InfoPath Dev

Hello,

I have never worked with workflows, particularly with Infopath.  I am designing a Purchasing form that will utilize the Three-State Workflow included in WSS 3.0.

Pending Approval

Approved

Complete

Can anyone suggest any good reading or examples that will help walk me through this?  I thought at first it looked straight forward, but after review just the WSS settings alone I'm not sure what needs to be done in WSS and what in the form itself!

Here is Microsoft's intro article for workflows:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-help/introduction-to-workflows-HA010100587.aspx

And this is their article on three-state workflows:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/use-a-three-state-workflow-HA101793530.aspx

Hope that gets your started. And a quick search will find lots more out there :)

Good luck!

 Hello,

Actually I have read those articles, and they are helpful.  What I can't find is a good example or tutorial of how to integrate Infopath forms with the workflow.  Like how to trigger the workflow state, etc in a form.  That's what I'm trying to understand.  Until I can "SEE" it, I have a hard time understanding it.

 No luck on samples or examples....gosh I'm really having trouble understanding how to "manage" the workflow in the form.

I create the "3 state workflow" in my document library, and have a choice field called "OrderStatus".  Now how to change this field from the form?

1. The original submitter will submit the form to the library, for approval.  This starts the workflow, as I've set the workflow to automatically start when an item is created.  This should change the "OrderStatus" to "Order Pending Approval" (1st state) right?

2. The task is sent to the "Approver" with a link to the form .xml.  The approver needs to approve the form.  This is where I'm stuck.  What is the mechanism to change "OrderStatus"?  Do I create a separate view in the form with a button to approve? If I do that, then how can i later have a button to change to complete?  Also, if i were to create a rule to change the view automatically for the approver, what happens in a case where the approver is actually initiating the form?

3. Once the form is approved, I want the submitter to be able to update the final status to "Completed".  Again what would be the best way to do this?

I had wanted to use signatures to ensure the approver doesn't change the submitter's form.  But that appears to be a problem when using a workflow, as the form has to change AFTER the submitter has signed it.

Have you looked into using views for your purchasing form? You can establish rules that use true/false statements to open the correct view for the current stage of the workflow. You just need to expose the fields and make them available to the workflow state.