m trying to choose the action in SharePoint Designer it didn’t add the action to the workflow actions list. I can see list of actions.
maybe I’m doing something wrong :
i’ve installed it:
# stsadm -o addsolution -filename EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.wsp
# stsadm -o deploysolution -name EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.wsp -allowgacdeployment –immediate -allcontenturls
There were no errors during the installation
Thanks for your advice
BR
Peter
Aha , I’m using WSS 3.0 , and probably this is the reason why it doens’t work correctly
Thanks
BR
PEter
I also get the same issues as above….it deploys fine, the options appear in designer, but selecting them does nothing.
I have MOSS 2007, so i’m getting the same issue as Peter??
MGG
Have also checked deployemnt in central admin.
Name edinkapic.sharepoint.workflowactions.wsp
Type: Core Solution
Contains Web Application Resource: Yes
Contains Global Assembly: Yes
Contains Code Access Security Policy: No
Deployment Server Type: Front-end Web server
Deployment Status: Deployed
Deployed To: http://%server%:1219/; http://%server%:41915/; http://%server%:12281/; http://%server%:16342/; http://%server%/
Last Operation Result: The solution was successfully deployed.
Last Operation Details: %server% : http://%server%:1219/ : The solution was successfully deployed.
%server% : http://%server%:12281/ : The solution was successfully deployed.
%server% : http://%server%:16342/ : The solution was successfully deployed.
%server% : http://%server%:41915/ : The solution was successfully deployed.
%server% : http://%server%/ : The solution was successfully deployed.
Last Operation Time: 9/5/2008 3:31 PM
MGG
Fixed…. :*) I wasn’t activating the feature in the Web application features for the deployed solution…..
Great work
Cheers
MGG
Dear Edin
thnank you for your product.
Is it possible to adapt it also for WSS 3.0 ?
I know that MSSO uses user profile and wss not.
I’ve found that this feature is missing by many users ( from msdn forums )
Thank in advance for your anser ?
BR
Peter
Hi Edin,
First of all, thanks a lot for your very useful activities.
I have installed them successfully, but I get weird results in my workflow. I thought you might give me a tip.
Sample Workflow:
I have a workflow on a list called “Requests”. The workflow consists of these two activities:
– Get the manager of Requests: Created By (Output: Variable: Manager) [Manager is of type STRING]
– Collect Approval from Manager
Problem:
When this workflow starts, it creates the custom task called “Approval”, but the task remains unassigned.
Further Notes:
1. I define the manager for each user in the Active Directory.
2. I opened the user profile on MySite and checked that the Manager field is displayed correctly.
3. For further analysis, I added an action before the “Collect Data From User”, where I logged a message to the History List with the content of the Manager variable.
I found out that the written log contains questions marks (?????) instead of the user’s manager.
Do you have an idea what I might be doing wrong?
Thanks in advance for your support,
Samar
MGG: I’m glad it finally worked for you
Peter: I’ve been thinking of a WSS version for the activities, reading the information from the WSS user information list. However, the Manager property is not mapped to it automatically. I think I’ll make the WSS version of the activities that can be back-ported.
Samar: the question marks indicate that an empty string was returned from the activity. Please check that your SharePoint service account can access the user profiles, as outlined on one of the posts in this blog.
Hi Edin,
I have enabled the access to the user profiles – as you suggested. And my workflow worked perfectly 🙂
I appreciate your help.
Have a nice day,
Samar
Hi Edin,
Brilliant work, I’ve been looking for a workflow action that pulled from profile for ages.
As mention above it didn’t appear in my workflow until switched on in Web application features.
Thanks again.
Russ
Hi Edin,
Thank you for the stuff which really could perfectly fit my needs – but I have the problem that the workflow only reports an “Error occured” while executing the step and nothing happens – all other steps work. Please have you got a hint for me what to do? Thanks!
Cheers and greetings from Vienna, Austria
Andreas
DEar Edin
I’d like to ask you one probably trivial think. How can I use this variable later ?
So for example I did:
Get the manager of domainuser ( output:Variable:variable1)
What to do with this vaiable1 field next ?
How can I use this value in this variable ?
Thanks in advance
peter
Andreas:
Can you check the sharepoint log files? The cause of the error will be somewhere in “Workflow Infrastructure” category.
Peter:
You can assign a task (use Assign a Task to a User default activity) using this variable as a parameter “user” for the task.
Hola, es justo lo que necesito pero lamentablemente no funciona cuando el sitio esta creado con idioma Español.
