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• This task is currently locked by a running workflow and cannot be edited. Limitation to both Nintex and SPD workflow

  - by ybbest

  Note, this post is from Nintex Forum here. These limitations apply to both SharePoint designer Workflow and Nintex Workflow as Nintex using the SharePoint workflow engine. The common cause that I experience is that ‘parent’ workflow is generating more than one task at once. This is common as you can have multiple approvers for certain approval process. You could also have workflow running when the task is created, one of the common scenario is you would like to set a custom column value in your approval task. For me this is huge limitation, as Nintex lover I really hope Nintex could solve this problem with Microsoft going forward. Introduction “This task is currently locked by a running workflow and cannot be edited” is a common message that is seen when an error occurs while the SharePoint workflow engine is processing a task item associated with a workflow. When a workflow processes a task normally, the following sequence of events is expected to occur: 1.       The process begins. 2.       The workflow places a ‘lock’ on the task so nothing else can change the values while the workflow is processing. 3.       The workflow processes the task. 4.       The lock is released when the task processing is finished. When the message is encountered, it usually indicates that an error occurred between step 2 and 4. As a result, the lock is never released. Therefore, the ‘task locked’ message is not an error itself, rather a symptom of another error – the ‘task locked’ message does not indicate what went wrong. In most cases, once this message is encountered, the workflow cannot be made to continue and must be terminated and started again. The following is a guide that can help troubleshoot the cause of these messages.  Some initial observations to narrow down the potential causes are: Is the error consistent or intermittent? When the error is consistent, it will happen every time the workflow is run. When it is intermittent, it may happen regularly, but not every time. Does the error occur the first time the user tries to respond to a task, or do they respond and notice the workflow does not continue, and when they respond again the error occurs? If the message is present when the user first responds to the task, the issue would have occurred when the task was created. Otherwise, it would have occurred when the user attempted to respond to the task. Causes Modifying the task list A cause of this error appearing consistently the first time a user tries to respond to a task is a modification to the default task list schema. For example, changing the ‘Assigned to’ field in a task list to be a multiple selection will cause the behaviour. Deleting the workflow task then restoring it from the Recycle bin If you start a workflow, delete the workflow task then restore it from the Recycle Bin in SharePoint, the workflow will fail with the ‘task locked’ error.  This is confirmed behaviour whether using a SharePoint Designer or a Nintex workflow.  You will need to terminate the workflow and start it again. Parallel simultaneous responses A cause of this error appearing inconsistently is multiple users responding to tasks in parallel at the same time. In this scenario, one task will complete correctly and the other will not process. When the user tries again, the ‘task locked’ message will display. Nintex included a workaround for this issue in build 11000. In build 11000 and later, one of the users will receive a message on the task form when they attempt to respond, stating that they need to try again in a few moments. Additional processing on the task A cause of this error appearing consistently and inconsistently is having an additional system running on the items in the task list. Some examples include: a workflow running on the task list, an event receiver running on the task list or another automated process querying and updating workflow tasks. Note: This Microsoft help article (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA102376561033.aspx#5) explains creating a workflow that runs on the task list to update a field on the task. Our experience shows that this causes the ‘Task Locked’ issues when the ‘parent’ workflow is generating more than one task at once. Isolated system error If the error is a rare event, or a ‘one off’ event, then an isolated system error may have occurred. For example, if there is a database connectivity issue while the workflow is processing the task response, the task will lock. In this case, the user will respond to a task but the workflow will not continue. When they respond again, the ‘task locked’ message will display. In this case, there will be an error in the SharePoint ULS Logs at the time that the user originally responded. Temporary delay while workflow processes If the workflow is taking a long time to process after a user submits a task, they may notice and try to respond to the task again. They will see the task locked error, but after a number of attempts (or after waiting some time) the task response page eventually indicates the task has been responded to. In this case, nothing actually went wrong, and the error message gives an accurate indication of what is happening – the workflow temporarily locked the task while it was processing. This scenario may occur in a very large workflow, or after the SharePoint application pool has just started. Modifying the task via a web service with an invalid url If the Nintex Workflow web service is used to respond to or delegate a task, the site context part of the url must be a valid alternative access mapping url. For example, if you access the web service via the IP address of the SharePoint server, and the IP address is not a valid AAM, the task can become locked. The workflow has become stuck without any apparent errors This behaviour can occur as a result of a bug in the SharePoint 2010 workflow engine.  If you do not have the August 2010 Cumulative Update (or later) for SharePoint, and your workflow uses delays, “Flexi-task”, State machine”, “Task Reminder” actions or variables, you could be affected. Check the SharePoint 2010 Updates site here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff800847.  The October CU is recommended http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553031.   The fix is described as “Consider the following scenario. You add a Delay activity to a workflow. Then, you set the duration for the Delay activity. You deploy the workflow in SharePoint Foundation 2010. In this scenario, the workflow is not resumed after the duration of the Delay activity”. If you find this is occurring in your environment, install the October CU, terminate all the running workflows affected and run them afresh. Investigative steps The first step to isolate the issue is to create a new task list on the site and configure the workflow to use it.  Any customizations that were made to the original task list should not be made to the new task list. If the new task list eliminates the issue, then the cause can be attributed to the original task list or a change that was made to it. To change the task list that the workflow uses: In Workflow Designer select Settings -> Startup Options Then configure the task list as required If any of the scenarios above do not help, check the SharePoint logs for any messages with a category of ‘Workflow Infrastructure’. Conclusion The information in this article has been gathered from observations and investigations by Nintex. The sources of these issues are the underlying SharePoint workflow engine. This article will be updated if further causes are discovered. From <http://connect.nintex.com/forums/thread/6503.aspx>

