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Sharepoint(MOSS) and WWF

Please help

The Scenario...

I have a workflow that is attached to a listto call a LONG running webservice, persist and wait for a response (other than the "ok" response from the call). The reason for this is that this process can take as long as 30 minutes so don't want to keep it in memory as there are many other workflows that need to run.

The Problem...

I can get the webservice call to work with the invokewebservice activity. The problem I am finding is how to to get the response back to the workflow. I have tried publishing the statemachine as a webservice which didn't seem to work as this is probably more suited for when you have your own workflow host (please confirm). I have also tried the handleexternalevent activity to no avail (theworker webservice calls a webservice on the sharepoint machine which then raises the event).

The only way I can think to do it is to have the worker webservice modify the list item throught the built in sharepoint webservices and have the workflow hooked to that event. But how in the world can you get a complex type back into the workflow after your workflow has persisted? This is the problem, I guess I could put xml into a column which the workflow could then deserialize, but it doesnt seem like I should have to do this. Is therea webservice I can call and pass in the workflow instanceid ( i pass it to the worker webservice so it can (in theory) call back to sharepoint with the appropriate instance.

Thanks

Ryan B

Ryan B B Thursday, August 30, 2007 2:27 AM

I want to make sure I am clear here so let me add this...

Essentially the question is if you have a workflow in Sharepoint that uses long running external resources such that the workflow should persist during this time...How do you then get a complex type response back to said workflow instance to resume processing?

I am pulling my hair out on this one.

The only way I can think to do it is to place it as xml in a column and have the workflow fire up and consume that column for the response.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

Ryan B

Ryan B B Thursday, August 30, 2007 5:51 AM

Is this that rare of a situation? Someone has to have a clue on this one, this is my last shot on this forum.

Ryan B B Wednesday, September 05, 2007 12:51 AM

I had been wondering the same thing from an architecture point of view in some of our design sessions. How do you fire a WF event in MOSS if it is not tied to a list event? Is it even possible? It seems that what you are trying to do is supported in standard WF or the.net 3.5 WF where WFs can be called using WCF in an app you construct. But since SharePoint is hosting the WF it would have to offer up an entry point for you to do what you want and if it does not exist as you are finding then you may be stuck with the list event.

Sorry I could not be much help.

Bruce VB1 Wednesday, September 05, 2007 10:19 AM

Hey Bruce,

You are exactly right. I have tried everything and have since given up. I've gone down the path of using an xml column to host my response in sharepoint. I haven't gotten far because well, I'm doing this on my own time and it is going slow. I just want to thank you for your validation of my thoughts.

Do you have any resources regarding the WCF calling a hosted workflow I could check out? I have heard of this, but haven't seen anything on it. I was going to expose a hosted WF along side the sharepoint WF and could use any help on this communication.

Thanks,

-Ryan

Ryan B B Tuesday, September 11, 2007 5:22 AM

You can use google to search for other answers

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