Migration form Nintex 2010t to o365

[#1]

We are planing to migrate form Nintex SP2010 to O365. What are the guidelines? What actions in workflows and forms will not work o365? any guide will be helpful.

[jesse_mchargue]

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We are going through the same exercise, but I have not been able to find any specific guides on "how-to". I got a trial version of Nintex for O365 in my development tenant and have been doing some testing there. I would suggest that route as it provides you with a chance to see that actions and how they are setup.

I would also suggest that you create a small test plan of what you want to test before you activate the trial since it is only 30 days. I found that I burned through a few days just messing around and not producing any valuable testing scenarios

[TomaszPoszytek · Accepted solution]

Hi varun gs‌!

You are aware of course, that the only way to do a direct migration from SP2010 to O365 is using sharegate‌? You cannot export a workflow in on-prem and then import it in O365. I'm sure you know that, but it's just a kind reminder

I am in the middle of such migration, with over 200 workflows behind me and here are some advises from me:

1. user defined actions‌ - they are totally not supported not only by Sharegate, but also in O365. During migration they will be replaced with a blank placeholder leaving you with nothing. All actions from inside will be lost. I ended up with converting a "Run If" action block (which is "migrate-able") and putting all actions from UDA inside it. Then if I needed to reuse those actions I was just copy-paste the whole "Run If" action block. Oh, and the rule to execute it was always set to "true" ;
2. workflow context‌ variables - some are not supported. You should either replace them with a workflow variable, or remove because may cause troubles during migration;
3. workflow constants‌ are not supported in Nintex for O365. You should either remove them, turn them into workflow variables or create a SP List to keep them (so if you are using them in many workflows) and then just query the list;
4. assign a task‌ - there is no "To review" task. There is no "flexi task‌" either. You cannot set mail priority, you cannot chose to which from "assigned" user the notification will be sent, you cannot delegate (workaround: https://community.nintex.com/community/build-your-own/blog/2015/02/26/delegation-in-o365aA), you cannot calculate time to send reminder. Oh, and you cannot attach files to the notification message ;
5. query list must have a defined number of rows to be returned. Field cannot be left empty. Oh, and by default querying list is always "recursive" in O365;
6. action set‌ is not supported as UDA. See point no. 1 how to resolve;
7. for each‌ actions are as well not supported as UDA and Action Sets. See point no. 1 how to resolve;
8. Such actions, as "Query/ Update XML" are not supported and must be re-created after migration;
9. All action related to User Profile are not supported and must be replaced with their "Office 365" counterparts;
10. There is no conditional start for workflows, however it can be replaced with filter action‌;
11. There are no site scheduled workflows‌;
12. When comparing you are more than often not able to verify if a value "is empty". You can only compare whether it equals or not (but you cannot set equation to nothing );
13. There is a big list of which action from on-prem should be replaced with which action in O365 - see my file attached (also refer to this link: https://support.share-gate.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000600187-Nintex-FAQ).

And I guess really much more things I have faced, which I'm planning to describe as a blog post which may be extended because every day I face something new

Regards,

Tomasz

[TomaszPoszytek]

P.S.

In case you need any help/ advise/ support contact me  I have really learnt a lot

[jesse_mchargue]

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This is great! I have my notes too but I have not even begun t complie them into something readable by other people

I would love a blog post on your findings! Hoping to do the same one day.

Thanks!

[TomaszPoszytek]

Thanks ‌. I will. The project is estimated to end by the end of February. Then I will definitely write a blog post. But unsupported actions is the one thing. The other was issues that were caused by Sharegate migration itself. Not to mention O365 env. limitations (like lack of possibility to call a REST webservice from Infopath webbased form ).

Oh.. a lot of knowledge to share

[jesse_mchargue]

Tomasz Poszytek‌ - 

We have Sharegate and it never dawned on me and my team that it would not move over the UDAs and what that experience will be like.  We do not have many, but the ones we do have in place would need to be reevaluated. I assumed Sharegate would handle the conversions somehow, but it does make sense.

As for the web services, that is a known issue that will need to be addressed and we are looking at how we will be doing it in O365 now to have something in place when we do make that move.

I was starting to make a list of all the actions we have in 2010 and all the actions in O365 and seeing where the gaps are. While this ignores if they operate differently, it does provide some insight into what is there, and what is not. I was hoping for something official from Nintex when I asked:  and that is what spawned the idea to just do it myself.

[Warwick]

Yeah Shareagate is a great tool and will certainly speed up the process as long as you are aware of it's limitations.

- It will convert Form 90%, thought once again Nintex Forms in O365 is very limited compared to on-premises

- Workflows are hit and miss, even with a hit some things just act strange and it's best to start from scratch, always best to start with a fresh task list also, not the one Sharegate migrates

- The biggest issues you'll face are with the Nintex product it self, don't expect it to be anything like on-premises and you'll be ok

[Warwick]

Nice write up, certainly some time saving research here for everyone!

[#10]

Hi, fellas.. 

Is this something we should break out into a blogpost?