Access to live data from an StateMachineWorkflowActivity
-
Hi, I'm trying to learn the WF architecture. What I want to know is: Is there a way to access data stored in the workflow class? I couldn't find a way to access this - even if I use the StateMachineWorkflowInstance-class to access the CurrentState it's parents won't reflect the live-data (and of course if the workflow was persisted you cannot access the CurrentState at all). So how can I get usefull information about the current state? As an example let's say the worklfow handles a list with order and I want to get a list of all existing order ... the only hack I found was by implementing a event/method in a local service, invoking the event - handle the event and sending the information back via the CallExternalMethod. So I handle the event using a ManualResetEvent to wait for the reply .... useless to say that this is .... not the way I want to do this in the future for simple data-requests. And you can't just save the information in an external collection because the persistence-service won't see this stroage (only the data in the workflow). Yes you can use a database to store the info and access the db - but I don't think this is good design. Can somebody help?
-
Hi, I'm trying to learn the WF architecture. What I want to know is: Is there a way to access data stored in the workflow class? I couldn't find a way to access this - even if I use the StateMachineWorkflowInstance-class to access the CurrentState it's parents won't reflect the live-data (and of course if the workflow was persisted you cannot access the CurrentState at all). So how can I get usefull information about the current state? As an example let's say the worklfow handles a list with order and I want to get a list of all existing order ... the only hack I found was by implementing a event/method in a local service, invoking the event - handle the event and sending the information back via the CallExternalMethod. So I handle the event using a ManualResetEvent to wait for the reply .... useless to say that this is .... not the way I want to do this in the future for simple data-requests. And you can't just save the information in an external collection because the persistence-service won't see this stroage (only the data in the workflow). Yes you can use a database to store the info and access the db - but I don't think this is good design. Can somebody help?
-
Interestingly when .NET 3.0 was called WinFX all the marketing buzz was about Avalon (WPF) and Indigo (WCF). When it got renamed as .NET 3.0 they then threw in WF and WCS. You could argue that WF was in a more complete state than WPF and WCF as regards tooling. Yet the latter two get all the attention and WF has been comparatively ignored! At work, for example, we're heavily into WPF and WCF but not WF - despite the fact that we could really make use of it. So I'm not surprised you aren't getting any answers here. Try asking in the WF forum in the MSDN forums. You're likely to get Microsofties popping up over there.
Kevin
-
Interestingly when .NET 3.0 was called WinFX all the marketing buzz was about Avalon (WPF) and Indigo (WCF). When it got renamed as .NET 3.0 they then threw in WF and WCS. You could argue that WF was in a more complete state than WPF and WCF as regards tooling. Yet the latter two get all the attention and WF has been comparatively ignored! At work, for example, we're heavily into WPF and WCF but not WF - despite the fact that we could really make use of it. So I'm not surprised you aren't getting any answers here. Try asking in the WF forum in the MSDN forums. You're likely to get Microsofties popping up over there.
Kevin
-
Well I guess I will try the managed groups. It's somewhat sad that WF don't get much attention - I think it has great potential.
CKnig wrote:
I think it has great potential
Yes, that's what I thought when I played with it briefly in the period before my current contract. I spent some time with the book Pro WF by Bruce Bukovics which I thought was well written and comprehensive.
Kevin