Hola,
Prueba de copiar el fichero EdinKapic.SharePoint.Workflow.ACTIONS que se encuentra en “Archivos de programaArchivos comunesMicrosoft SharedWeb server extensions12Template1033Workflow” a la carpeta “Archivos de programaArchivos comunesMicrosoft SharedWeb server extensions12Template3082Workflow”
perfect! i don’t have any problem in installation and just can’t apply the action in SPD, then i tried to run IISRESET and wait a while it works, i tried to get rid of the domain name, it works, thank you senior!!!
I downloaded v. 0.2.0, and the install seemed to go perfectly on our MOSS 2007 server. We have the same problem: The workflows show up in SPD, but nothing happens when they are selected. I have read all the posts thus far, checked our web.config files, cleared my SPD cache, but the problem remains. Any further suggestions?
hi Edin,
I have a problem. I have a message (Syntax error in argument: allowgacdeployment) when i execute :
* stsadm -o deploysolution -name EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.wsp -allowgacdeployment –immediate -allcontenturls
The same with this line to my SharePoint web.config, under the System.Workflow.ComponentModel.WorkflowCompiler / authorizedTypes tag…
And, i don’t see new feature in central administration.
If you have an idea 🙂 … thanks you
sorry, it’s ok. install and deploy is ok. I’m novice….sorry
Ledlincoln: Please ensure that you’ve downloaded the latest package. If not, you can send me your web.config section where the workflow actions are defined and I’ll cross-check them with my reference install. Please send it to ekapic NOSPAM at gmail dot com, without NOSPAM in the name, of course 🙂
Stephane: Ne vous inquietez pas, these things happen. Happy SharePoint experience!!
Ledlincoln –
I have seen this problem happen before: the activities/actions are visible, but when they are selected, nothing happens.
Here’s a “possible” problem:
You might not have activated the features in the correct Web Application.
Solution:
Go back to Central Admin Site –> Application Management –> Web Application Features. Then make sure the Web Application listed on this page is the one that you need these features to be activated on. If that’s not the case, change the Web Application designation here. Then activate the “User Profile SharePoint Designer Activities 0.2.0” Feature.
All should be well now the next time you try to use any of these activities in your SPD Workflow.
Good Luck!
-Asif
I’ve followed all the suggestions and I still get ????? when I look at the variable. Please Help.
–Frustrated
Edin, I did get the SPDActivities loaded on to a WSS 3.0 instance. The issue I am encountering is that the MOSS Workflows show up on the Workflow page for document libraries. In addition, a workflow that is assigning a task via a Task List in SharePoint is also generating the MOSS Edit This Task email. Is there a config setting that will resolve these issues?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Cannot install,
Error Object reference not set to an instance of the object
stsadm -o addsolution -filename EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.wsp
Have edited web.config, but where is the actions file?
Casey
Must have beena permissions error, all working now thanks,
casey
Sweet, this is the only source I could find for this custom activity. Nice work, Edin!
Scott Morrison
Your tool is great. I believe it would solve my needs. I have successfully installed but how do I assign a task to a manager or send an email to the user’s manager. If you could explain these steps that will be great.
Please excuse my ignorance.
Thanks,
Binoj.
Binoj,
Once you have the manager ID in a variable, you can use this variable in standard “Assign task” or “Send Email” activities.
I found it. I wasn’t browsing through all the options to see how the value from the variable could be retrieved.
Thanks,
Binoj.
I am not a developer. So my question may sound little dumb. But I must ask. How much work is involved if I were to look up few other user properties. For example we have a custom field called burueau. If I had to go in and extend your code to look up this field, where should I start in your code?
It should be fairly easy, please note that my activities for getting a Department and getting a Manager are identical, except for the property that is being retrieved.
I just got this working and I wanted to say thank you. This is a really great tool.
Awesome tool. Having some issues trying to get the manager and manager email out of the the designer. I saw your post “Once you have the manager ID in a variable, you can use this variable in standard “Assign task” or “Send Email” activities”…can you show an example of how to do that?
Thanks.
I am using your amazing tool with the absence manager from MSFT. Can you please let me know how I should set permissions for the approvers of my list – the current set up is that my permissions are per group (ie tech group has 5 members including 1 manager, acct group has 5 members including 1 manager). Every person has a manager noted in their profile who is the person I want to give access to but cant due to the fact that they are in the same group. If I put all managers in the same group, then I will have to set up several content types, to send to different managers and it will get very confusing. Thanks in advance.
@Alex:
If I understand it well, only the manager of the user who fills the absence request can approve, right?
In this case you can break the list item permissions after the new request is created, and assign the author with FullControl permissions and the manager with Approve permissions.
