We need to build a couple applications that require fairly advanced workflow functionality. The plan is to store the data in SQL Server, use Windows Workflow Foundation as the workflow engine, and build the frontend using an RIA technology such as Flex or Silverlight.
We already have Sharepoint 2007 set up, and some of us (including me) have a little bit of experience creating custom Sharepoint workflows that work with data in Sharepoint lists.
My question is, would it make sense to use Sharepoint for the workflow, while the actual data is stored outside of Sharepoint in a separate database? We need the task, authentication, and email functionality of Sharepoint, but our data model is a bit complex so we'd rather not store the data in Sharepoint. We'd rather not start from scratch with Workflow Foundation, because Sharepoint already gives us 90% of the functionality we need.
Any thoughts / advice?
Best Answer
I think that this is a great example for use of SharePoint as a platform. I dont see any conceptual problems using it in the way that you describe. I see SharePoint as a development platform. One thing you might want to keep in mind, is if you want to make the workflow continiue on events happening in the seperate database, you might have to update for instance the workflow tasks item from an external program.