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This is the second post in my series about the Gestalt Principles as relates to form design. The introductory post can be found here​. In this post I talk about the Gestalt Principle of Proximity. Proximity is all about whitespace - the area of blank canvas between objects. To me, whitespace is one of the most important elements of good form design, as the good use of whitespace makes a form look clean and easy to use. Principle of ProximityThe principle of Proximity states that when an individual perceives an assortment of objects they perceive objects that are close to each other as forming a group. In Figure 1 below, the stars on the left are grouped closer together horizontally, so we tend to first see them grouped as rows. While the stars on the right are closer together vertically, so we tend to first see them as grouped in columns. Figure 1: Proximity: Items that are close together appear to be grouped. The principle of Proximity relates to forms in many ways from placing relate

Tasks don’t care if you have to use five products to accomplish them. It’s not their job to care. It’s their job to stare at you until you’re done with them. And so many of the tasks we do — the majority, easily — require us to bounce from one piece of software to another before we’re done with them. Have you seen the Mike Fitzmaurice 's article on the Workflow magazine ? Download the pdf version >>> Workflow Magazine March 2016

Over the last 6 or so months a lot has happened in the Nintex Mobile Enterprise space. Now whether you own Nintex Forms Enterprise or you have usage rights to Nintex Mobile Enterprise, we have made App building really easy. Where a bit more thought comes into it, is the deployment piece.If you were lucky enough to get along to the session at InspireX byTim Walwyn and yours truly, Tim went into a bit of detail on how to deploy Nintex Mobile using Intune while I spoke briefly on how you can build your app, and send out an email to your users to install from. Well, as I partied up in Las Vegas the team in Melbourne has been hard at it, building out more functionality to make deploying the apps as easy as it is to build them. So with that lets take a look at what is now available. If you aren't using an MDM, you can use the built in App deployment options. Firstly you want to create a 'Distribution list' Create your distribution list, to make this easy you can just take a big copy of email

Recently I had a project that required data collected via Nintex Mobile and stored in a SharePoint list to be pushed to an on-premise ArcGIS geodatabase for use in  mapping services. It turns out it is possible to add features to a web map's Feature Service via a Nintex Workflow's Web Request control POST method. However, the documentation and procedure for setting it up are difficult if not impossible to find, vary by ArcGIS server version, and do not pertain to Nintex's specific needs, so I thought I'd write this solution up to share and hopefully make this process easier for other developers. After hours of coming up with generic unspecified 500 and 401 errors, the solution ended up being a problem of URL and post body syntax. I figured it out  working in conjunction with an ESRI developer. It is simple to implement, and works like a charm. I must also give credit to Vadim Tabakman's blog post Nintex Workflow - Talking to Esri ArcGIS UDAs for setting me off on the right track. Befor

Nintex Workflow allows integration with external systems in many ways, it could be using Call Web Service action, Execute SQL action, Query BCS, Nintex connector actions, etc. Nintex Connector actions (e.g. Salesforce or Dynamics CRM actions) when put in a workflow, allows the workflow designer to not have to think about how to talk to the external system. The ChallengesWhat do I mean by "not have to think about how to talk to the external system"? Let us take a look at if the Execute SQL action is to be used for the purpose, the workflow designer will need to know how to define connection string and SQL Query in order to use the Execute SQL action. That required the knowledge on Database Server source, Database, Table, Columns, etc. to be queried. As these are low level schemas of the external system, usually one will need to manipulate the data to get the expected result. Similar to the Web Service request, the workflow designer will need to know the destination web service URL, meth

Products: Nintex Workflow 2013, Nintex Workflow 2010 Sometimes it can be helpful to replicate the behavior of the Nintex Workflow Query List action outside of the Nintex Workflow environment. After UI is stripped away, Nintex Workflow executes a CAML query using the SharePoint API to return the values specified in the Query List action. Using this PowerShell script you can replicate this behavior to help narrow down issues with your query (such as List View Threshold violations, Permissions issues, etc.). To replicate the Query List action in PowerShell do the following: Open the Query List action in your workflow.        Change the Editor mode to be CAML editor.        Copy the CAML/XML between the <Query> tags. Paste the CAML/XML into the script replacing the example.  Note: The <Query> tags must be removed for the query to function correctly. Run the below (attached as well as a *.txt file for your convenience) PowerShell script (PowerShell ISE works well) from a SharePo

So I just uploaded a How-To file on using the Twitter action​. But, what good is a How-To document without some details on Why you would want to use the Twitter Action? So, here are two quick thoughts.. Your company sets up a central location to control all outgoing tweets from the corporate twitter account. Set up a simple workflow on a custom Corporate Tweet list list that runs every time an item is added to the list. You company sets up a workflow to automatically post to their Wordpress blog (Using the Wordpress action!) To complete the posting process, they want to Tweet out that a new blog post was uploaded, but only after waiting for a certien period of time to make sure that everything with the blog is in order first.I really like the Twitter action and hope that you will get value from using it as well.

