GotSpeech.NET

Ok, here is the situation:

We have a MainWorkflow which invokes a number of other workflows. Lets call this Workflow A. From A, I invoke a login workflow which contains all the authentication code. When this workflow completes, we will know all the users info. This is Workflow B.

From Workflow B, we must pass the user info back to workflow A, so that when workflow C is invoked, the user info is available to be passed to workflow C.

From Workflow C, we will have other sub-workflows that will be invoked that must also have access to this user info.

We have tried using Dependency Properties but to no Avail.

Any help would be much apperciated.

NOTE: We have read Marshall's blog post about passing variables from one workflow to another, and that is where we heard of Dependency Properties.
 

Did you tried with using InstanceDependencey properties.

Please try this one : http://gotspeech.net/blogs/marshallharrison/archive/2008/01/14/creating-subflows.aspx.

 

Thanks,

Suresh. 

---

Suresh S
Tech Lead

Hi Jon

I had a similar question a while back...hopefully this thread will help you....

http://gotspeech.net/forums/thread/3530.aspx

 

Brian

---

Brian Campbell
Speech Developer
Micro Design Centre Inc.
905-918-3027

Hello John,

One way to handle this situation is to create a Dictionary as a property in the main or parent workflow like this...

private Dictionary<string, object> _session = new Dictionary<string, object>();

public Dictionary<String, Object> Session
{
   get { return _session; }
   set { _session = value; }
}

You can then add any Key/Value pair that is used as a parameter anywhere in the callflow like this...

<parentWorkflow>.Session.Add("SomeParameter", someValue);

Then in your sub-workflows use this syntax like this...

Activity workflowActivity = this;
while (workflowActivity.Parent != null)
{
    workflowActivity = workflowActivity.Parent;
}
_parentWorkFlow = (SomeWorkFlow)workflowActivity;
string subWorkFlowParameter = _parentWorkFlow.Session["SomeParameter"].ToString();

This works especially well when you need to maintain session information for the life of the call session.  Once the Session dictionary is loaded you can use what is in that object anywhere in the call flow or any sub-call flow.  This is kind of a Web page paradigm.

 Also look into the use of InstanceDependencyProperty for passing in parameters to custom workflows in a SpeechSequenceActivity.  They work the same as a DependencyProperty but they are part of the Microsoft.SpeechServer.Dialog namespace.  I have used them with no problems.

Let me know how it works.

kstep

So as a follow up statement:

The problem we were encountering had to do with the way we initially set up our project. We started a MainWorkflow, and from this invoked all of our other Workflows (which were created as VoiceResponseWorkflow files). This seemed to be the reason we could not pass parameters back and forth from the Mainworkflow to all of the other sub-workflows.

 Instead, we needed to create all the other sub-workflows as VoiceResponseSequenceActivity files. When we created the sub-workflows as activities and complied the project, the sub-workflows appeared in the toolbox under the Project Components section. This enabled us to drag the specific activity (purple gear icon) onto the Mainworkflow. We could then pass parameters from one activity back to the Mainworkflow, and then from the Mainworkflow to the activities.

 This was done via the code that was posted above by kstep. So, a word to the wise, use VoiceResponseSequenceActivity files instead of VoiceResponseWorkflow files if you plan on passing parameters from one to the other.
 

 

I've recently found that nesting of VoiceResponseSequencyActivity files will cause some major performance problems due to deep cloning of the activities.

Still working on this issue - I'll blog and post more info once I'm finished.

---

Marshall Harrison
Microsoft MVP, Office Communications Server


www.GoldSys.com
W: 303.447.2774
H: 904.342-6205

the gotspeech guy

I read a post you made about this earlier. Eagerly awaiting your blog post to see what it is you discovered.

kstep,

 

What are you declaring _parentWorkFlow as? I have tried to use this but am missing something along the way.

 

_parentWorkFlow = (InTouchWorkflow)workflowActivity;

 

thanks

Rick

 

 

Hello Rick,

 _parentWorkFlow is a private local variable.  It is created inside your custom speech activity like this...

private YourMainWorkflow _parentWorkFlow;

Activity workflowActivity = this;
while (workflowActivity.Parent != null)
{
    workflowActivity = workflowActivity.Parent;
}
_parentWorkFlow = (YourMainWorkflow)workflowActivity;
string subWorkFlowParameter = _parentWorkFlow.Session["SomeParameter"].ToString();

Thanks I will give this a try.

 

Rick

 

Hey Jon

 I have read these posts and I have to say they helped me solve a problem in a way, but i have a question, the Main Workflow (u mentioned as Workflow A) what type of Workflow is it? I mean is it just a .NET workflow application or is it a Speech Application?

---

Best Regards
Omar Sultan

Hi Omar,

The Main Workflow (Workflow A) is a Voice Response Sequential Workflow.