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Importing into existing workflows

You can use the Nintex Workflow for Office 365 REST API to import the contents of a Nintex Workflow for Office 365 export (.nwp) file into a new or existing site workflow or list workflow on a SharePoint site. You can optionally migrate a list workflow during the import process, mapping the metadata in the export file for the list workflow to corresponding metadata on the target SharePoint list.

For more information about the REST resource used to import into an existing workflow, see Import into an existing workflow.

Considerations

To avoid surprises while trying to import into an existing workflow, take the following points into consideration:

Prerequisites

To use the example, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:

Code

You can download the code used in this example from the following location:

O365_RESTAPI_ImportPut.zip

Note: You need to configure the code for the example before you can build and run it. See step 4 in the following example for instructions about how to configure the code for the example.

Example

The following example describes how to create a Visual Studio 2013 project to export a list workflow from your SharePoint Online site, by using the REST API to get the workflow definition from the site, and then importing it into an existing list workflow for a specified SharePoint list on your site.

  1. Create a new Visual Studio 2013 project, using the Console Application template for Visual C#.

  2. Add the following references to your new Visual Studio project.

  3. In your new Visual Studio project, paste the following code into the file named Program.cs, overwriting the existing using statements at the beginning of the file:

    using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
using System.Security;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;

  4. Paste the following code into Program.cs, overwriting the Main() static method already included in the Program static class, and then configure the code as described in the comments:

    // The API key and root URL for the REST API.
// TODO: Replace with your API key and root URL.
static private string apiKey = "";
static private string apiRootUrl = "";

// The SharePoint site and credentials to use with the REST API.
// TODO: Replace with your site URL, user name, and password.
static private string spSiteUrl = "";
static private string spUsername = "";
static private string spPassword = "";

// The source list workflow from which to export, the destination list workflow into 
// which to import, and the name of the destination list for the destination list workflow.
// TODO: Replace with your workflow identifiers and list title.
static private string sourceWorkflowId = "";
static private string destinationWorkflowId = "";
static private string destinationListTitle = "";

/// <summary>
/// The main entry point for the application.
/// </summary>
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
    // Update a list workflow from a source list to a destination list.
    UpdateWorkflowForList();
}

    All the configuration you need to do for this example happens here, and the code provided in subsequent steps uses these variables to get an authentication cookie from SharePoint, export the existing list workflow from the SharePoint site, and then import into an existing list workflow for a different SharePoint list on your site.

  5. Paste the following code into Program.cs, immediately after the Main static method in the Program static class:

    static private string GetSPOCookie()
{
    // If successful, this variable contains an authentication cookie; 
    // otherwise, an empty string.
    string result = String.Empty;
    try
    {
        // Construct a secure string from the provided password.
        // NOTE: For sample purposes only.
        var securePassword = new SecureString();
        foreach (char c in spPassword) { securePassword.AppendChar(c); }

        // Instantiate a new SharePointOnlineCredentials object, using the 
        // specified username and password.
        var spoCredential = new SharePointOnlineCredentials(spUsername, securePassword);
        // If successful, try to authenticate the credentials for the
        // specified site.
        if (spoCredential == null)
        {
            // Credentials could not be created.
            result = String.Empty;
        }
        else
        {
            // Credentials exist, so attempt to get the authentication cookie
            // from the specified site.
            result = spoCredential.GetAuthenticationCookie(new Uri(spSiteUrl));
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        // An exception occurred while either creating the credentials or
        // getting an authentication cookie from the specified site.
        Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
        result = String.Empty;
    }

    // Return the result.
    return result;
}

    The GetSPOCookie static method uses the SharePoint site and credentials that you configured in step 4 to get an authentication cookie from SharePoint.

  6. Paste the following code into Program.cs, immediately after the code you pasted in the previous step:

    static async private void UpdateWorkflowForList()
{
    // Create a new HTTP client and configure its base address.
    HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
    client.BaseAddress = new Uri(spSiteUrl);

    // Add common request headers for the REST API to the HTTP client.
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(
        new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Api-Key", apiKey);

    // Get the SharePoint authorization cookie to be used by the HTTP client
    // for the request, and use it for the Authorization request header.
    string spoCookie = GetSPOCookie();
    if (spoCookie != String.Empty)
    {
        var authHeader = new AuthenticationHeaderValue(
            "cookie",
            String.Format("{0} {1}", spSiteUrl, spoCookie)
        );
        // Add the defined authentication header to the HTTP client's
        // default request headers.
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = authHeader;
    }
    else
    {
        throw new InvalidOperationException("Cannot define Authentication header for request.");
    }

    // If we're at this point, we're ready to make our request.
    // Note that we're making this call synchronously - you can call the REST API
    // asynchronously, as needed.
    // First, we'll export the workflow from the source list.
    var exportWorkflowUri = String.Format("{0}/api/v1/workflows/packages/{1}",
        apiRootUrl.TrimEnd('/'),
        Uri.EscapeUriString(sourceWorkflowId));
    HttpResponseMessage exportResponse = client.GetAsync(exportWorkflowUri).Result;

    // If we're successful, import the exported workflow to the destination list, as a new workflow.
    if (exportResponse.IsSuccessStatusCode)
    {
        // The response body contains a Base64-encoded binary string, which we'll
        // asynchronously retrieve as a byte array.
        byte[] exportFileContent = await exportResponse.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync();

        // Next, import the exported workflow to the existing workflow for the destination list.
        var importWorkflowUri = String.Format("{0}/api/v1/workflows/packages/{1}?migrate=true&listTitle={2}",
            apiRootUrl.TrimEnd('/'),
            Uri.EscapeUriString(destinationWorkflowId),
            Uri.EscapeUriString(destinationListTitle));

        // Create a ByteArrayContent object to contain the byte array for the exported workflow.
        var importContent = new ByteArrayContent(exportFileContent);

        // Send a POST request to the REST resource.
        HttpResponseMessage importResponse = client.PutAsync(importWorkflowUri, importContent).Result;

        // Indicate to the console window the success or failure of the operation.
        if (importResponse.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Successfully imported workflow.");
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Failed to import workflow.");
        }
    }
}

    The UpdateWorkflowForList static method uses an HTTP client to invoke the REST resource provided by the REST API to first export your list workflow from your SharePoint site. The client's default request headers are configured, the GetAsync method is used to invoke the REST resource, and, if successful, the response is written to an export file.

    Then, the same HTTP client is used to import the contents of the export file into the specified existing list workflow for the specified SharePoint list. A ByteArrayContent object is used to encapsulate the binary contents of the exported workflow, and the PutAsync method is used to invoke the REST resource.

  7. Build and run the Visual Studio project.

    If you've configured the variables provided in step 4 appropriately, running the project updates the specified list workflow associated with the specified SharePoint list on your SharePoint site.

Related Information

Import into an existing workflow

Guide

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