I have been creating form and workflow solutions since 2010. And, for a period between 2011 and 2012, that all I did for a small non-profit company. Today, I often cringe when I have to go back and look at the design layouts of my earliest forms. They were functional, but not very pretty. Fortunately, my sense of design has evolved over the years. Experience has taught me what works and what does not work, what looks good and what does not. Recently, I started studying user interface design as part of attempt to better understand the concept of user experience. During my readings I came across a book that described the Gestalt Design Principles and how they related to user interface design. These “descriptive” principles validated many of the design principles that I was already doing. They also opened my eyes to other possibilities in form design.In this series of blog posts, I will describe seven Gestalt design principles and show how they relate to form design. The final article wil

It always pains me to see a company’s investment in software go to waste. I have seen some very expensive software just “sit of the shelf and collect dust” because staff are either unaware of its existence or have no idea what it does, or how it can be used. As a technical trainer, I have always made it one of my primary responsibilities to make sure that staff are aware of the tools that are available to them and also how the tools can be used to make their work lives better. This short article features some of the activities and attitudes that I have used in the past to help increase awareness and adoption of software at companies where I have worked. I have found Lunch & Learns to be one of the most effective activities to introduce a large group of people to a new or unknown software product – especially when I was the one supplying the lunch. At a non-profit that I work for years ago, I was lucky enough to have a modest food budget that afforded me the ability to provide some

The intention of this write up is to demonstrate how to pass runtime function - (in Nintex Form calculated value control) - to JavaScript for setting controls' value. It also features the following techniques for extending NINTEX Form capabilities:Capturing of "Change" event from multiple editable controls (i.e. single line of text control) to trigger JavaScript function call Using JavaScript to set form controls' value (i.e. based on data captured during the form filling) Using userProfileLookup runtime function to retrieve Sharepoint User Profile attributes (i.e. Distinguished Name in this example) Hide a calculated value control in form with CSS Style Regular Expression to extract different occurrences of OU in Distinguished Name The outcome of this exercise is shown in the diagram below, where changes made to either Title or Requester field in the form causes the calculated value (i.e. circled in RED in the diagram) to call a custom defined JavaScript function (i.e. setControlValue

Products: Nintex Workflow 2013, Nintex Workflow 2010 WARNING: THIS SHOULD NEVER BE USED IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT When working on a workflow in a development environment it is often desirable to run through many instances of a workflow under various conditions. If the workflow utilizes pauses, this can be quite cumbersome when testing. This PowerShell script can be run on a development server to force the Workflow Timer job to run at a specified interval with no minimum (Example: 5 seconds) making testing a lot faster. Since this script does not actually modify anything, it makes it easy to turn it off and on during your testing cycles. PowerShell Script Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue   $job = $(Get-SPTimerJob -Identity 'job-workflow')   while($true) {     $job.RunNow()     Start-Sleep(10) }   To use the script do the following:Ensure you are running the PowerShell console as a SharePoint Administrative acco

Going on with the list of custom actions started on List of Nintex Workflows Custom Actions - Part 1  , here you can find more actions of any kind for Nintex workflow. You are free to participate on these post collaborating with this list.  PowershellDescriptionSimple and useful. This custom action is capable to run powershell commands.PriceFreeReferenceshttps://community.nintex.com/message/7311#7311https://nintexwfpowershellaction.codeplex.com/ BisCom FaxDescriptionCollaboration Greatly Simplifies the Routing of Incoming Faxes into Nintex Workflows and the Sending of Outgoing Faxes from Nintex WorkflowsPriceNot free. UnknownReferenceshttps://community.nintex.com/message/15490#15490http://www.biscom.com/MuhimbiDescriptionA PDF Converter for SharePoint ships with a large number of Workflow Actions for both SharePoint Designer and Nintex Workflow 2007, 2010 and 2013.PriceUSD 1,500Referenceshttp://support.muhimbi.com/entries/21239861

