Workflow Instances persisted by different hosts

Workflow Instances persisted by different hosts

• KhRo

  Joel,

  If I want to develop a generic Workflow Monitor (WinForm) to monitor all the workflow instances generated by difference hosts, does it mean the Winform need to reference to all available workflows If yes, then every time we add a need workflow, we need to recompile the Workflow Monitor again

  Andy

  
  

• rv_saraswathi

  Khalid,

  Any code sample which can list all the outstanding (not yet completed) workflow instances (no matter what status they are)

  Thanks in advance

  Andy

  
  

• SBoswood

  Richard,

  May I know if not using the Persistence Service, how do we know how many workflow instances are currently outstanding (not completed)

  Right now what I'm using is by checking the persisted workflow instances.

  Please advise.

  Andy Ho

  
  

• papadi

  I've done this particular example before and had no trouble reconstituting the workflow. When you get your Wfi instance, do you call Wfi.Load() immediately after calling GetWorkflow This is required if the host didn't originate the workflow because it has to retrieve it from persistence, which won't be done until you call Load() [at least, that's how it worked in the May CTP]
  
  
  

• keewest

  Khalid Aggag,

  Thanks for your code. It works only if I specify the workflow type. If I comment the line:

  options.WorkflowType = typeof(SimpleWorkflow);

  the code will get an " Could not load file or assembly " error at the workflow instance(s) which not referenced to the host. Therefore I can't have a generic workflow monitor which can list all the instances created by different hosts.

  Also is that only one workflow type can be specified Can I get the workflow of more than one type

  Andy Ho

  
  

• dork

  No, you don’t need to recompile your generic Workflow Monitor. All you
  need is make available the assembly that contains the new workflow type
  to the monitor, either by placing it in the same directory as the
  monitor exe or by installing it directly in the GAC.
  
  
  

• Deza

  Hello Andy,
  From any program that can access the oob sql tracking
  database and your workflow types, you can run the below sample usage
  example to obtain all running (not yet completed nor terminated)
  instances in the tracking database.
  
  SqlTrackingQuery sqlTrackingQuery = new
  SqlTrackingQuery(connectionString); //Add a connection string to your
  tracking database
  SqlTrackingQueryOptions options = new
  SqlTrackingQueryOptions();
  options.WorkflowStatus = WorkflowStatus.Running;
  options.WorkflowType = typeof(SimpleWorkflow); //Add the
  type of the workflow you are interested in, or comment out to retrieve
  all workflow instances
  IList<SqlTrackingWorkflowInstance> list =
  sqlTrackingQuery.GetWorkflows(options);
  foreach (SqlTrackingWorkflowInstance
  sqlTrackingWorkflowInstance in list)
  {
  
  Console.WriteLine(sqlTrackingWorkflowInstance.WorkflowInstanceId + " " +
  sqlTrackingWorkflowInstance.WorkflowType.Name + " "
  +
  
  sqlTrackingWorkflowInstance.WorkflowDefinition.Name);
  }
  
  I hope this helps.
  
  
  

• Thomas LEBRUN

  The persistence service is not the right service to be using. Generally, when you get a workflow from a peristence service, you are doing to it perform activity on it (start it, send an event, etc). Plus, if the workflow is already executing (on the existing host or another host using the same persistence database), it's going to be locked.
  
  Where you want to get your workflow information is from a tracking service. Check out the example of the Workflow Tracking Monitor.
  
  

• Felipe Heidrich

  If you are using the oob sql Tracking service you could query the
  tracking database via the SqlTrackingQuery class, just specify the
  workflow types and statuses you want to retrieve in your query, you
  could event query the sql tracking database directly for greater
  flexibility, since the database schema is publicly exposed. If you use a
  custom sql tracking service, then it depends on what the service did
  with the tracking events, to get this piece of information.
  
  
  

• hellomahesh

  Hello Andy,
  Using the Tracking service you can track and monitor every state of the
  workflow during its life cycle. This is what the tracing feature in WF
  is created for. The persistence database serves another purpose than
  monitoring the state of a workflow. You can use the Tracking service to
  achieve your goal of finding the currently outstanding workflow
  instances.
  
  
  

• rxg

  Joel,

  When query the outstanding workflow, there is an option to set the flow type:

  options.WorkflowType = typeof(SimpleWorkflow);

  What if I want to query more than one type How the code will be

  Andy Ho

  
  

• ITfJ

  I believe Andy's question was : How do you iterate the list of all workflows in the system, persisted or otherwise, without actually using the Persistence service I think his question stems from the idea that tracking gives you detail on a single workflow, but persistence is what tells you the list of all workflows in the system... unless Tracking can do that too and I just missed the method that does it
  
  

• DuncanP

  You don't need to specify a workflow type when you query. However you do need to have all of the types that you run in your system available on the machine where you run the query. This applies to workflow types, activity types and the types of any data members extracted from the workflow.

  Thanks,

  Joel West

  MSFTE - SDE in WF runtime and hosting

  This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

  
  
• Workflow Instances persisted by different hosts