Exercise 3: Upload the Workflow to SharePoint Online
Task 1 – Save the Workflow as a Template
In this task, you use SharePoint Designer to save your completed workflow as a template. This will create a .wsp file, which can be used to move the workflow from a development environment to a test or production environment. You will upload this file to SharePoint Online. The file can also be imported into Visual Studio for developers to investigate how the workflow is assembled.
If you import the .wsp into Visual Studio, you will only be able to import it as a farm solution, which cannot be re-deployed to SharePoint Online.
- Open SharePoint Designer 2010.
Click Open Site.
- In the Open Site dialog, enter the URL of your local SharePoint website, e.g., https://intranet.contoso.com/Lab03.
- SharePoint Designer will open your SharePoint website and provide a dashboard for navigating its contents.
- From the left navigation, select Workflows >> Non-Standard Business Purchase Approval
- Select Save as Template.
The .wsp will be saved to the Site Assets library of your local SharePoint site, e.g., https://intranet.contoso.com/Lab03/SiteAssets.
Open the Site Assets library, select Non-Standard Business Purchase Approval.wsp and click the Preview in Browser icon. You will be prompted to save the file; save the file to the desktop.
Task 2 – Upload the Template to SharePoint Online.
In this task, you will upload the workflow template to SharePoint Online, activate the feature on a site, and associate the workflow with the appropriate content types and list.
- Navigate to your SharePoint Online root site, e.g., https://contoso.sharepoint.com.
- Follow the steps 2-11 from Setup >> Task 3 to upload and activate the Non-Standard Business Purchase Approval.wsp solution in the Solution Gallery
- Browse to your Lab3 site e.g.: https://contoso.sharepoint.com/Lab03
- OpenSite Settings, and chooseManage Site Features.
- Activate the feature Workflow template "Non-Standard Business Purchase Approval" from web template "Lab03".
- Follow the steps from Exercise 2 >> Task 3 to associate the workflow above to associate the workflow with the content types and list.
- The workflow you deployed locally is now deployed to your SharePoint Online site.
- Follow the steps in Exercise 2 >> Task 4 to test the workflow in SharePoint Online.