Export, Import and Publish Nintex Workflow for O365 using REST API

This article is about exporting, importing and publishling Nintex Workflow for Office 365 using REST API

Overview

 

Working on a project recently, there was a requirement to export, import and publish Nintex Workflow for Office 365 between different environments. By environments, I mean SharePoint Site Collections for Testing, Staging, UAT, Prod, etc..

 

While it is super easy to manually export, import and publish a Nintex Workflow for Office 365, this often becomes tedious and error prone when the number of such workflows to manage increases. In the spirit of automation, I developed a simple PowerShell Script to do exactly the same.

 

There is a wealth of information available online regarding using Office 365 API for Workflows here.

 

Prerequisite

• A source list workflow for a SharePoint Online list or library developed using Nintex Workflow for Office 365. We will export this workflow using the script. 

• A destination list workflow for a SharePoint Online list or library developed using Nintex Workflow for Office 365. We will import and publish the workflow from the step above.

• Please contact your Nintex representative to request an API key for the REST API for use in script.

PowerShell Script

 

Execute the following script in your Windows PowerShell window. Please change the required variable values as per your tenant configuration settings.

Function Export - NWF {
    Param
        (
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext][ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] $Context,

            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $WorkflowSourceURL,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowSourceID,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowExportFileNameAndPath,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIBaseURL,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIKey
        )

    Try {

        $RestURL = "https://$APIBaseURL/api/v1/workflows/packages/$WorkflowSourceID"

        $creds = $Context.Credentials
        $AuthCookie = $creds.GetAuthenticationCookie($WorkflowSourceURL)
        $cookie = "cookie $WorkflowSourceURL " + $AuthCookie

        $HeadersExport = @ {
            'Authorization' = $cookie
                'Api-Key' = $APIKey 'Accept' = 'application/json'
            'Content-Type' = 'application/nwp'
        }

        Invoke - RestMethod - Method "Get" - Uri $RestURL - Headers $HeadersExport - OutFile $WorkflowExportFileNameAndPath


        Write - host "Export-NWF for $WorkflowSourceURL executed Successfully" - ForegroundColor Green
    }

    Catch {
        write - host - f Red "Error when executing Export-NWF for $WorkflowSourceURL!"
        $_.Exception.Message
    }

}

Function Import - NWF {
    Param
        (
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext][ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] $Context,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $WorkflowTargetURL,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowTargetID,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowImportFileNameAndPath,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIBaseURL,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIKey
        )

    Try {

        $RestURL = "https://$APIBaseURL/api/v1/workflows/packages/" + $WorkflowTargetID + "?migrate=true"

        $creds = $Context.Credentials
        $AuthCookie = $creds.GetAuthenticationCookie($WorkflowTargetURL)
        $cookie = "cookie $WorkflowTargetURL " + $AuthCookie

        $HeadersImport = @ {
            'Authorization' = $cookie
                'Api-Key' = $APIKey 'Accept' = "application/json"
        }

        Invoke - RestMethod - Method "PUT" - Uri $RestURL - Headers $HeadersImport - InFile $WorkflowImportFileNameAndPath

        Write - host "Import-NWF for $WorkflowSourceURL executed Successfully" - ForegroundColor Green
    }

    Catch {
        write - host - f Red "Error when executing Import-NWF for $WorkflowTargetURL!"
        $_.Exception.Message
    }

}

Function Publish - NWF {
    Param
        (
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext][ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] $Context,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $WorkflowTargetURL,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][string] $WorkflowTargetID,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIBaseURL,
            [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)][String] $APIKey
        )

    Try {

        $creds = $Context.Credentials
        $AuthCookie = $creds.GetAuthenticationCookie($WorkflowTargetURL)
        $cookie = "cookie $WorkflowTargetURL " + $AuthCookie

        $HeadersImport = @ {
            'Authorization' = $cookie
                'Api-Key' = $APIKey 'Accept' = "application/json"
        }

        $RestURLPublish = "https://$APIBaseURL/api/v1/workflows/$WorkflowTargetID/published"

        Invoke - RestMethod - Method "Post" - Uri $RestURLPublish - Headers $HeadersImport

        Write - host "Publish-NWF for $WorkflowTargetURL executed Successfully" - ForegroundColor Green
    }

    Catch {
        write - host - f Red "Error when executing Publish-NWF for $WorkflowTargetURL!"
        $_.Exception.Message
    }

}

$APIBaseUrl = "mytenant.nintexo365.com"
$APIKey = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

$username = '[email protected]'
$password = 'xxxxxxxxxxxx'

$encpassword = convertto - securestring - String $password - AsPlainText - Force
$cred = new - object - typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential - argumentlist $username, $encpassword

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

#Export workflow from source

$WorkflowSourceURL = "https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/source/"

Connect - PnPOnline - Url $WorkflowSourceURL - Credentials $cred

$ctx = Get - PnPContext

Export - NWF - Context $ctx - WorkflowSourceURL $WorkflowSourceURL - WorkflowSourceID "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" - WorkflowExportFileNameAndPath "c:\Test.nwp" - APIBaseURL $APIBaseURL -
    APIKey $APIKey

#Import workflow into destination

$WorkflowTargetURL = "https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/destination/"

Connect - PnPOnline - Url $WorkflowSourceURL - Credentials $cred

$ctx = Get - PnPContext

Import - NWF - Context $ctx - WorkflowTargetURL $WorkflowTargetURL - WorkflowTargetID "yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyyyyy" - WorkflowImportFileNameAndPath "c:\Test.nwp" - APIBaseURL $APIBaseURL -
    APIKey $APIKey

#Publish imported workflow at destination

$WorkflowTargetURL = "https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/destination/"

Connect - PnPOnline - Url $WorkflowSourceURL - Credentials $cred

$ctx = Get - PnPContext

Publish - NWF - Context $ctx - WorkflowTargetURL $WorkflowTargetURL - WorkflowTargetID "yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyyyyy" - APIBaseURL $APIBaseURL - APIKey $APIKey
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

After successful execution of the script, check the Last modified, Latest Version Published and Modified By values for imported workflow as shown below,

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this article we saw how to export, import and publish Nintex Workflow for Office 365 between different environments.

I hope you liked this article! Please share your valuable comments and feedback with me.

Stay well and happy Nintexing...!