Passing parameters into the workflow.

First of all you have to create parameters for your workflow. Select the workflow and a "Parameters" properties shows up in the property pane. You can create the parameters you need

When you start the workflow you have to pass in a parameter collection to the workflow. There is an example for this on Page 32 of the book "Presenting Windows Workflow Foundation"

Loke Kit Kai,

In Windows Workflow Foundation Help under Windows Workflow Foundation Tutorials there is a tutorial named: Creating Sequential Workflow

In the section "Creating the Host Application" you can find following sample code regarding passing parameters from a WinForms application:

private void submitButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Type type = typeof(Microsoft.Samples.Workflow.Quickstarts.SequentialWorkflow.ExpenseReportWorkflow);

// Construct workflow parameters
Dictionary<string, object> properties = new Dictionary<string, object>();
properties.Add("Amount", Int32.Parse(this.amount.Text));
properties.Add("Result", string.Empty);

// Start the workflow
workflowInstance = workflowRuntime.StartWorkflow(type, properties);
}

Regarding getting parameters from a custom activity you can take a look at this post: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=168365&SiteID=1

Also take in consideration that accessing workflow parameters directly from a custom activity is not a good design. You should have custom properties in your activity and you can assign them in workflow's Initialized event handler like this:

private void initialize(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

MyCustActivity.MyCustProp = Parameters["Amount"].Value;

}

I do not get parameter properties when I select properties by right clicking in the designer; what is the problem? Under "Activity" I do not get parameters as shown in some of the examples.

Hey Kit Kai,

Host :

1. Create a new generic Dictionary object that Dictionary<string,object>

2. Add a value to the dictionary object...param1.add(string,object)

• string is the name of the parameter
• object is the object to pass the workflow

3. Pass the dictionary object to the runtime while you are creating the workflow

Workflow :

1. Create a public property within the workflow which has the same name as the string value set for the dictionary object

See my post dated 6/16 on this thread. There is no properties item in the grid anymore, you create public properties on the workflow class.

Matt

The Parameters property when away some time ago. Now you need to add properties directly to the code file yourself. This can easily be done with snippets. Bring up the context menu in the code file where you want the property and choose Insert Snippet... To insert a property with dependency property choose Workflow / DependencyProperty - Property for both languages. For a property with variable choose Visual C# / prop in C# and Common Code Patterns / Properties and Procedures / Define a Property in VB.

Hi,

One more question regarding his post, I have a similar project, where I pass the dictionary with the parameters and the values are stored inside de properties of the workflow class, all works well.

The problem is that in another web form, I want to list thw running workflows and acces these properties, I can get to the point where I have the workflowInstance class, but How can I get the values of the properties from it? Thanks