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SharePoint Workflow |
K2 blackpearl |
| Process Design |
Available via SharePoint Designer, a rules-based design tool, or in Visual Studio using custom development |
Available via drag-and-drop, wizard-based designers:
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| • K2 Web Designer within SharePoint |
| • K2 Designer for Visio 2007 |
| • K2 Studio Designer within Visual Studio |
| Custom actions and conditions |
Via Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) custom development. |
Via out-of-the-box event templates as well as custom event templates written using the K2 Wizard SDK |
| Human-to-System workflow support |
Via Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) custom development. |
Via out-of-the-box event templates, custom event templates or web services support |
| Data auditing |
Available via SharePoint metadata and document library/list versioning |
Workflow designers have the ability to specify data auditing options at design time. All audit information is available in the K2 Reporting environment |
| Process auditing |
Available via the “Activity Duration” or “Cancellation & Error” reports found on the list or library where the workflow is deployed |
Available within the K2 Reporting environment in the out-of-the-box reports provided with K2 blackpearl as well as available as data in ad-hoc, user designed reports |
| Versioning |
Versions of the workflow can be stored per document library or list. Options can be configured to set the workflow version used for new instances as well as active instances. |
A new version of the process is automatically stored each time it is deployed. Versions can be managed via the K2 Management Console which allows rollback to any previous version of the workflow. |
| State management |
State information will be maintained in the document library or list that the workflow is associated with. |
State is managed within the K2 blackpearl server and data is available within the K2 Reporting environment. |
| Chaining workflows |
Via Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) custom development. |
K2 blackpearl provides the functionality natively within the Inter-Process Communication event wizard. The IPC wizard provides the ability to call a sub-process synchronously or asynchronously |
| Custom forms |
Support for ASP.NET and InfoPath Forms Services. InfoPath support available only in MOSS |
Support for WinForms, ASP.NET, InfoPath 2003 and InfoPath 2007, including Forms Services |
| Actions spanning across multiple sites |
Limited to the current site |
Support for actions across SharePoint sites, site collections, servers and farms |
| Content type association |
Not supported |
Fully supported |
| Access to originator information |
Access to author of the library or list item, but not the user who started the workflow if different |
Out-of-the-box access to workflow originator information, including the originator’s manager |
| Escalations |
Via Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) custom development. |
Provided via out-of-the-box escalation wizards, including: |
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• Email |
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• Redirection |
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• Go to another step |
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• Custom code |
| Task list |
Includes an “Assign a Task” activity that can be used to assign a task to a user within a MOSS task list. MOSS task lists are shared among all users so users with the correct permissions can act on anyone’s task |
Tasks are available via the K2 Task List or K2 Task List web part. Task lists are specific to an individual user so users will only see tasks that they are allowed to action. |
| Host server |
Provided via Windows SharePoint Services. The workflow engine runs in process with SharePoint and cannot be separated out onto a dedicated workflow server |
Provided via the K2 blackpearl Host server. Servers can be dedicated to workflow transactions only and can be set up as a farm of server dedicated specifically to workflow processing |
| Process Capacity |
Suggested limit of 15 running workflow processes per SharePoint server |
No set limitations per K2 server. |