Using Variables in Workflows

With a hung parliament, and no immediate clarity on the future of the NBN, I feel like a change of pace. So here is a quick look at building workflows in SharePoint Designer 2010.

Tutorial: Using Variables in Workflows.

This tutorial is for those who want to build an argument by looking up a field in a created variable that is being used in the workflow.

In this example, the workflow has asked a senior manager to approve a submission, and the outcome of that approval is recorded in the workflow as the variable: "Gate 2 Decision".

Always give your variables meaningful names! It becomes a logistical nightmare in more complicated workflows dealing with fields called : variable: create 1 etc.

To build this condition start by choosing the common condition: "If any value equals value".

You will see the pre-formated argument as follows:

Then, once you have clicked on the fx symbol, the "Define Workflow Lookup" will pop-up.
New in SharePoint Designer 2010: The default data source is always "Current Item".


But for this example, we want to call the variable that is stored in the InBuilt Workflow Tasks in SharePoint. So, use the drop-down menu to change the Data Source.

Then, choose the field in the variable that was used to collect the Manager's decision. Again, when creating these items, make sure that the names are meaningful. In this case, I want the field from the variable Gate 2 Decision, named "2_Gate 2 Decision" which records the outcome of the Manager's review.


Having done that, you are asked to:

• Choose a field from the selected list and a matching value that identifies the specific item you want from the data source.

Choose ID for the generic field, and then next you need to get more specific:
For this example, I want to set the matching value as Variable: Gate 2 Decision, from the Workflow Variables and Parameters category.
The Variable: Gate 2 Decision result will be an integer.
The Define Workflow Lookup Dialog stays open, and the Lookup for Integer Dialog pops up:

Return field as: Item Id to enable the lookup to work.

The LookUp for Integer is finished, and the value appears as:

Then when you click OK:

Finally, finding the matching value is easy, as a drop-up list with all the possible options will appear.

For this workflow, the variable options (as defined as a choice menu when the task assigned to the Manager was designed) were:

Approved - Proceed to Gate 2
Approved - Proceed to Fast Gate
Not Approved
Resubmit - More Information Required


It seems complicated, but after doing this a few times it gets easy!

Have fun with that and let me know if this was helpful.

Social Enterprise and NBN

For ten years we have been waiting for the promise of telecommuting as a workplace alternative. Apart from a few trailblazers, Australian workplaces have woefully failed to deliver which begs the question....why?

I launched P3 Connect Pty Ltd as a social enterprise, aiming to take advantage of virtualisation to provide Australian women and other carers with the option of working from home. With BPOS, Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite, P3 Connect aims to encourage workers to stay at home, seeking to optimise the technology - Microsoft Office Live Meetings, SharePoint Online Services, Microsoft Office Communications Online - to realise the vision of telecommuting.

So why the reluctance of Australian enterprise to migrate desktop workers to a distributed, online environment? Information, ideas and money can flow quickly within Australia and with the rest of the world. Used strategically, Australian business can create new industries for competitive advantage.

Key to the solution is enabling cheap and accessible bandwidth nationwide. Verizon, the US security giant which administers one of the root servers of the internet, claims that : "To deal with the flow of information over the next 10 years, the capacity of the internet will need to increase by a factor of a thousand" (http://www.cnet.com/ July 9, 2010).

The debate over the NBN is now being used as a political football, but when the excitment of the election dies down, I would like to know what is going to be done about Australia ranking 50th for global broadband speeds and clocking an average internet connection of 2.6 Mbps (according to a new report from global content provider, Akami, 29th July 2010).

Ben Eggleton and David Moss write passionately as advocates for the NBN in today's Sydney Morning Herald , addressing the problem of cost:

"By rolling out broadband
infrastructure that boosts the economy by 1 per cent or more, this means the
investment will, almost immediately, more than pay for
itself."

The cost of the NBN has taken front and center stage. Australia is a big country and the plan to have every single Australian connected to high-speed broadband is far more ambitious and far more costly than, for example, a South Korean or New Zealand solution. It seems fairly obvious that the cost will scale to the size of the country and the isolation of the interior.

Australia Online - just a lot of vapour?

I was priviliged to hear two physicists speak this week on IT matters that both directly impact my business proposition, which is providing Microsoft services in the cloud.

It goes without saying that I am following the planned national roll-out of broadband access with interest. Yes, self interest, but beyond wanting to be the first in line for 1GBPS speeds...

Someone commented today that Australians haven't seen a plan as ambitious as the national fibre network roll-out since the Snowy Mountains scheme.

And yet the opposition would scuttle all plans to build a national network that would provide 93% of our broadband needs nationally..opting for a national broadband strategy that would involve backhaul fibre optic - to be funded privately by the telcos - with the opposition propping up the existing copper network via "optimisation" and extending coverage via wireless or satellite. Yes, this represents a massive dollar savings, but a massive shortfall in vision as well.

Back to the talks. One speaker, a PhD in physics and microsoft evangelist, referred to the strange Australian idiosyncracy of digging big holes in the ground at large expense to export a limited resourse, as opposed to funding the unlimited opportunity presented by IT services as well, plainly, not rocket science to figure out which would be better for the national interest. Nick Mayhew makes a compelling case.

Cut to Mike Quigley's presentation today, where the CEO of NBN Co outlined his vision to dig up the earth (quite counter cultural!) and lay a cable that would provide 30-50 years of ongoing benefits in a national initiative that, by defintition, is unprofitable in budget terms in a country as large as Australia with such a small population in the rural and remote areas.

And although we were told that Mike would not speak on either political party, there was one slide in particular which Mike seemed to linger on, showing the folly of relying on wireless delivery, specifically demonstrating how Australian consumers currently pay much more for 3G, which delivers a fraction of the data.

And then there was the lengthy disclaimer on how globally, there is a move away from HFC cable broadband networks. Mike said there was no country in the world that had a strategy for HFC. Wait a minute, aren't Telstra and optus providing this country with broadband services on hybrid fibre coaxial cable? And isn't that the lynchpin of the opposition's plan?

I guess that would be an open criticism of the shadow communication minister's plan then.

It was hardly an impartial presentation from Mike, but it was convinicing.

In the end, the $6 Billion wasted by the opposition to provide a sub-standard service, will cost Australia a lot more in opportunities lost, then the $40+ Billion required to lay cable nationally for the 93%, move to wireless for the 4% and satellite for the 3%.

Let's hope that regardless of the election outcome in 9 days time, the NBN is able to realign the reigning government with the vision, and sell this to the people of Australia.