Deploy Nintex Workflow (NWF) from code

Recently, we had a client with a requirement to have a new SharePoint Team Site created, and then have a Nintex Workflow automatically provisioned.

There are a few ways to do this – via Nintex itself (!) – or using C# code.

The scenario I was dealing with was :

• Custom/3rd-Party CRM system
• On creation of new customer, need to provision a ‘client site’ in SharePoint
• Deploy the NWF as an artifact – we deployed to _LAYOUTS/Company/MyWF.NWF
• Created a Web Service that did the SharePoint magic
• A few lines of code to provision the workflow

Here’s what you need to do – within a Visual Studio project :

• Add a reference to the Nintex Workflow “web service”
• /_vti_bin/nintexworkflow/workflow.asmx
• Can then reference the class/project within C# code (NintexWorkflowWS)
• Read in the contents of the NWF (full XML) – and push/deploy to a list/library

The code steps are as follows…

(1) Add a reference to the Web Service

** NB. uses an SPWeb context – created a few steps earlier

var webServiceUrl = currentWeb.Url;

webServiceUrl += "_vti_bin/nintexworkflow/workflow.asmx";

NintexWorkflowWS wsNW = new NintexWorkflowWS();

wsNW.Url = webServiceUrl;

wsNW.UseDefaultCredentials = true;

(2) Get the contents of the Nintex Workflow (NWF)

var pathNWF = “Microsoft SharedWeb Server Extensions14TEMPLATELAYOUTSCompanyMyWF.nwf”

//get the Program Files folder

var fileName = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonProgramFiles) + pathNWF;

var contentsNWF = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(fileName);

(3) Deploy the NWF onto the list/library

//call the method to publish the workflow
wsNW.PublishFromNWFXml(nwf, “MyDocLibrary”, “Workflow Title”, true);

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That’s essentially it.     You just have to call the above method – and it will deploy your workflow.

There’s a bunch of methods within the Nintex Web Service API – the above example uses this method (WSDL) :

There are a bunch of other methods – including “ExportWorkflow” – meaning that you could create a utility/program that cycles through all SPWeb’s – and SPList’s – and then exports to a file.   

(I haven’t tried it – I might have to do that next….)

Hope that helps someone – happy Nintex’ing…!