Edin, thanks for a quick reply!
How can I break permissions after the request has been put in? Do you mean do this using the workflow? Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Also, I DON’T want to give the author any control other than adding or editing. If I give full control, won’t they have option to approve it themselves? Thats my issue.
Also, the way I have set up is that the groups the approver is associated with are readonly. Do I need to create a separate group with approve permissions for this to work or will the system automagically give the manager approval permissions on each individual item?
There are other custom workflow activities (available at http://spdactivities.codeplex.com/) that let you assign custom permissions to the approved item. You can collect the CreatedBy user (the author), get its manager with my User Profile Activities and assign custom permission to both the user and the manager. Configure that workflow to be launched on item creation.
Thanks for the advice Edin! I will look into and hopefully figure it out. Newbie to SharePoint. Thanks again Edin!
Hey Edin! Question: for some reason, the workflow does not send out an email if the email is not the first action in the step. I tried to make two steps, one to get email from ad, the second to send email. Still no success. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hi!
can I get the user City using this extention?
Hey Edin,
Awesome solution. Question tho, I deployed the solution and in solution management, it has a status of “deploying”, any idea why it didnt deploy properly?
thanks for making your work public. I do have one question and it is going to be a little remedial as this is my first foray into SPD. I have configured my work flow for retrieving the manager and then e-mailing him but the e-mail is not going out. I suspect that the variable might be empty. How can I find the contents of the variable?
@Anonymous: You can use the “Log to workflow history list” activity to trace the value of the variable.
@Sean SharePoint: it could be related to an issue with SharePoint Timer Service. Try restarting that service from the control panel / Services.
@Juan Carlos Ruiz: yes, but you’d have to extend my code and get the property yourself. It’s not a difficult thing to do but pay attention to the .actions file.
Thank you all for the quick response. Futher testing reveals that the e-mail will not go out if it is after the “get the manager” action. I put a history log action after “get the manager” to output the %variable%. The history only says “An error has occured in Setup.” I am using this with the Absense template from MS and (i am sure you know) setup is a preconfigured workflow. I tested and the other action are completed correctly. Any ideas where I am going wrong or logs that I can look through? thanks for the help…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hola, Edin tu codigo ya funciona en WSS 3.0? infortunadamente no tengo MOSS y el proyecto de lookup de codeplex tampoco funciona para la ciudad. He revisado ambos codigos y en el tuyo es bastante sencillo mientras que en el de codeplex aun no logro encontrar una forma facil de arreglarlo.
Hi Edin,
I’ve just download and install your tools.
But when I open SPD and choose find manager on action nothing show on right dialog box.
Is there something missing?
thanks
Hi Edin, could be possible to add other elements from AD – maybe some common action – possible to set name of element and name of variable? I have in AD a lot of useful information for workflows and imported to SSP user profiles, but I cannot get it in workflow.
Thanks, Barb
Edin,
I am trying to add this solution and get the error “Failed to extract the cab file in the solution”. Any ideas? This is MOSS 2007 with SP2 installed.
Hi-I have this installed and working. When I do a lookup in active directory and the manager field is blank, it stops the workflow and the status becomes “Error occured”. I would like it to just return an empty field so that I can continue the workflow if the manager field is blank.
Coleen,
I don’t think that is something this tool can do. You will have to add a condition that if the manager is empty or if the manager is not empty do the next action in the workflow.
I am not an expert. Just my two cents.
Thanks
Great Post..
It really worked for me to get the manager for the user who created an item and assigned an task. It worked!!
Thanks a lot.
Mohammed Hussain
Any Chance this works for WSS now?
Hi Edin.
Great work. these kinds of tools really make the SharePoint community.
I’ve installed, deployed and started to build a workflow with your solution and while I’m certain everything is working, I don’t get any output when I select one of the new Actions.
Should I see something like in your screenshots or do I need to do something else?
If I create a variable I cannot populate it with the result of “Find Manager of the User” as there is no result displayed.
Thanks in advance.
N03L.
Randy: still no WSS version, sorry. 🙁 There’s a similar tool available here: http://spdactivities.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Lookup%20user%20info&referringTitle=Home&ProjectName=spdactivities
N03L: have you checked that the Manager field is populated with the data? Does the current user have permissions to see the profiles?
Thanks for the response Edin. Yeah I’m running SPD using my account which is the Site Collection administrator and the Manager property is populated for the majority of our AD accounts. If I view the profiles is MOSS I can see the manager pulled in from AD.
What should I be seeing when I use the new options SPD?
