Activity fails when resuming with bookmark

[msavencov]

Activity fails when resuming with bookmark

[glime-ai]

Based on the information provided, it seems that the issue you are encountering is related to the JavaScript expressions getOutputFrom("RSPSearch1", "Result") and getOutputFrom("RSPSearch2", "Result") returning null when the FormSubmit2 activity is resumed after being suspended. This behavior suggests that the outputs of the RSPSearch1 and RSPSearch2 activities are not being persisted or are not accessible upon resumption.

To address this issue, you may want to ensure that the outputs of the RSPSearch1 and RSPSearch2 activities are being correctly stored and that they are available in the workflow context when the FormSubmit2 activity is resumed. Here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot and potentially resolve the issue:

1. Verify that the outputs of RSPSearch1 and RSPSearch2 are being set correctly before the workflow is suspended.
2. Check if the workflow context is being saved and loaded correctly upon suspension and resumption.
3. Ensure that the JavaScript functions getOutputFrom are implemented correctly and are capable of retrieving the outputs from the specified activities.
4. Review the workflow definition and instance JSON files to confirm that the outputs are present and correctly formatted.
5. If you are using Elsa version 2 or above, make sure you are following the updated way of defining and accessing activity inputs and outputs as per the documentation.

If the issue persists, you may want to reach out to the Elsa community or support channels with specific details about your implementation and the errors you are encountering. Additionally, you can review the Elsa documentation and resources for more information on defining and using activities, handling inputs and outputs, and managing workflow execution.

Please let me know if you need further assistance or if there are any specific areas you would like me to elaborate on.

[sfmskywalker]

The issue is that activity output is transient, which means that when the workflow enters the Suspended state, the output will be lost. When the workflow is then resumed, the Form Submit activity will fail as you reported, given that it is trying to get activity output that will result in null values being returned.

To fix this, you can capture the activities output using a persistent variable.
The Form Submit activity can then use those variables, which will have a copy of the output values.

Here's a workflow definition that demonstrates this:

modified-workflow-definition.json

This will fix the loss of output values.
However, I ran into another issue that your custom activities uncovered; upon attempting to deserialize the elements of the PersonSearchResults collection, which is a class that derives from List<PersonSearchResult>, the serializer fails to recognize that it should deserialize the individual elements as PersonSearchResult, and instead, deserializes them as ExpandoObjects.

I have pushed a fix to the main branch for this. If you want to take advantage of this fix, please update your Elsa package references to the latest 3.2.0 preview build (3.2.0-preview.1393 or higher).

[sfmskywalker]

Based on the information provided, it seems that the issue you are encountering is related to the JavaScript expressions getOutputFrom("RSPSearch1", "Result") and getOutputFrom("RSPSearch2", "Result") returning null when the FormSubmit2 activity is resumed after being suspended. This behavior suggests that the outputs of the RSPSearch1 and RSPSearch2 activities are not being persisted or are not accessible upon resumption.

The bot was on to something 😄

[sfmskywalker]

I will proceed to closing this issue, but feel free to continue the conversation.

[sfmskywalker]

More information about activity output & direct access can be found here: https://elsa-workflows.github.io/elsa-documentation/custom-activities.html#direct-access

[msavencov]

Hi @sfmskywalker
Thanks for the clarified answer and sorry for the late response (I've been very busy these past weeks).
At that time, I solved the issue in a similar way by setting a variable using the "Set Variable" activity in front of my "Submit Form".

Now I have another question: can I instruct the engine to always save the results of the desired activities (or all activities in my workflow) so that I can access them from anywhere in the workflow? And how to enable that if engine allows that.

Thanks, have a nice day!

[sfmskywalker]

Hi @msavencov , no worries, I am happy to hear you found a workaround 👍🏻
For now, the engine doesn't have a configurable way to store an activity's output, but do I have been thinking about adding this capability.