Developing a new feature? Or is there a better way?
Hello,
at first: I am new to Sharepoint Services, ASP and MOSS 2007.
Now: My task is to implement a function to a MOSS server. It's all about employees, who state their Leave Application (correct term for applying to take some days off? I'm german
) and their approval by substitutes, supervisor and the HR department.
After reading tons of information, I think I'm slowly getting the smaller pieces of the big picture MOSS 2007 and tried to think about a concept:
I think, I have to create a "feature". Inside this I define a new list type. All this is XML yet. After that I develop some event handlers, for the calculations (days needed and days available for this employee) and in Visual Studio 2005 I have to implement a State Machine Workflow, where the approval and correction states will be modelled.
Am I completely wrong or not? Or is there maybe a better way to do it?
Problem is, I need the whole data in SharePoint, such as days available for an employee, substitute relations with other people, a list of all days taken by each employee and so on. And I hardly have a clue, how to implement all that, especially the administration functions (corrections of days and so on).
It's a big problem and I hope, you can help me and give me some hints. Thanks!
[1385 byte] By [
Uwe82] at [2007-12-29]
Yeah, 'Leave' is correct, and fairly universal in English. Americans call them 'Vacations', but in the UK they're 'holidays'.
Okay, my thoughts - you seem to have a workflow in there, data about the Leave Requests, and data that applies to the user (day remaining).
Storing the User's number of days remaining - I'd consider having 2 lists - one for the user's leave request data (username and days remaining), and one for the individual requests (username, date, duration, etc.). Have them 'linked' by the username. You can use a lookup field for that.
Then you might want to consider having a workflow, for your approval process. Pass data from your Leave Request List item to an Infopath form at a user step for the 'approval' stage. At the end of the process, after the leave has been approved, you could then use a code step to find and update the user's record on your 'Leave Request User Data list'. When a new 'Leave Request' item is created on the 'Leave Requests List', kick off the workflow for that item.
You might need a similar process for the administration functions you need. Finally, control access to the list items using standard SharePoint permissions.
OK, that sounds like a possible solution.
With two lists, do you mean to implement a new list type via developing a new feature or just creating a custom list with custom fields in the site actions menu?
Maybe the first would be better, because then I can make just one package with the 2 list types and the workflow later. And I think I have more options, according to field definitions, haven't I? The problem is, I have to take weekends and official holidays into the calculation of the days that are finally subtracted from the users holiday account.
OK, now my concept becomes clearer:
I have a list with the days everyone has this year and last year. The total days are calculated then. Furthermore there are columns for the substitute people, the supervisor and the HR manager.
For the applications I have a document library and created an InfoPath form.
This form takes the data from the first list (total days available and the persons to approve) and you enter your desired dates there. After saving it into the library, you have the columns with the total days applied for, the substitute person, the supervisor and the HR manager. These are the people, who have to approve the application.
Now I think about doing the following: I create a state machine workflow for this library. Every person listed in the application (substitute, supervisor, manager) will get a task to approve it after each other. This should be fairly easy. But now: Is it possible that in the end, I change the data in the list with the days everyone has? So that the days, the applicant is taking off, are subtracted from this list automatically? And how can I access the data from an application in a VS2005 workflow?
I hope it is ;)
hi, i am trying to develop an "Leave Application" using MOSS 2007. Any advise for me to start with? I am very new to this MOSS 2007, and very stuck now in computing the total amount of a column. Appreciate to hear your advice. Many thanks.
Just read, what we've posted above. The most important thing for you, might be to make yourself comfortable with InfoPath forms
, because they are of really good use for this.
You don't need a self-developed workflow in the beginning, most things you can also do with the Workflow Designer of the SharePoint Designer, so gain some experience with
- Lists
- Content Types
- Form Libraries and InfoPath Forms and
- Workflows
Just make some lists and workflows, so that you know, what MOSS really is able to do, then you can make a concept for the "Leave Application". My way was the hard way, because with nearly no knowledge, I tried to develop a fully grown LA and had to redesign it several times in the beginning
hi..
im new to moss 2007.. im struggling with workflow creation.. now my concept becomes clearer.
i created one leave request form using infopath 2007 and i need to create workflow for this.. but i dont know how to do...
i want any simple workflow with step by step process... please help me....
Advance thanks..
mail id: arunthath@gmail.com
The easiest way is Office SharePoint Designer 2007, it provides basic functionality in developing workflows. Did you have a look at this yet?