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• How to use Nintex Reusable Workflow Template

  - by ybbest

  If you like to re-use your workflow logic over more than one list or library, you can create reusable workflow template. Here are the steps 1. Go to site settings and create reusable workflow template. 2. Select the content type you like the template to bound to and give a workflow a title. 3.Create your workflow the same way as you did for a list workflow and publish your workfow. 4. Finally, you need add your workflow to the list you like to run your workflow. 5. Go to workflow settings and add a Workflow. 6. Select the content type and configure the workflow as below 7. After you done this, your workflow will run as usual. Note: 1. You cannot conditionally start your workflow. 2. Your workflow is not automatically bound to the list when you add the content type to the list, you need to configure it manually as shown in step 4-6.

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• Nintex workflow tips and tricks

  - by ybbest

  Here are some Nintex 2010 workflow related tips and tricks and I will keep updating them. 1. How to add a link in email using Nintex. a. Go to the insert tab and select Link b. Select the url you’d like to set for the link c. After you have done this , you will see the Link is inserted into the email. 2. How to make the Flexi task reject option called “Decline” and make the comments mandatory. a. Open the  Flexi task action config prompt as shown below b.Click on the edit icon and change the settings from TO 3. When saving or publishing Nintex workflow and receiving the following errors: Server was unable to process request. —> The file hxtp://../NintexWorkflows/Workflowname/Workflowname.xoml is checked out for editing by Domain/Username. To Fix it , you can perform the following steps: a.In the publish dialogue, uncheck “Overwrite existing version” and rename the workflow. b.Delete the old workflow which was checked out c.Publish the new workflow again with the old name d.Delete the “temporary” workflow again

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• Take Control of Workflow with Workflow Analyzer!

  - by user793553

  Take Control of Workflow with Workflow Analyzer! Immediate Analysis and Output of your EBS Workflow Environment The EBS Workflow Analyzer is a script that reviews the current Workflow Footprint, analyzes the configurations, environment, providing feedback, and recommendations on Best Practices and areas of concern. Go to Doc ID 1369938.1  for more details and script download with a short overview video on it. Proactive Benefits: Immediate Analysis and Output of Workflow Environment Identifies Aged Records Identifies Workflow Errors & Volumes Identifies looping Workflow items and stuck activities Identifies Workflow System Setup and configurations Identifies and Recommends Workflow Best Practices Easy To Add Tool for regular Workflow Maintenance Execute Analysis anytime to compare trending from past outputs The Workflow Analyzer presents key details in an easy to review graphical manner.   See the examples below. Workflow Runtime Data Table Gauge The Workflow Runtime Data Table Gauge will show critical (red), bad (yellow) and good (green) depending on the number of workflow items (WF_ITEMS).   Workflow Error Notifications Pie Chart A pie chart shows the workflow error notification types.   Workflow Runtime Table Footprint Bar Chart A pie chart shows the workflow error notification types and a bar chart shows the workflow runtime table footprint.   The analyzer also gives detailed listings of setups and configurations. As an example the workflow services are listed along with their status for review:   The analyzer draws attention to key details with yellow and red boxes highlighting areas of review:   You can extend on any query by reviewing the SQL Script and then running it on your own or making modifications for your own needs:     Find more details in these notes: Doc ID 1369938.1 Workflow Analyzer script for E-Business Suite Worklfow Monitoring and Maintenance Doc ID 1425053.1 How to run EBS Workflow Analyzer Tool as a Concurrent Request Or visit the My Oracle Support EBS - Core Workflow Community  

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• Maintaining State in Mud Engine

