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Implementing GoTo in WF 4

Given a SQL Server-persisted .NET 4 Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) workflow service deployed under AppFabric, how can I "jump" the service from one activity to another? The workflow could be sequential or flowchart.

The use case is administrative. A long-running workflow is idle at Receive activity A. Some client mistakenly calls the service, progressing it to Receive activity B. The workflow (which could be embedded in a larger workflow) has no path back to A. The client calls the support desk and requests that the workflow be set back to A.

We've seen this case occur frequently in production. Our existing BPM system supports a "goto" call. How can this be accomplished in WF 4?

EDIT: If the above is not practical, what is a good design pattern for implementing a "fail" activity off from the "happy path" that can branch to one of a limited number of known prior activities (restart from here) based on a variable? The goal is to avoid creating an unreadable workflow with a multitude of lines.

EDIT 2: We decided not to go this route, but there's a newer MSDN article on doing just this.

EDIT 3: We changed our minds again and are going with Leon Welicki's solution from the MSDN article linked above. :)

Solution

  • This can't be done out of the box.

    If it can be done at all it would mean opening up the workflow state, stored in 4 binary columns and changing those to the previous state knowing that any number of activities could have executed and any variables could have been changed or even dropped because they are no longer in scope.

    Suppose I was going to try this I would try copying the state from the SQL database every time a workflow went idle so you get a sort of stack with all previous idle states of a workflow. Then at some later time when the workflow is idle and not in memory you can replace the current state with a previous state and reload the workflow. I have never tried it so don't know if it will work and see quite a few potential problems, thinks like DB transaction having competed or emails having been send but executing a second time.