Workflow-as-activity produces string instead of object

[Nekrosis1]

Workflow-as-activity produces string instead of object

[glime-ai]

Based on the context provided, it seems that you are encountering an issue where the output of a workflow used as an activity within another workflow is being treated as a string instead of an object. This issue is likely due to the way the output is being serialized or deserialized when passed between workflows.

To address this issue, you can use the workaround you mentioned, which involves setting the output of the activity to JSON and then using a SetVariable activity to parse the JSON string back into an object. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to implement the workaround:

1. Ensure that the first workflow has an output defined as an object and that it is set to be usable as an activity.
2. In the first workflow, create dummy data as JSON and use JSON.parse() to ensure the output is an object.
3. In the second workflow, add the first workflow as an activity.
4. Set the output of this activity to a variable, but instead of setting it as an object, set it as JSON.
5. After the activity, add a SetVariable activity.
6. Configure the SetVariable activity to set a new variable of type object with the parsed output from the activity using the expression JSON.parse(getMyOutputFromMyActivity());.
7. Use the new object variable as needed in the rest of your workflow.

By parsing the JSON string into an object, you should be able to access its properties and use it as an object within your second workflow.

Please note that this is a workaround, and ideally, the system should handle the serialization and deserialization of objects correctly without the need for manual parsing. It might be worth reporting this issue to the Elsa Workflow GitHub repository or checking if there is an existing issue or update that addresses this behavior.

[Nekrosis1]

I tried to create a Workflow where I isolate the issue.
In that workflow, everything behaves as expected, the variable is of type object.
So the issue is not consistent or not where I assumed to be.
I added the workflow where the bug happens, which seems to do exactly the same thing as the example.

Is it possible that the variable somehow remembers that it once got a string, and then always converts its value to string, even when set to type object?

[sfmskywalker]

Hi @Nekrosis1 , thank you for reporting this issue. When trying to reproduce the issue, I imported your workflows, but they contain references to custom activities:

Is there any chance you can reproduce the behavior without using custom activities?