Chapter 11. Working with Workflows
Chapter at a Glance
In this chapter, you will learn how to | |
✓ | Automate business processes using SharePoint. |
✓ | Understand the built-in workflows of SharePoint. |
✓ | Configure a workflow. |
✓ | Work with workflows. |
✓ | Manage workflows. |
✓ | Manage workflow tasks within Outlook 2010. |
✓ | Terminate workflows. |
✓ | Remove workflows from lists and libraries. |
✓ | Associate workflows with content types. |
The workflow technology included in Microsoft SharePoint Foundations 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 can help you automate new and existing business processes. In the past, creating a workflow was typically a task for developers. Most companies have many different types of workflows, and hiring a developer to create workflows can be time-consuming and expensive. SharePoint provides you with a number of built-in workflows that you can configure using the browser.
Traditionally, SharePoint workflows were attached to a list or library, and although SharePoint 2010 has introduced site workflows, attaching workflows to lists or libraries will probably still be the most popular type of SharePoint workflow.
In this chapter, you will learn the fundamentals of the workflow architecture and what workflows are provided by default when you install SharePoint Foundation. You will learn how to create, delete, and modify workflows, and how to track the status of workflows that are currently running using the browser and within Microsoft Outlook 2010. You will also learn how to associate workflows with content types.
Important
Remember to use your SharePoint site location in place of http://wideworldmporters in the following exercises.
Automating Business Processes Using SharePoint
Automating frequently run or time-consuming business processes allows you to make efficient use of your time and the time of people on your team. Also, with the introduction of SharePoint in an organization, the initial productivity boom can be transformed into a management burden as more content is added to the SharePoint installation and the amount of work that users will need to do to maintain the content on a day-to-day basis increases. SharePoint can help you with your old and new business processes.
In previous chapters, you were introduced to how SharePoint can help you complete your work with the use of the following:
RSS Feeds, for finding information from a variety of sources on an ad-hoc basis
Alerts, for regular notifications of new, modified, or deleted content
Content approval, which along with versioning allows you to manage content and who can see content that is classified as draft
However, none of these three methods allows you to automate business processes beyond a one-step process. You could combine these methods, such as using content approval with alerts to provide a lightweight workflow that sends you emails when your team members publish documents as a major version, so you can approve documents according to a specific timescale. However, such a solution can help solve only a small number of your business processes. You might want to route a document or a web page to a number of people before publishing it.
SharePoint provides two other methods to help automate processes:
Workflows. Used to automate and track processes that require human intervention, such as notifying users when their action is required to move the process forward. Such processes could take days, weeks, or months to complete and may need to wait for an event or another process to complete.
Event Receivers. Used to automate processes that require no human intervention, such as moving job applications from one document library to a series of other document libraries for some purpose.
Workflows and event receivers cannot automate a task unless time is taken to define exactly how the task should be automated, nor can they track the status of information stored on paper documents. They also cannot force users to perform a particular task. You must have a clear understanding of how the business process operates. If you do not understand how to complete a business process manually, you will not be able to describe the business process in sufficient detail to automate that process.
Therefore, some planning and startup tasks are needed to automate a process. You do not necessarily want to automate every little process in your organization. You want to automate processes that are predictable and those where the startup cost of creating a workflow and ensuring that your team is happy with the new process will be offset by the productivity improvement that the automated process will provide. You must also understand what SharePoint has to offer.
See Also
Microsoft TechNet website contains articles on SharePoint Server 2010 workflows at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263134.aspx and on content type and workflow planning at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262735.aspx.
Understanding the Built-in Workflows of SharePoint
SharePoint provides a number of built-in workflows that you can configure using the browser. Additional workflows can be created using Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, or Microsoft Visio 2010 in combination with SharePoint Designer 2010. Event receivers can be created only using Visual Studio 2010.
See Also
SharePoint Designer is a free product, and information on downloading it can be found at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-help/. More information on using SharePoint Designer to create workflows can be found in Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Step by Step, by Penelope Coventry (Microsoft Press, 2010).