I could do a screen dump if it would help.
Thanks very much Edin.
Your solution installed perfectly following your instructions. It also pulled the manager’s name of the user which is exactly what I needed.
Will start following this blog!
Nav
When I click on the links I get a message “We can’t show you the page..Our server is having a problem”. Is anyone seeing this message?
I have a question regarding permissions to see the profiles..
I will be creating the workflow for this list where i am the site collection administrator but the user enetring a new item to this list where the workflow is attached might just be a contributor.So does that mean the manager’s info will not be populated.
I’ve deployed your solution without error, however it is not showing up in the Web Application Features. Any idea how to fix this?
I would like to get the FULL NAME of a user. I’m only getting the display name.
I have installed both of the custom workflow activites you have pubished both on this site and codeplex.
I’m also getting an error when trying to get the manager name. I checked the access on the SSP as you suggested in an earler comment but that did not solve my problem.
Is there documentation for either of these marvelous solutions?
PS – TO ALEX: I am doing the exact same thing as you are! I feel better…
ok I got it… ‘link title’ 🙂
But I STILL can’t get the manager name.
My web config looks correct:
What ELSE can I check?
YOU SAVED MY BUTT! works as described… THANKS!
Nice solution; thank you! Not sure it is possible, but I’d like to be able to “Get Display Name” of someone (ideally a workflow variable) other than “User who created current item.”
Would anyone be willing to offer a novice the steps on the entire solution from start to finish? I’d be willing to pay for time. I’ve got the leave form, and I’ve got the solution installed, yet I’m truly a novice and to connect all this via SharePoint Designer is so far just impossible. If anyone would be willing to help out a lost soul, ramyasha20 AT gmail.com
Everything seemed to install correctly, however I am getting an error when I try to Finish the workflow in SPD:
“Errors were found when compiling the workflow. The workflow files were saved but cannot be run.”
“Unexpected error on server associating the workflow”
This seems to be associated with the web.config entry, as the error stops (but the actions don’t add anything to the workflow step) when the System.Workflow.ComponentModel is removed web.config.
Any ideas? Thanks!
Nevermind – it turns out that somehow I had the authorized type in web.config version set to 1.0.0.0 instead of 0.2.0.0. Fixed now.
Is there any documentation on how to use this? I have it installed and have selected “Find Manager of User” as my first action, but “nothing” happens. What should be happening?
There’s no documentation, but it should be fairly straightforward. Have you checked that the user profiles are completed correctly and that your app pool account has read access to the user profiles?
Hi – We are now looking at upgrading our MOSS 2007 environment to SP 2010. Are there any considerations around the User Profile Workflow solution when upgrading? We will be migrating to SP 2010 Enterprise and SPD 2010.
Thanks!
Download link no longer works. Do you still have this available for download please?
This item might not exist or is no longer available
I would love to download this wsp but it seems to no longer be available.
Duncan, John:
The link was broken but I recovered the WSP file and I have fixed the link.
SP Admin:
I will update the activities for SP2010 some time soon.
Thanks for putting this back up. I have installed it & activated it, and finally got it working after making sure I had imported all the user profiles!
Great job and thanks very much.
Edin,
I have followed all the suggestions above, but have a production server where I get the workflow actions available in designer, but selecting the get display name option just returns me back to the workflow with no action created. It works just fine on the same workflow on a dev server. Both servers are the same versions:
OS is Windows 2003 R2, Standard x64 Edition, SP2
Moss is Moss 2007 x64, Enterprise– SP2
There is an error in the event log that occurs when I try using the action:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3
Event Category: General
Event ID: 6875
Date: 15/08/2012
Time: 08:15:32
User: N/A
Computer: ADESP03
Description:
Error loading and running event receiver Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowAutostartEventReceiver in Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c. Additional information is below.
: Value does not fall within the expected range.
Is this related and any ideas what might be causing the issues?
I get “the specified files was not found” when I try to stsadm -o addsolution -filename EdinKapic.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.wsp
Please help!
Great solution! Perfect for our needs. Thanks!
Hello – the download link does not appear to be working…Can you please fix as I would like to implement this
Hello Kevin. The link is working properly. What message do you get?
Hi Edin,
I looked into this plug-in, and it looks like it should solve a problem that I am having with SharePoint 2007. We have installed the plug-in, however, it does not appear to be showing up in the Workflow Designer. We will be moving to SharePoint 2013 towards the end of the year, but we need this for an inventory tracking form.
So you can see what I am talking about, the following Jing is attached.
http://screencast.com/t/VSr3t2Orehq
Thanks