1. Introduction

1.1. What is Workflow Boost?

Sharepoint Workflow Boost is a workflow designer for businesses or IT professionals that simplifies

work process by drag-and-drop feature for delegating tasks, deploying projects, email reminders,

document flows and other business or IT-related procedures.

1.2. Who uses Workflow Boost?

Workflow Boost is designed for managers, business or IT professionals who create business

processes within a company. Users need not have programming skills, though it is recommended

that the user have at least a basic grasp of SharePoint Foundation/Server 2010.

2. Getting Started

2.1. Creating a workflow

Go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Manage workflows in SharePoint Workflow Boost

On SharePointBoost Workflow Settings,

Click Create a new list workflow

2.2. Setting up your workflow

Before you create a new workflow, a window will pop up prompting you to choose which list you

want to create a new workflow to.

After choosing a list, another window will prompt you to Set basic information about your

workflow.

Tip: Name your workflow with words that are related to the workflow process. Don’t forget to type

in a simple description so you can use this template in the furute.

Note: The workflow will be automaitcally saved after you click OK.

3. Workflow Activites Explained

To the left of the web editor. there are 5 panel options you can choose to design your workflow

operations: Commonly used, List Operations, Logic and Flow, Operations and User Interaction.

Click on each panel to choose the activity.

To start using the the activity, drag an activity from the workflow activity panel and drop

into the green add sign in the workflow designer.

During the course of each activity explained, Edit Label lets the user rename the activity title,

rename the left label, right label as well as the bottom label of each activity instead of using the

default title.

Tip: Double click the workflow activity box to quick-acess Edit tab.

3.1. Workflow Activities and Its Uses:

Loop – a workflow action that runs continuously until a condition runs false. However,

the designer may also set the workflow to run a certain number of loops.

To set number of loops, set the Maximum Look Count - the loop will stop after the number of

times that is manually indicated in the count box. This setting prevents the infinite loop.

Condition – a logic within the workflow based on a certain condition that evaluates to

true or false. Condition is used to determine when to execute a workflow process, either it true or

false.

Delay – a workflow will be paused for for a defined period of time (in days, hours or

minutes interval) before it resumes.

Input Days, Hours or Minutes

Create Item – create item with columns.

Create item in – used to select a list in which to create an item.

Columns – edit the column value in item where it was created.

Store new item ID in - the created item will be assigned an ID; this new item ID will be stored in a

List Item ID Workflow Variable.

Update Item – changes and updates value of item column.

Update item in - choose a list/library to update.

Update Options - user can choose to update the first item or all items if multiple items meet the

condition.

Delete Item – select a list to delete an item from; delete items based on conditions.

Query Data – get list column value by setting up complex conditions. Query list item

data based on the condition and store the data to variable.

Select items from list - select the list where the item is in.

Column - it is contained in a list

Store in Variable - the data will be stored in this variable.

Condition - column value in the item, which matches this condition, will be stored. You

can make another query in the match condition window to query some items from

another list and then compare the item value among these lists. Through this function,

you can make a query chain.

Log History – log workflow activities to history list. A text box will appear for log

history reference notes.

End Workflow - terminate the current workflow. There’s an option for user-defined

message in log history.

Set Variable – assign value to a variable. At least one workflow variable needs to be

created for an action to be relevant. Either specify a value or use the Current Item Columns value

to set the variable.

Approval – request one or more users to endorse and process an approval. Choice of

approval involves All to approve or First response applies. An optional email may be set to be sent

to approvers of the said activity.

All to approve – a task will be approved if only ALL approvers approve it. If one approver rejects,

the task will be rejected.

First response applies – an approval task will only depend on the first response with disregard for

the approvers that come after

Request Data – request a user to enter some data. To complete the activity, the

user requested data from must provide a value for each data item specified in the action

configuration. The workflow will wait for the task to be finished before continuing the workflow.

Once the task is completed, the data that the user entered is available within the workflow.

Send Email – send customizable notifications to selected users via email.

4. Example: Designing a simple SharePoint workflow for “Leave of Absence”

Here is a sample demonstration on how to design a workflow for employees to use whenever they

would ask for leave of absence. Instead of signing paper forms and passing it to higher authority for

approval, Workflow Boost will do everything for you.

This is a sample scenario about an employee asking for leave from supervisor. By the end of this

tutorial, you would be able to:

• Design a workflow

• Run the leave of absence workflow

• Have supervisor/manager approve or deny the leave form and send a notification email

Summary of “Leave of Absence” workflow scenario:

An employee submits leave request to his/her supervisor. If the supervisor approves the leave, system will

send an email to both the employee and supervisor that the leave has been approved. Consequently, if

the supervisor does not approve the leave, system will also send an email to the both parties informing

the leave has been denied. Summarized workflow view below:

1. Use Query Data activity to search for the immediate supervisor of employee. Search senior

manager in employee list based on position-related, then save to person or group type variable.

2. If the immediate supervisor-search is unsuccessful, workflow will send an email to employee

and reject the “Leave of Absence” form.

To send an email, drag an email activity and fill up the * boxes and fill in the email message.

However, if the immediate supervisor-search is successful, workflow will continue with the

activity (which is sending the supervisor Approval notification).

3. Configure the Approval activity:

4. The supervisor then have 2 choices: Approve or Deny “Leave of Absence” request.

If Denied, leave form will be updated that it is Rejected and an email will be sent. To set up the

Update Item:

As for setting up the Update Item if “Leave of Absence” reuquest is denied:

5. To let the employee know if the “Leave of Absence” was approved or denied, an email will be

sent whichever the result is.

To set up Email activity for denied leave request:

To set up Email activity for approved leave request:

6. After the activity, the workflow stops and ends. Users can see the progress of the “Leave of

Absence” request activity in Leave Form list.