You can think of a workflow as a series of tasks that produce an outcome. In the same way that you base a new site, list, or library on a template, you can base a new workflow on a workflow template. These templates are implemented as features that can be activated or deactivated at the site or site collection level by using the browser or by using programs. A workflow template is available only when a workflow feature is activated.
In previous versions of SharePoint, you could create workflows only by associating a workflow template with a list, library, or content type. Therefore, most workflows were focused on documents. Not all workflows are like that, however, and to cater to other scenarios, SharePoint 2010 now supports the creation of site workflows by associating a workflow template at the site level.
Site workflows operate within the context of a SharePoint site instead of being attached to a specific list and operating on a specific list item. Site workflows are started manually or programmatically, but not automatically. SharePoint Foundation does not come with any workflow templates that you can associate at the site level; therefore, to create site workflows, you must use either Visual Studio 2010 or SharePoint Designer 2010.
SharePoint Foundation ships with only one generic workflow template, the three-state workflow template that can be used across multiple scenarios. On the other hand, SharePoint Server contains additional workflow templates, such as the following:
Approval. Provides an approval mechanism for documents.
Collect Feedback. Provides a feedback mechanism for documents.
Collect Signatures. Provides a mechanism for collecting digital signatures for completing a document.
Disposition Approval. Provides an expiration and retention mechanism that allows you to decide whether to retain or delete expired documents. This workflow can be started only by using the browser.
Group Approval. Similar to the Approval workflow; however, it is available only in East Asian versions of SharePoint Server.
Translation Management. Provides a mechanism for document translation by creating copies of documents to be translated and also assigns tasks to translators. This workflow is available only when you create the SharePoint Server Translation Management library. More information on the Translation Management library and the workflow can be found at: office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/use-a-translation-management-workflow-HA010154430.aspx.
You can use the Workflows page at the site collection level to see which workflow templates are available and active, the number of SharePoint objects (lists, libraries, content types, and sites) the workflow template is associated with, and the number of workflow instances that are running in those workflows. Unfortunately, this Workflows page does not provide any links that you can use to identify which SharePoint objects the workflow template is associated with or which sites, list items, or documents are progressing through the workflow.
Set Up
Open the top level site of your site collection. This exercise will use the http://wideworldmporters site, but you can use whatever top level site you want. If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to view the workflow page at the site collection level. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
Under Site Administration, click Workflows.
Troubleshooting
If you do not see the Workflows link under Site Administration, you are probably at a child site within the site collection. Under Site Collection Administration, click Go To Top Level Site Settings to navigate to the top of the site collections, and then repeat step 2.
The Workflows page is displayed.
Configuring a Workflow
Each of the built-in workflow templates can be customized in a limited fashion to define the exact process necessary to meet your business needs. An instance of a workflow uses the configured workflow template as a blueprint, which defines the conditions that should be tested to decide which tasks to complete to produce the outcome.
For example, you can configure the three-state workflow template to define an expense approval workflow process. Members of your team create an expense form, and when they upload it into a document library, you want the document to progress through the expense approval workflow process.
The workflow process always has a start and an end. The trigger for entering the process is uploading the document into the document library. An instance of workflow is created when a workflow event is triggered. Each expense form must be approved by Approver #1 (stage 1) and Approver #2 (stage 2), in sequence. Once the expense form has completed both stages, it is approved (stage 3). When the workflow instance reaches the end of the workflow process, it is set to Completed. The workflow process then does no other work until a new workflow instance is created.
To maintain the status of the document as it progresses through the workflow, you must create a Choice column that can store the three states of the workflow and allow you to track the progress of the document through the workflow.
The three-state workflow can be triggered in the following ways:
Manually, using the browser or using SharePoint Server from a Microsoft Office 2010 application. You can restrict who can start workflow instances manually to those users who have the Manage Lists permissions.
Automatically, when you create a list item or document.
Other SharePoint Server workflows can have other trigger events. For example, the Approval workflow template can be configured for any of the following:
To start a workflow instance automatically when a list item or document is changed.
To start a workflow instance automatically when a major version of a document is saved. If you choose this option, a workflow instance will not automatically start when a minor version of a document is saved. Therefore, to use this option, the library must be configured with major and minor versioning enabled. See Chapter 8 for more information on how to configure a library to use major and minor versions.