  - by Johnathon Sullinger

  I am currently working on a Mud Engine and have started implementing my state engine. One of the things that has me troubled is maintaining different states at once. For instance, lets say that the user has started a tutorial, which requires specific input. If the user types "help" I want to switch in to a help state, so they can get the help they need, then return them to the original state once exiting the help. my state system uses a State Manager to manage the state per user: public class StateManager { /// <summary> /// Gets the current state. /// </summary> public IState CurrentState { get; private set; } /// <summary> /// Gets the states available for use. /// </summary> /// <value> public List<IState> States { get; private set; } /// <summary> /// Gets the commands available. /// </summary> public List<ICommand> Commands { get; private set; } /// <summary> /// Gets the mob that this manager controls the state of. /// </summary> public IMob Mob { get; private set; } public void Initialize(IMob mob, IState initialState = null) { this.Mob = mob; if (initialState != null) { this.SwitchState(initialState); } } /// <summary> /// Performs the command. /// </summary> /// <param name="message">The message.</param> public void PerformCommand(IMessage message) { if (this.CurrentState != null) { ICommand command = this.CurrentState.GetCommand(message); if (command is NoOpCommand) { // NoOperation commands indicate that the current state is not finished yet. this.CurrentState.Render(this.Mob); } else if (command != null) { command.Execute(this.Mob); } else if (command == null) { new InvalidCommand().Execute(this.Mob); } } } /// <summary> /// Switches the state. /// </summary> /// <param name="state">The state.</param> public void SwitchState(IState state) { if (this.CurrentState != null) { this.CurrentState.Cleanup(); } this.CurrentState = state; if (state != null) { this.CurrentState.Render(this.Mob); } } } Each of the different states that the user can be in, is a Type implementing IState. public interface IState { /// <summary> /// Renders the current state to the players terminal. /// </summary> /// <param name="player">The player to render to</param> void Render(IMob mob); /// <summary> /// Gets the Command that the player entered and preps it for execution. /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> ICommand GetCommand(IMessage command); /// <summary> /// Cleanups this instance during a state change. /// </summary> void Cleanup(); } Example state: public class ConnectState : IState { /// <summary> /// The connected player /// </summary> private IMob connectedPlayer; public void Render(IMob mob) { if (!(mob is IPlayer)) { throw new NullReferenceException("ConnectState can only be used with a player object implementing IPlayer"); } //Store a reference for the GetCommand() method to use. this.connectedPlayer = mob as IPlayer; var server = mob.Game as IServer; var game = mob.Game as IGame; // It is not guaranteed that mob.Game will implement IServer. We are only guaranteed that it will implement IGame. if (server == null) { throw new NullReferenceException("LoginState can only be set to a player object that is part of a server."); } //Output the game information mob.Send(new InformationalMessage(game.Name)); mob.Send(new InformationalMessage(game.Description)); mob.Send(new InformationalMessage(string.Empty)); //blank line //Output the server MOTD information mob.Send(new InformationalMessage(string.Join("\n", server.MessageOfTheDay))); mob.Send(new InformationalMessage(string.Empty)); //blank line mob.StateManager.SwitchState(new LoginState()); } /// <summary> /// Gets the command. /// </summary> /// <param name="message">The message.</param> /// <returns>Returns no operation required.</returns> public Commands.ICommand GetCommand(IMessage message) { return new NoOpCommand(); } /// <summary> /// Cleanups this instance during a state change. /// </summary> public void Cleanup() { // We have nothing to clean up. return; } } With the way that I have my FSM set up at the moment, the user can only ever have one state at a time. I read a few different posts on here about state management but nothing regarding keeping a stack history. I thought about using a Stack collection, and just pushing new states on to the stack then popping them off as the user moves out from one. It seems like it would work, but I'm not sure if it is the best approach to take. I'm looking for recommendations on this. I'm currently swapping state from within the individual states themselves as well which I'm on the fence about if it makes sense to do there or not. The user enters a command, the StateManager passes the command to the current State and lets it determine if it needs it (like passing in a password after entering a user name), if the state doesn't need any further commands, it returns null. If it does need to continue doing work, it returns a No Operation to let the state manager know that the state still requires further input from the user. If null is returned, the state manager will then go find the appropriate state for the command entered by the user. Example state requiring additional input from the user public class LoginState : IState { /// <summary> /// The connected player /// </summary> private IPlayer connectedPlayer; private enum CurrentState { FetchUserName, FetchPassword, InvalidUser, } private CurrentState currentState; /// <summary> /// Renders the current state to the players terminal. /// </summary> /// <param name="mob"></param> /// <exception cref="System.NullReferenceException"> /// ConnectState can only be used with a player object implementing IPlayer /// or /// LoginState can only be set to a player object that is part of a server. /// </exception> public void Render(IMob mob) { if (!(mob is IPlayer)) { throw new NullReferenceException("ConnectState can only be used with a player object implementing IPlayer"); } //Store a reference for the GetCommand() method to use. this.connectedPlayer = mob as IPlayer; var server = mob.Game as IServer; // Register to receive new input from the user. mob.ReceivedMessage += connectedPlayer_ReceivedMessage; if (server == null) { throw new NullReferenceException("LoginState can only be set to a player object that is part of a server."); } this.currentState = CurrentState.FetchUserName; switch (this.currentState) { case CurrentState.FetchUserName: mob.Send(new InputMessage("Please enter your user name")); break; case CurrentState.FetchPassword: mob.Send(new InputMessage("Please enter your password")); break; case CurrentState.InvalidUser: mob.Send(new InformationalMessage("Invalid username/password specified.")); this.currentState = CurrentState.FetchUserName; mob.Send(new InputMessage("Please enter your user name")); break; } } /// <summary> /// Receives the players input. /// </summary> /// <param name="sender">The sender.</param> /// <param name="e">The e.</param> void connectedPlayer_ReceivedMessage(object sender, IMessage e) { // Be good memory citizens and clean ourself up after receiving a message. // Not doing this results in duplicate events being registered and memory leaks. this.connectedPlayer.ReceivedMessage -= connectedPlayer_ReceivedMessage; ICommand command = this.GetCommand(e); } /// <summary> /// Gets the Command that the player entered and preps it for execution. /// </summary> /// <param name="command"></param> /// <returns>Returns the ICommand specified.</returns> public Commands.ICommand GetCommand(IMessage command) { if (this.currentState == CurrentState.FetchUserName) { this.connectedPlayer.Name = command.Message; this.currentState = CurrentState.FetchPassword; } else if (this.currentState == CurrentState.FetchPassword) { // find user } return new NoOpCommand(); } /// <summary> /// Cleanups this instance during a state change. /// </summary> public void Cleanup() { // If we have a player instance, we clean up the registered event. if (this.connectedPlayer != null) { this.connectedPlayer.ReceivedMessage -= this.connectedPlayer_ReceivedMessage; } } Maybe my entire FSM isn't wired up in the best way, but I would appreciate input on what would be the best to maintain a stack of state in a MUD game engine, and if my states should be allowed to receive the input from the user or not to check what command was entered before allowing the state manager to switch states. Thanks in advance.

