This document discusses building, testing, and extending integrated workflows in Neuron ESB. It covers containers, flow control, exception management, external assemblies, message processing, arguments and variables, custom workflows and activities, building workflows, and debugging workflows. The goals are to understand complex workflow logic, custom activities, flow control, exception handling, external code integration, message transformation, and testing workflows.

1. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows

2. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• Understand building and testing Workflows
• Understand how to use complex logic in Workflows
• Understand how to use custom Workflow activities
Goals

3. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• Flow control and exception management in workflows
• Using arguments and variables in workflows
• Creating custom workflows and workflow activities
• Building and debugging workflows
Lesson Plan

4. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• Containers
• Sequence - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg983473(v=vs.110).aspx
• Flowchart - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg983474(v=vs.110).aspx
• State Machine - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee264171(v=vs.110).aspx
• Parallel Activity - not “true” parallelism
• Pick Activity
• Every branch is executed.
• When one branch completes, the others are canceled.
• Great for approval scenarios
Flow Control

5. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• Workflows can have errors too
• Use a TryCatch activity to catch errors
• Throw
• Throw with Message
• Rethrow
• Why use catch and what happens if you don’t?
• Catch exceptions if you want to handle it in code. i.e. retry logic
• Don’t catch or rethrow if you want the workflow instance to abort
• If the workflow includes a persist, you can fix the issue and restart
Exception Management

6. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• You can access custom and third-
party assemblies in Workflows
• Same rules apply as business
processes:
• GAC or <Instance> folder or
add Probing path to config
• <endpoint host name>
External Assemblies

7. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• Messages are manipulated mostly in the same manner as business processes:
• Transform Message
• Transform XML
• Code Steps – C#, C# Class, JavaScript, VB
• Assign activity
Message Processing
• Already have a business process that modifies the message? Call it!

8. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• Workflows in Neuron ESB have a default set of arguments:
• Normal Workflow:
• message
• configuration
• environmentVariables
• Request-Reply Workflow:
• request
• reply
• configuration
• environmentVariables
• Correlated Workflow:
• message
• configuration
• environmentVariables
• You should not add additional arguments! They will be ignored
• You can add variables at any scope:
• Any type (i.e. Container, ESBMessage, string, XmlDocument, custom classes…)
Arguments and Variables

9. Creating Workflows with Arguments and Variables : Demo
Purpose:
To familiarize users with workflows, arguments and variables in the Neuron ESB Explorer
Objectives:
To acquaint users with aspects of workflows:
• Create a normal workflow
• Arguments of a workflow
• Creating and using variables in a workflow

10. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• You can import existing Workflows into
Neuron
• Instead of creating a Workflow, import the
XAML
• You can also create Custom Activities
• Put the assembly into the <install
directory>Neuron ESB v_3<instance
name>Workflows
• You can also use a Custom Workflow as an
activity!
• See the Samples:
• Developing a Custom Workflow Activity
• Importing a Microsoft Workflow Sample
• Using a Microsoft Workflow Sample as a
Custom Workflow Activity
Custom Workflows and Activities

11. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• Start with a container – usually Sequence
• Add Activities
• Each activity has a different set of properties – some are visible on the designer, most are in the property grid
• Optionally test with the workflow tester
• No debugger in the Workflow Designer
• Apply and “Deploy”
Building Workflows

12. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
• There is no debugger, so how do you debug?
• WriteLine – outputs to Output window at design time and application group log file at runtime
• Write to Event Log – Application event log
• How to use the tester with singleton and long-running transactions?
• For each Receive Activity will display a new Edit Test Message dialog box for you to set the new incoming message
and any necessary message properties
Debugging Workflows

13. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows : Lab
Purpose:
Acquaint users with creating a simple workflow definition
Objectives:
• Creating a Workflow
• Testing the Workflow at Design Time

14. Build, Test and Extend Integrated Workflows
Review
• A workflow definition requires a container in which to add workflow activities
• Workflows can reference external assemblies and use them as part of a workflow definition
• Variables can be created in workflow definitions to make storing information for later use easier
• Workflow definitions do not have a debugger associated with them