The three-state workflow uses both a Task and History list as the workflow process executes. The workflow adds task items to a Task list so that users can keep track of all the work that needs to be finished to complete the workflow process for a particular workflow instance. Users can be sent emails when a task item is assigned to them.
The History list keeps track of the workflow instances that are running or that have been completed for a given list item or document. This is a hidden document library and is not shown on the All Site Content web page. You can display this list in the browser by appending /lists/workflow history/ to your site’s Uniform Resource Locator (URL); for example, http://wideworldimporters/lists/workflowhistory/.
Tip
You could export the contents of the Workflow History list to Microsoft Excel and create reports to analyze the workflow process.
In the following exercise, you will add a site column to a document library that gives you a choice for each workflow state. You will then associate a workflow template with the document library.
Set Up
Open a Team SharePoint site where you would like to associate a workflow template with a document library. This exercise will use the http://wideworldmporters site, but you can use whatever SharePoint Team site you want. If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to manage the document library. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
On the Quick Launch, click the document library where you want to associate a workflow template.
On the Library tab, in the Library Tools tab set, click Create Column in the Manage Views group.
In the Column name box, type Workflow States and select the Choice option.
In the Type each choice on a separate line box, enter three choices: Submitted to Approver #1, Submitted to Approver #2, and Approved. Be sure to delete the three predefined generic choices first. Then click OK.
Tip
You can create more than one Choice list column, and a Choice list can have more than three choices. However, the three-state workflow can be configured to use only three values.
Once the new column is created, you can create the new workflow.
On the Library tab, in the Library Tools tab set, in the Settings group, click the arrow to the right of Workflow Settings, and then click Add a Workflow.
The Add a Workflow page is displayed. By default, when using SharePoint Foundation, one workflow appears named Three-State.
Troubleshooting
If the Three-State workflow does not appear, then you may need to activate the Three-State Workflow feature at the site collection level. See Chapter 3, for more information on features.
Select Three-state, if it is not already selected, and then, in the Name section, type a new name for this workflow, such as Approval Workflow.
In the Select a task list, select New Task List.
In the Start Options section, leave the selections at their default settings.
Click Next to display the second workflow settings page.
In the Workflow states section, the new column that you added to the document library automatically appears with the three choices that you entered for the three states of the workflow. If it does not appear, from the Select a Choice field list, click Workflow States, and enter the initial, middle, and final states in the three lists if needed.
In the Specify what you want to happen when a workflow is initiated section, in the Tasks Details area, leave the selections at their default settings and clear the Send e-mail message check box.
Repeat step 11 for the Specify what you want to happen when a workflow changes to its middle state section.
Working with Workflows
Once a workflow template is associated with a list or library and customized to define the process as required to meet your business needs, a list item or document can be sent through the process. Depending on the configuration of your three-state workflow, you can start a workflow instance by either starting the workflow manually or by uploading or creating a new document.
In the following exercise, you manually start a workflow instance for a document and complete the tasks for the workflow process.
Important
If the workflow is configured to allow only users with Manage Lists permissions to start workflows manually, and you do not have the Manage Lists permissions for the document library, you will not be able to complete this exercise.
Set Up
Open the All Documents view of the document library where you associated the workflow template, if it is not already open. Make sure that you have at least one document in the library before you start this exercise.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to start a workflow for a document. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
Move your mouse over the document for which you want to start a workflow, and then select the check box that appears to the left of the document.
On the Documents tab, in the Library Tools tab set, click Workflows in the Workflows group.
The <document library name> Workflows <document name> page is displayed.
Under Start a New Workflow, click Approval Workflow.
The All Documents view is displayed. Two new columns appear: Workflow States and Approval Workflow. For the document you selected in step 1, the Workflow States column has a value of Submitted To Approver #1; the Approval Workflow column has a value of In Progress, which indicates that a workflow instance for this document is running in the Approval Workflow; and in the Modified By column, the user ID of the person who last updated the document or its properties is System Account.
In the Approval Workflow column, click In Progress.
