{"id":1223,"date":"2011-01-06T20:33:04","date_gmt":"2011-01-06T20:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wapshere.com\/missmiis\/?p=1223"},"modified":"2011-03-09T07:56:32","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T07:56:32","slug":"passing-data-from-a-custom-workflow-via-the-request-object","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wapshere.com\/missmiis\/passing-data-from-a-custom-workflow-via-the-request-object","title":{"rendered":"Passing data from a custom Workflow via the Request object"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>I have been writing an activity that resets forgotten BPOS passwords (more on that later) and I wanted to include a Notification activity that would inform the user about the password reset request. To make the notification useful I want to include whether the reset succeeded, and if it failed, what the reason was. To do this I need to be able to pass information from the custom “Change BPOS Password”\u00c2\u00a0activity to the Notification activity.<\/p>\n

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What does the documentation say?<\/h3>\n

The first thing I did was consult the official document Developing Custom Activities and Workflows<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0The only\u00c2\u00a0thing I could find about passing data\u00c2\u00a0was this:<\/p>\n

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Passing Data between Workflow Phases<\/h3>\n
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Some scenarios may require that an authorization workflow share some information with an action workflow that runs for the same request. (For more information, see Request Processing<\/a>.) The recommended approach for accomplishing this scenario is as follows:<\/p>\n

Passing Data from an Authorization Workflow Activity to an Action Workflow<\/h4>\n
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  1. Create and bind one or more attributes to the Request<\/a> resource type in the FIM schema that can store the information that you want to share between activities. You can do this through Web services or by using the FIM Portal.<\/li>\n
  2. Grant permissions to the person or resource that will be assigned to the ActorID<\/strong> of the activity to read and modify the new attribute. Note that this step is not required if the ActorID<\/strong> is set to the FIM Service Account resource. For more information, see Microsoft.ResourceManagement.Workflow.Activities<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. In the authorization workflow activity, use the UpdateResourceActivity<\/strong> activity to set the desired value on the new attribute.<\/li>\n
  4. In the action workflow activity, use the ReadResourceActivity<\/strong> to get the value of the new attribute.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    However this didn’t seem to address my simpler situation. I’m not trying to pass a value between an AuthZ and an Action workflow – I just want to pass the data between two steps in the same Action workflow. Perhaps I can use a WorkflowData parameter?<\/p>\n

    But as I thought about it I decided that maybe the method mentioned in the documentation was the right way to go. Essentially I am updating the request object itself with the results of the activity, and this then forms a permanent record. To jump ahead in the story, here’s what a request object looks like after a failed password reset operation. I think that’s pretty useful!<\/p>\n

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    Create the Attributes<\/h3>\n

    So following step one from the documentation, I created the following attributes and bound them to the Request resource type:<\/p>\n