Workflow form? Something better?

Question

I'm looking for recommendations on how to best tackle this project.  I don't know if I should go with a template or freely design it ourselves.  What I'd like is to create a form in SP that is a vacation request form that once submitted goes to the supervisor before it gets submitted to HR.  Step 1, you fill it out and submit to supervisors.  Step 2, it goes to supervisor for approval, which when approved is Step 3, ends up in an HR email box or queue on SP site.

Answer 1

You could do this in SharePoint with an SPD workflow.  For the form to collect the data you could use InfoPath or a custom list.  You might run into some issues with having the workflow send to "my supervisor".  For instance, if you let the user select thier supervisor, then you could do it all out of the box but if you wanted it to automatically pick the supervisor based on AD then it would take some customizations.

I think this should be pretty straightforward to do though.

---

~Jennifer Mason ~My Blog~ ~SharePoint Support~ ~SharePoint Training~ ~Follow me on Twitter!~

Answer 2

Hi,

I always prefer to design workflows with Visual Studio. However you can check my blog in which i have given a comparison between SharePoint Designer workflows and Visual Studio Workflows

http://sharepointissues.blogspot.com

If you want any further help in designing the workflows, just let me know.

Answer 3

Hi,

Design State Machine Workflow in VS 2008.

State 1:
Submit Vacation Request

State 2:
Supervisor Approve

Design InfoPath Form with different views.

1st View:
Design a Form with all the controls in placed with Submit functionality.
On Submit Close the Form.
Before closing set the 2nd View.
After Submit it will trigger Workflow and create task, send mail to Supervisor with Form link.

2nd View:
Design 2nd view with controls for Supervisor Approvals.
After click on Approve button it will again trigger workflow & you can perform action like sending e-mail, deliting task etc.

---

Ashwin B. | My Blog | Twitter | E-Mail

Answer 4

As an example of a SharePoint Designer workflow with several stages, tied to a SharePoint list, you can take a look at this travel request workflow I did:

http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?p=1749

---

Laura Rogers, MCSE, MCTS
SharePoint911: SharePoint Consulting
Blog: http://www.sharepoint911.com/blogs/laura
Twitter: WonderLaura