The Workflow Status: Approval Workflow page is displayed. This page is divided into three parts: Workflow Information, Tasks, and Workflow History. In the Tasks section, one task item is listed as being assigned to you, with a status of Not Started. In the Related Content column, there is a link to the document with which the workflow instance is associated. There is also a link to the document in the Workflow Information section. In the Workflow History section, there is one entry with an Event Type of Workflow Initiated.
In the Tasks section, under Title, click Workflow initiated.
The Approval Workflow Tasks – Workflow Initiated dialog appears.
On the View tab, click Edit Item. The dialog displays the task input form.
From the Status list, select Completed, and then, on the Edit tab, click Save in the Commit group.
The task input form closes, and the Workflow Status: Approval Workflow page is displayed again. The Tasks section contains two task items; the first is Completed, and the second is Not Started. The Workflow History section has two entries: Workflow Initiated and Task Completed.
In the Tasks section, click Approval Workflow Tasks.
The All Tasks view of the task list, Approval Workflow Tasks, is displayed where the two workflow tasks are listed.
Click the task item with a title of Review task, and repeat steps 6 and 7.
The All Tasks page refreshes again, and the two task items related to the workflow have a status of Completed.
On the Quick Launch, click the document library with which you are working in this exercise.
The All Documents view is displayed. The Workflow States column has a value of Approved, and the Approval Workflow column has a value of Completed for the document for which you started a workflow instance in step 3.
In the Approval Workflow column, click Completed.
The Workflow Status: Approval Workflow page is displayed. In the Workflow Information section, the workflow instance has a status of Completed. In the Tasks section, the two tasks have a status of Completed, and in the Workflow History section, there are four events: a Workflow Initiated event, two Task Completed events, and a Workflow Completed event.
Managing Workflows
As you use the workflow process, you may find that it does not match your business requirements. Therefore, you will need to modify the workflow as time progresses, perhaps to change the person who does the first stage or second stage of the process.
In the following exercise, you modify a workflow process for a document library, complete both of the tasks for the workflow process, and then terminate the workflow instance.
Set Up
Open the All Documents view of the document library where you associated the workflow template.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to modify the workflow process for the document library. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
On the Library tab, in the Library Tools tab set, click Workflow Settings in the Settings group.
The Workflow Settings page is displayed.
Under Workflow Name, click Approval Workflow.
The Change a Workflow page is displayed.
In the Start Options section, select the Start this workflow when a new item is created check box, and then click Next.
The Customize the Three-state Workflow page is displayed.
In the Specify what you want to happen when a workflow is initiated section, in the Custom message box, type Review Stage 1, and under Task description, in the Include list field list, select Version.
Under Task Assigned To, select Custom, and then, in the Custom box, enter the user name of a person to approve the document, and click the Check Name icon to the right of the Custom box to verify that you have entered a valid user name.
Click OK.
The All Documents view of the library is displayed.
On the Documents tab, in the Library Tools tab set, click Upload Document to display the Upload Document dialog, and then click Browse.
In the Choose File to Upload dialog box, browse to the file that you would like to upload, such as OakTable.docx. Click Open and then click OK.
The CompanyInduction.docx dialog opens with a Workflow Status of Submitted to Approver #1.
Click Save.
The All Documents view of the document library refreshes. The new document that you uploaded is listed on the page with an Approval Workflow status of In Progress.
Move your mouse over the document you uploaded in step 8, click the arrow that appears, and then click Workflows.
The Workflows: <document name> page is displayed. In the Workflows section, there is a running workflow for the Approval Workflow, with a status of In Progress. The Approval Workflow is not listed in the Start a New Workflow section.
Under Running Workflows, click Approval Workflow.
The Workflow Status page is displayed. In the Tasks section, there is a task assigned to the user you specified in step 5.
Click Review Stage 1.
The Approval Workflow Tasks dialog opens. In the Description field, the version number of the document is displayed along with a message box with the text, “A workflow has been initiated on the following list item,” and a link to the document.
Click Close to return to the Workflow Status page.
