Difference between Association, Initiation, Modification, and Task Edit form

Question

What are the difference between these forms?

• Association form
• Initiation form
• Modification form
• Task edit form

Answer 1

• The Association form is used when a user attaches (aka enables, associates) your workflow with a list/doc lib. This is the form that appears right after he choses the WF definition/name/task list/etc. when he clicks OK, if you have an Association form on your workflow, it will be displayed. Information from the first default page will be passed to the Association form, so you can retrieve information from it. It is then your responsability (if you develop Visual Studio workflows), from the Association form, to attach the WF to the list, create the task list if needed, etc.
  The Association form can be used to configure settings on the workflow, such as the users who approve, email texts, etc. These will be default settings for all WF instances running on the associated list (or content type).
• The Initiation form is seen by the user when the workflow starts. You can use it so the user can change some settings for this instance of the workflow.
• The Modification form is even less used than the 2 first ones: it allows users to change some settings set from the Initiation form after the instance started. It's quite a challenge to 1. develop it and 2. train your users to access/use it.
• One Task edit form can be associated to each type of task (task CT) you use in your workflow. Instead of the default/standard task edit form proposed by SharePoint (and with a UI that has nothing to do with your business requirements), you can create your own forms, so users see a UI that talks to them, with less fields, buttons with correct strings, etc.

Answer 2

Three types of forms are used in SharePoint workflows:

1. Association and Initialization Forms

   Association and initialization forms are displayed for users to fill out before any workflow is actually started. You can use these forms to enable users to set parameters and other information for the workflow before it starts.

   Association and Initialization Forms

2. Modification Forms

   Modifications are options you present to users to change the workflow as it's running on an item. You can then create modification forms that enable users to specify the parameters of the modification.

   Modification Forms

3. Task Forms

   You can also specify custom forms for the tasks in your workflow. Because tasks are SharePoint items that are assigned a content type, however, the content type actually determines the custom forms used with the task type.

   Task Forms

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