Workflow History Not Found in Sharepoint 2010

In this article we can explore a common scenario associated with creating Workflows in Visual Studio 2010.

Scenario

You are creating a workflow through Visual Studio 2010. The SharePoint 2010 templates are installed and while selecting a Workflow template and entering the site URL you receive the following error:

"The SharePoint site at URL is missing a target, task, or history list. Each of these lists is required to associate a workflow template. Please create a list and then launch this wizard."



Root Cause

The Workflow requires the following lists for its working:

• Workflow History of Template 140
• Workflow Tasks of Template 107

Solution

There are many solutions to the above problem like:

1. Create a new site from a site template that includes Workflow History & Task list (Example Team Site template)
2. Create the 2 lists Programmatically
3. Create the 2 lists using PowerShell

Here I will apply the second solution, using C# code to create the 2 lists.

Implementation

Create a new SharePoint Console Application and change the project properties as:

• Target Framework to 3.5

Add the following code to the Main() method. Please change your URL accordingly.

class Program

{

    private static string URL = "http://yourblanksite";

    static void Main(string[] args)

    {

        using (SPSite site = new SPSite(URL))

        {

            using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())

            {

                web.Lists.Add("Workflow History", string.Empty, SPListTemplateType.WorkflowHistory);

                web.Lists.Add("Workflow Task", string.Empty, SPListTemplateType.Tasks);

            }

        }

    }

}

Execute the preceding code and if it completed without errors, your problem is solved.

Verification

Inside SharePoint you can verify our new lists as shown below:



Inside Visual Studio 2010, try creating the workflow again and you should not see the error. The select lists page should display the new lists which were created.



Please note that the lists are displayed here based on their Template Id.

Template Enumeration Reference

You can refer to the Template Enumeration (SPListTemplateType) here.

The link is added in the References section too.

References

http://tinyurl.com/sp2010-lsttmpref

Summary

In this article we have explored a common error scenario associated with workflow creation and a solution for it.