WCF activities for windows workflow

UPDATED RELEASE: WCF activities 1.02 (Sep 05, 2007)

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:01:45 GMT

Added correlation of messages with running workflow instances based on a server side behavior and a custom attribute. This way you can mark with an attribute on your operation or Data contract if your message needs correlation to an existing workflow. You can provide an additional mapping class that can do the lookup from a functional parameter to an Guid (by a database lookup or something else you use for housekeeping) and that mapping class is invoked to get the right workflow instance for the service call.

I also updated the samples and the step by step guide to show how it works. The project also contains unit tests to validate the correlation behavior.

Last but not least I added addition validation to properties to prevent runtime errors because of miss-configuration of the activities.

The release is fully compatible with the previous versions of the WCF activity and therefore I only bumped the file version number not the assembly version.
Please let me know if you find any issues, and I will try to resolve them a.s.a.p.

Cheers,
Marcel

NEW POST: Fault handling with WCF activities

vriesmarcel — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:33:12 GMT

Duncanjs,
Fisrt of all sorry for this very late reply. I always forget to check the discussion list and I don't reciev mail when something is posted :-(

In the case of authorization the best way to do this is probably just using the WCF AuthoriationService class that you can implement yourself and add that to the service configuration. this way tthe message is never dispatched to the WCF stack in the workflow and therefore you will not be bothered with terminated workflows if you would throw an exception.

I do agree that a fault activity might be a nice thing to look into, I never needed it myself because I always use the service implemetnation pattern Message in - Messgae out where the out message contains the information that authorization failed. So I handle the exceptions in the code and return the information in the return message, not using Soap Faults.

If I can find some time I will see if I can create such a Fault activity as well.
thanks for the feedback,
Marcel

UPDATED WIKI: Home

vriesmarcel — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:25:01 GMT

Project information

This project provides windows workflow activities to create WCF services using windows workflow foundation. These activities are similar to the out of the box activities provided by microsoft for ASMX webservice implementation in workflow.
The initial release includes a WCFInput and a WCFOutput activity that have similar functionality as the current ASMX implementation.

The current implementation generates an WCF ServiceContract implementation (using code activity generation) that contains all selected operations from the interfaces selected in your workflow.

Hosting the workflow is nothing more then creating a web application with the workflow configuration same as with the current publish as webservice option for ASMX input/output activities.

Want to get a jump start? Go to the release page and read the step by step guide and see what is supported and how you can start writing WCF services using workflow.

To give an impression on how this looks like in your workflow, look at the screenshot.

Hosting the WCF service only requires you to add the service model configuration.

The contract implementation can be defined and will always be in the form <yourWFTypeName>_wcfContractImpl
Just set a reference to your workflow project and you are done....

You can find the latest information on the progression I make on my blog. So visit http://blogs.infosupport.com/marcelv for more info.

UPDATED RELEASE: WCF activities 1.02 (Sep 05, 2007)

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:22:44 GMT

Source code checked in

vriesmarcel — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:25:07 GMT

Updated sample application to show correlation behaviour based on functional parameters of the message. (Implementation of Cancel reservation)

Source code checked in

vriesmarcel — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:24:07 GMT

updated documentation

Source code checked in

vriesmarcel — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:37:46 GMT

- Added much more activity validation to make sure we don't run into runtime errors that can be prevented and are cause by miss configuration. - Fixed Correlation behavior so Simple correlation scenario works as well. - Renamed Behaviour to Behavior in all files.

CREATED ISSUE: OperationContractAttribute set Name, Action, ResponseAction...

peroxide20 — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 16:28:41 GMT

The Codegenerator does not take the available AttributeValues of the ServiceContract Interface.
For example I have an Interface:

[ServiceContract(Namespace = "http://TO.Test.ServiceContracts/2007/05",
Name = "TOCService")]
public interface ITOCService
{

[OperationContract(IsOneWay = false, AsyncPattern = false,
Name = "TestAction",
Action = "TestActionRequest",
ReplyAction = "TestActionResponse")]
TOCResponse TestAction(TOCRequest request);
}

the Code Generator ignores the Namer, Action, ReplyAction ... or it is impossible to configure it at workflow level.
would be a nice feature

Source code checked in

vriesmarcel — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:35:15 GMT

Added a correlation behavior that can be applied to the service interface. Apply the attribute WorkflowCorrelationParameterAttribute to a parameter in the service operation and correlation will be done automatically. Is the parameter of a different type, add a mapper class that implements IWorkflowCorelationLookup to map the parameter to a correct worklfow ID.(e.g. do a database lookup based on other ID found in the tracking store)

CLOSED ISSUE: Fix code review issues posted by users that appointed two possible null reference exceptions in designer code

vriesmarcel — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:36:09 GMT

CREATED ISSUE: Fix code review issues posted by users that appointed two possible null reference exceptions in designer code

vriesmarcel — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:36:04 GMT

CLOSED FEATURE: Add event invoked that is called after message is recieved and parameters are bound

vriesmarcel — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:34:53 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: WCF activities 1.01 (Jun 26, 2007)

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:34:43 GMT

* Added feature that WcfOutput return type is now of correct based on selected WCFInput method so generated properties are of correct type
* Added attached property that can influence the generated class name. Default is _wcfcontractimpl, but can now be set at root workflow, same as namespace and service name
* Fixed problem when initial call is on existing workflow and first call on runtime, since it was not started in this situation
* Fixed two possible null reference exceptions in the designer
* Added Invoked event handler that is called after the parameters have been bound when receiving a message.

Samples and documentation are not updated, since these are all minor changes.
Version number is also kept the same since these are all backward compatible changes.

Uninstall and reinstall new setup will upgrade all your workflows

CREATED FEATURE: Add event invoked that is called after message is recieved and parameters are bound

vriesmarcel — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:31:19 GMT

CLOSED ISSUE: Fix Workflow load exception when first workflow and not activating activity

vriesmarcel — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:30:20 GMT

CREATED ISSUE: Fix Workflow load exception when first workflow and not activating activity

vriesmarcel — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:30:07 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: WCF activities 1.01 (Jun 26, 2007)

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:26:28 GMT

Added feature that WcfOutput return type is now of correct based on selected WCFInput method so generated properties are of correcttype to
Added attached property that can influence the generated class name. Default is _wcfcontractimpl, but can now be set at root workflow, same as namespace and service name
Fixed problem when initial call is on exisiting workflow and first call on runtime, since it was not started in this sytuation
Fixed two posible null reference exceptions in the designer
Added Invoked eventhandler that is called after the parameters have been bound when recieveing a message.
Samples and documentation has not been updated, since these are all minor changes. Version number is also kept the same since these are all backward compatible changes.
Uninstall and reinstall new setup will upgrade all your workflows

CLOSED FEATURE: Make the name of the implementation contract adjustable

vriesmarcel — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:10:54 GMT

curently the implementation of the service cotnrat has the name _wcfContractImpl
This name should be made configurable on the workflow. Same as the ServiceName and Namespace properties

Source code checked in

vriesmarcel — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:10:52 GMT

Added attached property to influence generated class name for wcf implementation. Fixed problem with workflows not started with an activity that has IsActivating == true (exception that runtime is not started) added invoked handler;

Source code checked in

vriesmarcel — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:46:23 GMT

Return type of a WCFOutput activity is now also of the correct type based on the selected input activity. This solves the problem that properties geneated during binding for the output where always of type object. So strong type is now also on returnType. Fixed 2 possible null reference exceptions that could occur in the designer code