Friday, October 17, 2014

Nintex workflows


Nintex workflows:


Nintex is more user-friendly with its graphical drag-and-drop components, and it can be accessed and edited directly from a SharePoint list or library.
Pros:
·         Drag and Drop Browser Based Designer: - Simple and intuitive drag and drop interface directly within the browser, no need to install additional desktop products or acquire additional licenses (Visio for SPD Drag & Drop).
·         Available actions: – additional PS actions (Query PSI, Publish, Update Properties, Change EPT) and over a hundred other actions including list manipulation, external integration, provisioning, logic and flow, tasks etc. All of which are simple to configure and to design
·         Core features: – Things like Lazy Approval (reply to approvals via email), Workflow visualizations, scheduled workflows, constants, and delegation etc., all out of the box.
·         Versioning:- Nintex handles versioning of workflow definitions very well
·         Social:-  supports  (yammer, twitter, facebook) and other LOB integration capabilities
·         Nintex Workflow provides greater efficiency and lower administrative costs.

Cons:
·         Nintex is fully integrated with SharePoint. This means that Nintex is tied to the limitations of windows workflow
·          No debugging in development environment.
·         Larger workflows will take longer when publishing or running for the first time.
·         Exported Nintex workflows whose file size is larger than 500-600KB may start to cause performance issues

Nintex Features:

1.       Design, Deploy, and Manage Everything from within SharePoint
Ø  Start in SharePoint, stay in SharePoint while designing
Ø  Draw and configure at the same time
2.       Easy to Learn, Master, and Use
Ø  Easy drag-and-drop graphical designer
Ø  One ribbon to set everything in an action
Ø  Lazy Approval™ lets you complete a task with an email reply (even via mobile email)
3.       Track and Analyze Everything
Ø  Workflow progress & performance statistics
Ø  Step-by-step profiling
Ø  Complete audit trail - Audit completions & cancellations
4.       Easy Work Reuse
Ø  Can easily import/export workflows and parts of workflows (easily migrate from Dev to QA to Production)
5.       Real-World Workflow Logic
Ø  Loops
Ø  ForEach Iterations
Ø  State Machines
Ø  Switches
Ø  Conditional start rules
Ø  Scheduled workflows

6.       Reach More SharePoint Functions, External Applications (Most are Enterprise only)
Ø  Word & Excel Services
Ø  User Profiles
Ø  Business Connectivity Services
Ø  Exchange Server
Ø  Windows Server Active Directory
Ø  Microsoft CRM
Ø  And Many More
7.       What Nintex Adds to SharePoint Workflow
Ø  Graphical designer
Ø  100+ actions
Ø  Management tools
Ø  20 Pre-built WF Templates
Ø  Makes it truly easy and powerful
Ø  Lets it model “real” work

This tool can be used by anyone from an admin assistant, to an experienced developer (and anyone in-between)

Workflow Interaction with SharePoint:


Ø  Lazy Approval
Ø  Approving, Rejecting and Reviewing Items
Ø  Configuring Chart Viewer Webpart and Report Viewer Webpart
Ø  Delegating Approval tasks
Ø  InfoPath forms
Ø  Manage workflow change approval and workflow history
Ø  Reusable workflows
Ø  Scheduling workflows
Ø  Viewing workflow status

In (Brief) Summary… 


Nintex Can:
v  Implement “real” workflow logic without code
v  Save and reuse pieces of one workflow in another
v  Change a workflow without returning to one or more extra apps
v  Start workflows based on conditions
v  See all workflow activity across multiple sites
v  See which users have the heaviest workloads
v  Put workflow changes though an approval process
v  Approve requests/complete tasks while offline
v  Complete tasks from a mobile device without development
v  Change a workflow without returning to one or more extra apps
v  Keep your workflow from looking like a code flowchart
v  Save and reuse pieces of one workflow in another
v  Schedule workflows
v  Reach out to external data or SharePoint service apps
v  Design workflows quickly and easily
v  Offer workflow to everyone

 

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