Managing Workflow Tasks within Outlook 2010
Workflow tasks are assigned to participants by using a Tasks list. You can use Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 as a place to receive workflow-related notifications and complete workflow tasks.
See Also
More information on using Outlook 2010 with SharePoint can be found in Chapter 13.
In the following exercise, you will manage workflow tasks in Outlook 2010.
Set Up
Open the Workflow Status page for the document you used in the previous exercise, if it is not already open.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to manage tasks in the Approval Workflow Tasks list. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
In the Tasks section, click Approval Workflow Tasks.
The All Tasks page is displayed and contains a task named “Review Stage 1: <document name>” with a status of Not Started, which you created in the previous exercise.
On the List tab, in the Lists Tools tab set, click Connect to Outlook in the Connect & Export group.
Click Allow twice to confirm that you want to open Outlook.
Outlook opens.
Click Yes to connect the Task list to Outlook.
In the Tasks navigation pane, under Other Tasks, click the Tasks list that you associated with the workflow.
In the detail pane, the Review Stage 1: <document name> task appears.
Click the task, and, on the Home tab, click Mark Complete.
The text of the task, Review Stage 1: <document name>, is struck through, denoting that the task is completed.
Press F9.
In the detail pane, a second task, Review task <document name>, is added.
Double-click the task.
The Review task <document name> Task form opens. The task contains two links to the document: the task item in the Tasks list and a link to the Tasks list. By using these links, you can open, review, and modify the document’s contents.
From the Status drop-down list, select Completed, and then, on the Task tab, click Save & Close.
The text of the Review task: <document name> task is struck through.
In Outlook, in the Tasks navigation pane, under Other Tasks, click the Tasks list that you associated with the workflow and, on the Folder tab, click Open in Web Browser in the Actions group.
The browser opens, and the Tasks List page is displayed with the two completed tasks.
In the browser, on the Quick Launch, under Documents, click Shared Documents. The Shared Documents library is displayed.
The <workflow name> column for the document on which you started the workflow appears with a status of Completed.
Terminating Workflows
From time to time, you may need to terminate a workflow instance. For example, a person may have left your organization, and you have used a different business process to pay expenses to him or her. In the following exercise, you will start a workflow instance on a document; you will then terminate that workflow instance.
Set Up
Open the All Documents view of the document library where you associated the workflow template.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to create and delete workflow instances on a document. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
Move your mouse over the document where you want to start a workflow, select the arrow that appears to the right of the document, and then click Workflows.
Under Start a New Workflow, click Approval Workflow.
The All Documents page is displayed, with the Approval Workflow column for your document set to In Progress.
In the Approval Workflow column, click In Progress.
In the Workflow Information section, click Terminate this workflow now.
A Message From Webpage dialog box opens, asking if you are sure that you want to terminate this workflow.
The Workflow Status page refreshes. The Workflow Information section has a status of Canceled. There are no task items listed in the Tasks section, and in the Workflow History section, the last event in the list has an event type of Workflow Canceled.
On the Quick Launch, click the document library with which you are working.
The All Document view is displayed, with the Approved Workflow column for your document set to Canceled.
Removing Workflows from Lists and Libraries
When an automated business process is no longer needed, you should remove the workflow from the list or library. This will prevent confusion for users who use that list or library. In the following exercise, remove a workflow from a document library.
Set Up
Open the All Documents view of the document library where you associated the workflow template.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to remove a workflow from the document library. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
On the Quick Launch, click the document library or list where you associated a workflow template.
On the Library tab, in the Library Tools tab set, in the Settings group, click Workflow Settings.
The Workflow Settings page is displayed.
The Remove Workflows page is displayed.
Select Remove.
Note
When there are a number of instances in progress for the workflow, select No New Instances, and then return to this task in a day or two, allowing the people in your team to complete the outstanding tasks for these workflow instances.
The Workflow Settings page is displayed, showing that the workflow is no longer associated with the list or library.
Associating Workflows with Content Types
Content types are designed to help users define a reusable collection of settings that can include columns, workflows, and other attributes. They can be associated with their own document template and with their own workflow and retention policies. Content types and site columns can be defined at the site or site collection level. When created at the site collection level, they can be used by lists and libraries or by any site within the site collection hierarchy. When created at the site level, they can be used only by lists and libraries within that site and any child sites.
