point-n-click

After installing VS2008 pro on the sharepoint 2007 64 bit win2k8 server, I create a new SharePoint Sequential Workflow project and get the dreaded "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" dialog.

A similar project creation failure occurs using Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 on the 64 bit MOSS 2007 server too. In the case of the newer IDE however, there is no dialog box, rather the status bar on the bottom says

Creating project 'SharePointWorkflow1'... project creation failed.

So it seems like the "plan" as indicated by the Program Manager is currently half implemented. The VS2010 Beta 1 actually shows these project templates to the user on a 64 bit environment (not according to plan), however the project creation fails (seemingly by design).

>"The plan for Visual Studio 2010 is to still not support SharePoint 2007 Workflow projects on a 64bit workstation. VS 2010 will avoid the problem of throwing exceptions by hiding the Project Templates for those two project types: SharePoint 2007 Sequential Workflow or SharePoint 2007 State Machine Workflow. However Visual Studio 2010 will support 64bit development of the future version of SharePoint." - Christin Boyd, Program Manager, Visual Studio.

Is Microsoft really taking SharePoint ECM development seriously? e.g. at TechEd (a couple weeks ago), the keynote reinforced the 64-bit-everywhere mantra for MOSS, but this frustrating issue doesn't make that feel very near term.

i.e. this issue is 'closed' from Microsoft's standpoint *YIKES* https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=325668

http://blogs.msdn.com/nikhil/archive/2008/01/15/sharepoint-workflow-feature-in-vs-2008.aspx

There is one workaround that seems promising - the Workflow templates in WSPbuilder from CodePlex are supposed to work. I'll going to give that a shot next.