In man occasions you would be faced by the need to move workflows you developed using SharePoint designer from one site to another. This might be the case if for example you developed and tested the workflow on a testing environment and now wants to move to the production environment without the need to re-develop the workflow.
The steps to perform this is rather simple:
So open the SharePoint designer and open the source site. click on the workflows link on the left and then the workflow you want to move. Click on the ribbon on export to Visio button.
Now rename the file exported (VWI file) to be a ZIP file and open it with Windows Explorer. You will find a file named “workflow.xoml.wfconfig.xml”
Just delete this file. Now rename the archive back to be a VWI file.
Now open the destination site and click the import from Visio and browse to the edited VWI file. This will allow you to re-associate your workflow as if it was created or exported from Visio rather than the designer while preserving any development made in the workflow it self.
Doesn't the export to visio only work if you have the Professional / Enterprise version of the product. Unless you have this, you won't be able to make any changes.
Works(ed) just fine for me with out Visio.
Your not actually making changes to the file, your turning the file into a zip, then opening it to delete a single entry.