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Hi, there
My problem is that I
want to share data between the workflow and application.
Here is the problem
more simplified:
I have created a state
workflow and I have one public variable, I handle the “stateInitialization”
event and I have putted here a code activity pointing to the “InitState”
function.
 
It looks like this:
public sealed partial
class Workflow1: StateMachineWorkflowActivity
{
            public int myValue = 1;
 
            public Workflow1()
            {
                        InitializeComponent();
            }
 
            private void InitState(object
sender, EventArgs e)
            {
                        myValue
= 3;
            }
}
 
My main function
looks like this:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
            using(WorkflowRuntime
workflowRuntime = new WorkflowRuntime())
            {
                        AutoResetEvent waitHandle = new
AutoResetEvent(false);
                        workflowRuntime.WorkflowCompleted
+= delegate(object sender,                       WorkflowCompletedEventArgs e) {waitHandle.Set();};
                        workflowRuntime.WorkflowTerminated
+= delegate(object sender,                      WorkflowTerminatedEventArgs e)
                        {
                                    Console.WriteLine(e.Exception.Message);
                                    waitHandle.Set();
                        };
 
                        WorkflowInstance
instance = workflowRuntime.CreateWorkflow(typeof(WorkflowMockup.Workflow1));
 
            instance.Start();
 
            Workflow1 aWorkflow =
instance.GetWorkflowDefinition() as Workflow1;
            aWorkflow.myValue = 2;
 
           
waitHandle.WaitOne();
            }
}
 
The sequence of
execution looks goes like this:
 
myValue = 1; from the initialization.            (myValue is not set)
myValue = 2; from the
main program. (myValue is 1 before this)
And
myValue = 3; from the
InitState function, but myValue is still 1 and not 2.
 
At the first
appearance it seamed that there are two Workflow1 objects and they don’t have anything
to do with each other. Application side is one instance and workflow side is other
instance.
But this is not the
problem the problem might be that there are two threads and somehow the data
does not get synchronized.
 
To overcome this I
found two workarounds.
1. Call external
method and pass the data as a parameter.
The problem here is
that if you have large data structures than you need to pass it all. Need to
make the data serializable and need to pass as parameter.
 
2. Create a Singleton
class and put the data inside of this. This way you can get the data anywhere.
The problem with this
solution is that I personally do not like it. It is not a good design practice.
Does anybody know a
better way/design to solve this problem?
My big picture problem
is that that I want to render UI, based on Business Objects handled by
workflow.

There is no direct way to share data between the workflow and the host. From the host you cannot access directly (eg myWorkflowInstance.MyProperty) Using CallExternalMethod/HandleExternalEvent with an ExternalDataExcahnge service is the way to go. If your data is large than it may be appropriate to save it to a database and then pass a key around via the communication service. If these items that you wish to pass are owned by the workflow then you could save them as UserTrackPoints and then query the TrackingDB for them in your host application.
If these do not seem like they apply, please reply with additional details on your scenario and we will take a deeper look.
Thanks,
Steve Danielson [Microsoft]This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Use a database.

There is no direct way to share data between the workflow and the host. From the host you cannot access directly (eg myWorkflowInstance.MyProperty) Using CallExternalMethod/HandleExternalEvent with an ExternalDataExcahnge service is the way to go. If your data is large than it may be appropriate to save it to a database and then pass a key around via the communication service. If these items that you wish to pass are owned by the workflow then you could save them as UserTrackPoints and then query the TrackingDB for them in your host application.
If these do not seem like they apply, please reply with additional details on your scenario and we will take a deeper look.
Thanks,
Steve Danielson [Microsoft]This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.