If you need to use the same workflow process with a particular type of list or library or a specific document type, then you should consider associating a workflow template with a content type and customizing it to define the process necessary to meet your business needs. This will reduce the amount of rework you would otherwise need to complete to achieve this consistency.
You may want the same approval process on every document library in a site or site collection, so users can send a document through the approval process manually when needed. To create this solution, you would amend the document content type at the top of the site collection and select the Update All Content Types That Inherit From This Type With These Workflow Settings option.
Tip
When a site collection contains many sites, it may take some time for the content type configuration to be applied to all child sites. If you are creating a new site hierarchy, then create all your content types and site columns first before creating any child sites.
Another example could be the need to have two types of announcements—team announcements that must be approved and announcements that need no approval. To meet this business need, you could create a new announcement content type based on the original content type, so that you get all the same functionality of the built-in announcement list and a workflow. Site owners can then choose to associate the new content type with their announcement list, so they are able to create the two types of announcements.
Note
The three-state workflow needs a column to store the three states. All columns in a content type must be a site column; therefore, if you associate the three-state workflow with a content type, you must add a Choice site column to store the three states.
In the following exercise, you will create a new content type, add a site column to the content type, associate a workflow template with the content type, and configure its settings.
Set Up
Open the SharePoint Team site that you used in the previous exercise, if it is not already open.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to create a content type. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
Click Site Actions, and then click Site Settings. The Site Settings page is displayed.
Under Galleries, click Site content types, and then, on the Site Content Types page, click Create. The New Site Content Type page is displayed.
In the Name box, type Team Announcements, and in the Description box, type Use this content type to create new lists where the team can create team announcements.
In the Select parent content type from list, select List Content Types, and in the Parent Content Type, select Announcement, if it is not already selected.
In the Group section, select New group and type WideWorldImporters.
Click OK. The Team Announcements page is displayed.
In the Columns section, click Add from existing site columns.
The Add Columns to Content Type page is displayed.
In the Available columns list, scroll down and select Status. Then click Add.
The Status column appears in the Columns To Add list.
Click OK.
The Team Announcements page is displayed. Status is listed in the Columns section with the Source column blank. This indicates that the Status column was added to this content type and not inherited from a parent content type.
In the Settings section, click Workflow settings.
On the Workflow Settings page, click Add a workflow.
The Add a Workflow page is displayed.
In the Workflow section, select Three-state, if not already selected. Then, in the Name section, type a new name for this workflow, such as Announcement Approval. Leave the other sections at their default settings and then click Next.
The Customize the Three-state Workflow page is displayed.
In the Workflow states section, the site column that you added to the content type automatically appears with the three choices, Not Started, Draft and Reviewed, for the three states of the workflow. If this column does not appear, from the Select a Choice field list, click Status and enter the initial, middle, and final states in the three lists as needed.
Leave the other sections at their default settings, and then click OK.
The Team Announcements page is displayed.
Key Points
Workflows can help to automate and track long-running, repetitive processes that require human interaction, after someone has defined exactly what form that automation will take.
Plan your workflows and involve the people who will use the workflow.
A workflow template is available only when a workflow feature is activated.
Workflow templates can be associated with sites, lists, libraries, or content types.
Each of the built-in workflow templates can be customized in a limited fashion to define the exact process necessary to meet your business needs.
To maintain the status of a document through a three-state workflow process, you must create a Choice column that stores the three states of the workflow
The workflow name is used as the name of a column; therefore, do not give the workflow the same name as an existing column.
You cannot start two instances of the same workflow on a list item or document.
A workflow’s progress is recorded in a Workflow History list, and workflow tasks are assigned to participants by using a Tasks list.
You can receive an email notification when a workflow task is created.
Outlook 2010 serves as a place to receive workflow-related notifications and complete workflow tasks.
Workflow templates can be associated with content types. This reduces the amount of rework you would otherwise need to complete to provide consistent workflows across multiple lists, libraries, and sites.