Products: Nintex Workflow 2013, Nintex Workflow 2010 There is often the need to pull SharePoint ULS logs and share them with another team. Going and manually pulling the logs is often cumbersome and time consuming. This script helps with this by providing a way of pulling the logs, zipping them and uploading them to a SharePoint Document Library. TIP: This script works very well with the PowerShell action for Nintex Workflow 2013​ PowerShell Script Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.IO.Compression.FileSystem')   $file = "logname"   $basePath = "C:Logs"   $path = $($basePath + """ + $file)   $zipPath = $($basePath + """ + $file + ".zip")   $startTime = "01/01/1999 00:00"   $endTime = "01/01/1999 01:00"   $logLibraryName = 'ULS_Logs'   New-Item $path -ItemType directory   Merge-SPLogFile -Path $($path + """ + "SPLogFile.log") -Overwrite -StartTime $startTime -E

This tutorial describes how to enable a scenario for "deep linking" to automatically submit scanned codes using Nintex Mobile. The tutorial also describes the user experience when accessing the link through the QR code. Forms designer stepsThis section describes how to enable the scenario in Getting even deeper linking with Nintex Mobile by creating Nintex Mobile links to log confirmations for a security protocol. The process for enabling this scenario involves creating the form, bulding the links for each door, generating the QR codes for the links, and implementing the security system. The Nintex Mobile links in this tutorial do the following:Customize the loading message so staff members know that the Security Check form is loading Point to the Security Check form Pre-populate the Title field with the door name Enable automatic submission of the form Enable display of the successful submission message so staff members know that the scanned QR code was successfully submitted To creat

This tutorial describes how to use range and regular expression validation in Nintex Mobile, using a lead generation scenario for validating entries of email addresses and follow-up dates. In this scenario, email addresses are validated for inclusion of the "@" symbol and a period; follow-up dates are validated for occurring within three months of the trade show at which the forms are filled out. The trade show is occurring in August 2016. To achieve this scenario:Create a SharePoint list called "Leads" and add the following columns: Name, Region, Email, Phone, Followup date. In Nintex Forms designer, double-click the Single Line Textbox control for Email. In the form control configuration dialog box, expand the Validation section and then select Yes for Use a regular expression. In the Regular expression field, copy and paste the following expression..+@.+..+ In the Regular expression error message field, copy and paste the following text or enter a similar message. Invalid format for

Welcome to the new year, and a new opportunity to do more in 2016.I'll keep this post short and sweet, but I must say that its going to be another exciting ride with Nintex; so keep your eyes open for new product features, updates and more news.  Check out my list of the top 10 updates, and see if your're using a lot of those in your processes.The top 10 biggest updates and releases for Nintex Products in 2015 were:10. Query List for Nintex Workflow for Office 3659.   LazyApproval Updates for Nintex Workflow for Office 3658.   Attachment Upgrades for Nintex Forms7.   Workflow Gallery Enhancement to Nintex Workflows 6.   List Lookup for Nintex Forms and Nintex Mobile5.   Query User Profile built into an Actions 4.   Custom Branding in Nintex Mobile Enterprise3.   Deep Linking for Nintex Mobile and NME2.   International Languages in Nintex Forms1.   Document Generation Capabilities in Nintex Workflow for Office 365 My top 3 post that will help you have a great year:Defensive Workflow Des

Many people posted this question and sometime ago there were some external post that dissapeared. So now it will keep safe in this post.   Create workflow variable varUserGroupXML type=Multiple Lines of TextCreate workflow variable varUserGroupNames type=CollectionCreate workflow variable varIsInGroup type=Yes/No To make it easy to reuse, create an Action Set action, and label it "Is user in group?"Put the following within that Action Set. Call Web Service action. Configure it as follows:     URL: Web_URL/_vti_bin/UserGroup.asmx. Supply necessary Username/PW credentials.Web Method: GetGroupCollectionFromUser Editor Mode: SOAP builder userLoginName(string): Initiator Web Service Output: Specify elements "../m:GetGroupCollectionFromUserResult" > varUserGroupXMLUse the Run Now to verify things work. Query XML action. Configure as follows:XML Source: XML XML: {WorkflowVariable:varUserGroupXML} Output 1: Process using: XPath. /defaultNS:GetGroupCollectionFromUser/defaultNS/Groups/Default

