Creating a Workflow in Office 365 SharePoint

In this article, we shall see how to create a new workflow in Office 365 SharePoint.

By reading this article we can learn below points,
a) How to create new workflow for the Library
b) How to Apply the Created Workflow to the Libraries
c) How to assign the Task to Resource
d) Email Trigger Sample
Firstly let’s see how to create workflows in office 365 Sharepoint 2013 as shown below,
Before starting about new workflows, its also essential to know about WORKFLOWS and uses of it?

The Main purpose of Workflows in office 365 Sharepoint 2013 are as below
i) It will allow us to automate our business process.
ii) This business process can be as simple as document approval process with a single approver.
For Eg:
A Bank account opening process requires manager to review and approval our documents.If it is accepted by manager then document are ready for opening a account and notify team otherwise it will go to initiator to Update the document.
This process will be continued until the document is approved.
Now, let’s see How to create new workflow in office 365 online
Open your any site collection from your site as shown below,

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Open site collection from your site

Now in our demo, we shall consider Document library to create new workflow.
Click on Documents and then click on Library from above ribbon as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Click on Documents and then click on Library

Now click on Workflow settings as shown below and select Add a workflow option.

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Workflow settings

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

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

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”

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

SharePoint workflow name

Now, select Tasks (news) in Select a task dropdown as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Select Tasks in Select a task dropdown

Select the work flow history, it means new workflow what we are creating will use new history list.
And select the checkboxes as shown in below and click next to proceed.

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Work flow history

Up on clicking on next, we shall see Document approval page as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Document approval page

How to assign the Task to Resource
Assign to resource in the system, as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Assign to resource

Type in custom request in the Request text box as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Custom request in the Request text box

Upon your requirements, select the check boxes as shown below and click on save

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Select the check boxes as per your requirements

After clicking on save, page will navigate to settings page as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

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

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

The document library

Click on workflows option as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Workflows option

Note: Select a document to enable workflows option in above screenshot.
Once you done above task, then Document Register will be opened as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Document Register

You can see our new workflow just created in above screenshot.
If you have more than one workflows, it will listed in the above screenshot.
Now click on the Document approval as shown below, up on click it will navigate to page where Workflow going to be start, if any changes required you can do it and click on start as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Document approval

Once click on start, the work get instantiated and then goes back to document library as shown below

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Document library

You can see the status of the work flow in above screenshot.

Email Trigger Sample

Creating a workflow in Office 365 Sharepoint- How to create a workflow in Sharepoint.

Email Trigger Sample

In our Next article will show How to approve the Workflow with workflow visualization.
Thanks for ready my article, always open for Questions & Suggestions are always welcome.

About the Author:
By nature I have a very curious and inquisitive mind. I like to do well into matters deeply and solve problems by using a lateral thinking approach coupled with strong analytical and evaluative skills, with the ability to articulate risk issues or concerns objectively. Besides these, I have an 5 years of exp. in IT Industry, Specially Software development and my area of interest is in SharePoint13,16,Office 365,MVC,C#,JavaScript,SQL,SSRS,Project Server etc.”
Achievements: C#MVP, Member of the Month (January)
Personal Blog: http://premkt.blogspot.my/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rathrollapremkumar/

 

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