Workflows: Comparison of SharePoint Designer and Visual Studio for creating workflow solutions

SharePoint Designer and Visual Studio 2005 (or later) can be used to create workflow solutions for MOSS. In order to be able to choose which platform to use, one has to understand the differences between authoring workflows in SPD versus Visual Studio. In the following section, I have summed up all the comparison criteria, which I have read in different books/articles or ones that I have tried myself. 1. Authors: SPD: Designers can author solutions, not just developers. VS: Only developers can author solutions. 2. Types of Workflows: SPD: It is possible to author sequential workflows only. VS: It is possible to author state-machine as well as sequential workflows. 3. Site Content Types: SPD: Does not support site content types. VS: Site content types are supported. 4. Deployment: SPD: Workflows are attached to a single list and are data-bound to that list. VS: Workflows are authored as templates. Such a workflow can be packaged as a SharePoint feature and installed on multiple sites or lists. 5. Forms: SPD: ASP.NET forms are auto-generated and can be customized. VS: Designed forms (InfoPath or ASP.NET forms) 6. Extendibility: SPD: Reuse out-of-the-box or custom deployed activities. No code-behind, so tools are limited to what’s included. VS: Reuse out-of-the-box activities, as well as building your own activities Code-behind capabilities make it very flexible and powerful. 7. Debugging: SPD: No step-by-step debugging. VS: Step-by-step debugging is supported.