triggering workflow services

Question

I would like to use WF for implementing some in-house processes as workflow services, as I saw most of the requirements like scalability, reliability, monitoring, .. listed in the AppFabric feature list ;-)
The speciality ist, that the services should execute when specific conditions occur. The conditions are very differently, they could be something like a new e-mail in an exchange mailbox, a new row in a database table, a new message in a websphere mq, periodically each 2 hours, reaching a specific datetime, ...
Is there a good place in WF for implementing a kind of 'custom trigger'? Or would it be recommendable to implement some client application - I think about NT Services observing the condition and calling WF Services to do the job?

Thanks
Thorsten

Answer 1

Hi,

WCF Workflow serivces are typically activated when a call is made to a service endpoint. This makes them ideal for service oriented scenarios.

It looks like your scenario is more of an integration solution. BizTalk Server provices adapters that can trigger processes from the external systems you described (SQL, POP3 and MQSeries are out-of-the-box adapters in BizTalk.)

I'd take a look at BizTalk for those types of scenarios.

Regards,

Alan Smith

---

www.CloudCasts.net - Community Webcasts Powered by Azure

Answer 2

AppFabric is built for WCF services and workflow services--workflows that are exposed to the world via WCF services. These services aren't triggered by events; they process messages. To kick off an instance you would send a message to the service.

Answer 3

Thanks, this made things clearer!

Thorsten

Answer 4

Thanks, this made things clearer!

Thorsten

I try develope with Workflow service. It's work fine. But I cannot return value type list collection  i.e.

[

OperationContract]

List

 

<Users> GetAllUsers();


in Design page of Workflow of Vs2008 cannot return (RerutnValue)   this List Collection Type (from proptery windows when i choose it) . What 's happen ? how to solve ?
Please help for this solution too.

pnoimanee

Answer 5

Hi,

In your example, is the Users class a WCF Data Contract?

In order to use you classes as parameters or return values they must be maked for serialization, either XmlSerializable, or attributed as WCF DataContracts.

Regards,

Alan

---

www.CloudCasts.net - Community Webcasts Powered by Azure

Answer 6

Thank you very much, Alan. I try again but it cannot. I implement parts as following (sample)..


" WFUserInformations.cs"

[

DataContract]

 

public class WFUserInformations

{

[

DataMember(Name = "UserID", Order = 1)]

 

public int UserID { get; set; }

[

DataMember(Name = "UserTypeID", Order = 2)]

 

public short UserTypeID { get; set; }

[

DataMember(Name = "UserTitle", Order = 3)]

 

public string UserTitle { get; set; }

[

DataMember(Name = "UserName", Order = 4)]

 

public string UserName { get; set; }

[

DataMember(Name = "FirstName", Order = 5)]

 

public string FirstName { get; set; }

[

DataMember(Name = "LastName", Order = 6)]

 

public string LastName { get; set; }

}

[

ServiceContract]

 

public interface IWFInvokeUserInfos

{

[

OperationContract]

 

List<WFUserInformations> GetUserInformations()
}


And  in Design UI of  WF i have implement in ReceiveActivity:  

When click "ServiceoperationInfo"  at properties windows. It show as following:

   parameter tab :

    Name                   Type                                                           Direction
  (returnValue)           System.collection.generic.List'1[[wfuse.....             out


How will i solve this solution ?

best regards,
pmoimanee