In Chapter 3 of SharePoint Designer workflow, you will learn how to initiate workflows by sending email to a SharePoint list, and also how you can use a receiving list to create new items in a custom list.
In Chapter 4, you will learn how to send email from a workflow, using the built-in email action. Finally, in Chapter 5, you will learn how to build a custom email subject in a SharePoint Designer workflow using the Build Dynamic String action.
Here’s a short excerpt from the description for the tasks for Chapter 3:
Ever wanted to have a SharePoint Designer workflow go through an entire SharePoint list? In the SharePoint Designer workflow issue of Understanding SharePoint Journal, you will learn just that.
In Chapter 6, you will learn, step-by-step, how to create an iterating workflow in SharePoint Designer, using only actions included in SharePoint Designer.
Here is an excerpt of the introduction to Chapter 3:
Receiving Email Task Overview
The task here is to receive an incoming email to a SharePoint list and, based on that email, create a new order item in a separate list. SharePoint is capable of receiving emails to lists, which is a very useful trick to allow users to publish content to SharePoint from their email clients.
Also, this opens the option for SharePoint to connect to external and anonymous users, which can be a good thing, especially in our scenario where we preferably want people to send us orders as often and with as little effort as possible.
One problem with receiving emails in SharePoint is that only a few list templates support incoming email at all. Unfortunately, the custom list template is not one of those, which is a real shame since the custom list is a very versatile list template. None of the other list templates are well suited for creating a custom order-handling system, so we want to use a custom list for the order processing.
Tip
Custom lists are quite capable of receiving incoming emails, but to make that happen, you need to develop an email receiver, which is done in .NET code. In my book Building the SharePoint User Experience, I explain all the details of how email handling in SharePoint lists work, as well as show you how to create your own email receivers.
Another problem is that each list supports only a single email alias. This may be sufficient in many cases, but if you are creating a more complex information routing system, such as one with several entry points for incoming information, this may be a limiting factor. In our scenario, for example, we might want to have corporate orders received on one email address, while all other orders are received on another address.
We need to overcome these two problems, and we will do so by having a separate list for receiving the email than for handling the order workflow. Therefore, we should create one order receiving list, which is email enabled, and another custom list, not email enabled, where we develop our workflow and handle the order through the various steps of our business process.
You can read the entire SharePoint Designer workflow issue, including almost three hours of video tutorials and demonstrations for just $14.95.
