Transferring Nintex workflows to another site

Question

In production environment, we have a SharePoint site with some Nintex 2007 workflows. Now we need to replicate the production site for testing purposes.

The target server already had Nintex installed when I restored the SharePoint backup.
Unfortunately, it turned out Nintex license has expired on it so we're a little paralyzed.

The workflows seem to have been moved with the backup, however some workflow steps in Nintex designer show exclamation marks with this tooltip:

queryListActivity1 of type Nintex.Workflow.Activities.QueryListActivity is unrecognized by Nintex Workflow

When I activate Nintex license, how can I ensure that Nintex workflow is deployed correctly? I see the following options:

• copy Nintex database to the new server and try hook it up with Nintex instance (how?);
• save existing workflows on source server using Nintex Export feature and upload them on target server.

What is the best one, or are there any other options available?

Answer 1

The preferred method is to export your workflow from the Developer License site and then import the workflow in your newly licensed site.

Once you have imported the workflow, simply save and publish.

Answer 2

Be aware that copying workflows between sites doesn't always result in a working result.

For example if your workflow queries a list, the connection to the list is implicitly based on the List unique ID (GUID) on the development server. When you move the workflow to the production server the equivalent list will have a different GUID.

You will often have to open these steps in the editor and re-create the list query (pointing at the right list) to get them to run.

I would be very keen to find a tool that can migrate Nintex workflows and automatically fix up things like site URLs and list GUIDs myself.