Workflows in SharePoint

Workflows

Workflow is nothing but an automated business process.

There are 2 types of workflows in SharePoint.

1. Sequential Workflow
2. State machine Workflow

Sequential Workflows

       Out-Of-Box Workflows and Designer Workflows come under Sequential Workflow.

Out-Of-Box Workflows

• Approval workflow
• Feedback workflow
• Three state workflow
• Signature workflow
• Disposition Workflow

Designer Workflows

• Designer workflows are created by using SharePoint Designer Tool.

State Machine Workflows

        Visual Studio Workflows are State Machine Workflows, these workflows are developed by using Visual Studio IDE or any 3'rd party tools like below.

• Default Visual Studio
• Nintex Workflow
• K-2 Workflow

What is the difference between SP-2010 Workflow and SP-2013 Workflow?

SP-2010 Workflow:

        In SharePoint 2010, Workflow Engin will automatically install when SharePoint was installed.
We no need to do any extra configuration for 2010 Workflow.

In SP-2010 all the Workflow information and Data will store automatically in SharePoint Content Database in SQL Server.

SP-2013 Workflow

        In SP-2013 server same Workflow Engine part of SP-2010 is still available, it's installed automatically when SharePoint Server 2013 installed as like the previous version of SP-2010.

We need to keep in mind that nothing has changed the workflows which work with SP-2010 still works with SP-2013 as well.

Then What's New? Workflow Manager, this will not automatically install we need to download it and install separately.

Workflow Manager designed to scale separately from SharePoint, that's why it has its own Configuration and Content Database separately in SQL Server.

Workflow Manager relay on the service called "Service Bus", this also has its own database in SQL server.

Workflow Manager and SharePoint 2013 will communicate based on TCP/IP or Named Pipes.

Conclusion:

As we discussed above SharePoint 2013 have two different Workflow Platforms

1. Legacy SP-2010 Workflow Engin  
• SharePoint 2010 Workflow Platform
2. The new platform created by Workflow Manager
• SharePoint 2013 Workflow Platform

While creating the Workflow we able to see Platform Type: SharePoint 2013 Workflow only after installing SharePoint 2013 Workflow Manager.

Why are the Two Different Platforms?

Workflow Managers are build for high-density environments like Cloud, to run independently from the SharePoint server.
This is great scalability but it lacks the deep integration with the SharePoint 2010 Workflow Engin.
Therefore SP-2010 Workflow Engin needed for backward compatibility.
SP-2013 Workflow has special action called "Coordination Actions", this will be used to call the Workflows that build based on SP-2010 platform.

Workflow Mager will play a Central role in an organization, SharePoint has a full custom workflow manager but which others follow.
Organizations have multiple Applications and multiple workflows scenarios, workflow Manager will sit in middle and auto spread these workflows without being tied to SharePoint.

Below are the reference links,
MSDN Reference