Products: Nintex Workflow 2013, Nintex Workflow 2010 This article provides instructions on how to locate all lists and sites in a farm that are utilizing Nintex Workflow Content Types. WARNING: This script is fairly resource intensive. It is recommended to run this script in a non-production environment to gauge its impact. Run the below (attached as well as a *.txt file for your convenience) PowerShell script (PowerShell ISE works well) from a SharePoint Server: PowerShell Script Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint") [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Nintex.Workflow") [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Nintex.Workflow.Administration") function Get-NintexContentTypeIDQuery{ "0x0108010064E42B14ADA442C78E98D686760A8493|0x010801005CC0A86910A24687A76ECAC954D3E3F3|006EBD0FA4731041D9804386A7FEA568DC|000568DBB766D049168

 Nintex User Voice - Current Status User Voice is a great tool used by Nintex to collect customer feeback, where you can post your desired feature and other users can vote for your posted feature, then Nintex people collect that information to enhance their products. Currently there are 15 planned features for Nintex Workflow for Office 365. Here is a list of title of those features. Schedule Site Workflow Conditional Start Prevent other users from approve/reject task not assigned to them Workflow Column Status Add Action Sets Update document and convert document controls for Office 365 version Keep tasks for more than 60 days Provide visualisation mechanism Where are some templates that I can get started quickly. Allow Carriage Returns/New Lines in Yammer Messages Add BCS Query support List Lookup Detail in O365 Set Variable Action Manage your Workflows tasks from a mobile device using the Nintex Mobile App. Ability to Group activities and collapse and expand Dutch translation All tho

External Start for Nintex Workflow 2013 allows you to initiate workflows from outside SharePoint. Want to learn more? See the following resources. Blog: External Start Feature for Nintex Workflow 2013 Enterprise​White Paper: Starting workflows from Zapier​White Paper: Starting workflows from Azuqua​White Paper: Developing with the External Start featureHelp excerpt: Using External Start

So if you're as young as I am , you could probably remember the "happy meal toys" you would get in McDonald's Happy meals.  I remember those all to well.  The sad part would always happen when I waited to long to get one of the toys that was part of a series and it was no longer available... So I don't want to scare anyone, but you should consider yourself warned because Microsoft is at it again. Microsoft is really wanting everyone to move people into SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2016 and Office 365 as soon as possible.  Well not really as soon as possible, but more like sooner rather than later.  They are ending "Mainstream Standard Support" for SharePoint 2010 on October 13, which just so happens to be a Tuesday and not a Friday .  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle?p1=14944 ​   What does this mean for you?While you don't have to abandon ship immediately if you haven't already started planning your migration off of SharePoint 2010, but I would start soon if I were in your

Baufest | Nintex Mobile: Manténgase productivo, esté conectado o no. (en español)  

Nintex Workflow 2013Nintex Workflow 2013 requires that the following software is installed and correctly configured:Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2013 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1, SQL Server 2012, or SQL Server 2014 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 or Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.x although Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 or greater is recommended Nintex Workflow 2010Nintex Workflow 2010 requires that the following software is installed and correctly configured:Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 and/or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 SQL Server 2012 or SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.x although Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or greater is recommended Nintex Forms 2013Nintex Forms 2013 requires the following software is installed and correctly configured:Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2013 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 or

While creating a Nintex Mobile Form, I had a scenario that required I calculate the sums of values. Not very out of the ordinary, but in this scenario each calculation could have differing values. In this form are questions for an inspection form. In general, an office inspection to make user it is safe and secure. If there are issues, then report the point hit. If too many points then different actions will be required. On this form I had several questions asked, if the user checked the question answering Yes, then the related value could be calculated by: Add to the sum a multiple of a value. The multiple must be provided by the user. Add to the sum a fixed value Add to the sum a incremental value. If 1, then 25, if 2 then 75, if 3 or more then 300 There would be dozens of questions on the form all using one of the three methods above. So I would have to keep track of which question, which value, and what multiple in the calculated field. First here are some screen shots of the form

This describes a bug found in this 2010 Nintex Workflow action:  Create item in another site.(No worries: This has been reported to support) When configuring the action, these errors occur when creating an item in a list with an Ampersand (&) in the Title (not in the url.) When the title contains a Space ( ) and an Ampersand (&) in the title, these errors appear:Warning: Error validating configuration. An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 1, position 40Message from webpage: XML is not valid; CAML builder could not be populated.  When the title contains an Ampersand (&) with no preceding Space (  ) these errors appear:Warning: Error validating configuration.  ‘  “ ‘ is an unexpected token.  The expected token is ‘;’. Line 1, position 47.Message from webpage: XML is not valid; CAML builder could not be populated. Note: Lists with these characters did NOT produce an error:underscore ( _ )exclamation ( ! )Semi-colon ( ; )At ( @ )Pound ( # )Dollar ( $ )Percent ( % )A