Sharepoint 2010 : Nintex 2010 custom Inline function


Nintex -as new technology to me- is a nice, easy, and simple workflow engine, that is very useful and fast to learn. and as any other technology there is always a room for expandability.

For me the case was I needed a piece of code to be run often and not only in custom forms, the best approach I have found is to use a custom inline function.



Nintex has several built-in inline functions, and to add extra custom one , lets follow these steps:

  1. Develop a static class with static function to use as inline function, usually it will be a class in the Sharepoint project which after deploying it will be registered in the GAC, otherwise you will have to register it in the GAC (it has been discussed in previous post) . The resulted code will be something like this:
    namespace Project.TestNameSpace
    {
        public static class TestInlineFunction
        {
            public static string Custom_Test_Function(string input)
            {
                //Do something
                return "tested";
            }
        }
    }
  2. Now our dll in the GAC we will need to register the function in Nintex, and to do so open cmd.exe and use the admin tool Nintex provided for multi-functionalitis, it is the "WFAdmin.exe" located in [C:\Program Files\Nintex\Nintex Workflow 2010]. Use the followng command to register that inline functoin:
    NWAdmin.exe -o addinlinefunction -functionalias "function Name" -assembly "Assembly Name, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" -namespace "Class Namespace" -typename "Class Name" -method "Function Name" -usage "Function Name()" -description "Function Description"
    our sample will be some thing like this:
    NWAdmin.exe -o addinlinefunction -functionalias "Custom_Test_Function" -assembly "Project, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=34396d4d34e57b8c" -namespace "Project.TestNameSpace" -typename "TestInlineFunction" -method "Custom_Test_Function" -usage "Custom_Test_Function(string input)" -description "Testing"
  3. After registering the inline function it will be available in Nintex inline functions list as below: Note that the function's parameter declaration it was provided, to use this inline function properly.
  4. And finally, in case you need to remove that inline function, the following command will do the work as charm:
    NWAdmin.exe -o removeinlinefunction -functionalias "Custom_Test_Function"



Hope this blog will help a little in your development life :) have a lovely day :)

Update
a problem had occurred with me when created a function the "object" type parameter, seems the Nintex API does not handle this type.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project Server 2010 : Server Event Handlers (Part 1)

Image
Server Event handlers are the expansion points for Project Server 2010, to register a custom event handlers with project server's events, Project Server raises pre-events and post-events when Project Server Interface (PSI) methods change business objects such as Project, Task, Resource, or Timesheet. When you associate an event handler with an event, Project Server runs the event handler when that particular event occurs. To start with event handlers development, you need to create new Class Library Project, from File > New > Project and select Class Library template (Figure 1) Figure 1 Delete the default class file class1.cs and right click on the project Add > New Item select class and rename it to ProjectEventHandler.cs , that will create new class file with a class called ProjectEventHandler . Add public access modifier to make this class accessible. Add these Project Server 2010 reference, right click on the project > Add Reference on the browse ta...
Read more

Project Server 2010 : Server Event Handlers (Part 2)

Image
Now we have wrote the business logic code, and registered the dll in GAC (in Part 1 ), we will register this event handler association in Project Server Application, so that when an event is raised, our function will be triggered. lets open server side event handler from Server Settings under Operational policies chose Server Side Event Handler , this will open the following page: Figure 1 Chose the event that we need to trigger our function on, in our example from the previous post it will be Project on Creating; locate the Project parent and Creating event, it will list all the registered associations (if there are any). to add new association click on New Event Handler which will open the following page: Figure 2 the Display Information section is for the name and description that appears in the list. the System Information section is to fill the dll information from GAC, as below: Assembly Name: which is the dll's name in this format ddlName, Version=1.1....
Read more

Retrieving Sharepoint Lists' Information In Project Sites - Project Server 2010

Image
In a previous blog post we have discussed how to retrieve Risks and Issues custom columns information (built in project properties) from Sharepoint through SQL query. But ... what If I have another custom list that is not a project property by default, lets say "Project Monthly Review" that contains these columns "Month" as text, "Year" as text, and "Review" as multiline text. for retrieving this information in Sharepoint 2010 through SQL below is the query that will just do the work: SELECT  P.ProjectUID, A.tp_ListId, A.tp_IsCurrent, A.nvarcahr3  as  [ Year ], A.nvarchar4  as  [ Month ], A.nText2  as  [Review] FROM  PWA_ContentDB.dbo.AllLists  as  L   INNER   JOIN  PWA_ContentDB.dbo.AllUserData  AS  A  ON  L.tp_ID = A.tp_ListId There the trick ... again ... the new custom Sharepoint list added to this certain site template (or project site) is not connec...
Read more