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• E-Business Suite Proactive Support - Workflow Analyzer

  - by Alejandro Sosa

  Overview The Workflow Analyzer is a standalone, easy to run tool created to read, validate and troubleshoot Workflow components configuration as well as runtime. It identifies areas where potential problems may arise and based on set of best practices suggests the Workflow System Administrator what to do when such potential problems are found. This tool represents a proactive way to verify Workflow configuration and runtime data to prevent issues ahead of time before they may become of more considerable impact on a production environment. Installation Since it is standalone there are no pre-requisites and runs on Oracle E-Business applications from 11.5.10 onwards. It is installed in the back-end server and can be run directly from SQL*Plus. The output of this tool is written in a HTML file friendly formatted containing the following on both workflow Components configuration and Workflow Runtime data: Workflow-related database initialization parameters Relevant Oracle E-Business profile option values Workflow-owned concurrent programs schedule and Workflow components status Workflow notification mailer configuration and throughput via related queues and table Workflow-relevant recommended and critical one-off patches as well as current code level Workflow database footprint by reading Workflow run-time tables to identify aged processes not being purged. It also checks for large open and closed processes or unhealthy looping conditions in a workflow process, among other checks. See a sample of Workflow Analyzer's output here.  Besides performing the validations listed above, the Workflow Analyzer provides clarification on the issues it finds and refers the reader to specific Oracle MOS documents to address the findings or explains the condition for the reader to take proper action. How to get it? The Workflow Analyzer can be obtained from Oracle MOS Workflow Analyzer script for E-Business Suite Workflow Monitoring and Maintenance (Doc ID 1369938.1) and the supplemental note How to run EBS Workflow Analyzer Tool as a Concurrent Request (Doc ID 1425053.1) explains how to register and run this tool as a concurrent program. This way the report from the Workflow Analyzer can be submitted from the Application and its output can be seen from the application as well.

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• Using the Items collection for state management

  - by nikolaosk

  I have explained some of the state mechanisms that we have in our disposal for preserving state in ASP.Net applications in various posts in this blog. You can have a look at this post , this post , this post and this one .My last post was on Application state management and you can read it here . In this post I will show you how to preserve state using the Items collection. Many developers do not know that we have this option as well for state management. With Items state we can pass data between...(read more)

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• How to use call web service action in SharePoint2013 workflow

  - by ybbest

  In SharePoint2013, you can use call web service action and loop. In this post, I will show you how to achieve this. 1. Create a List workflow called CallWebService 2. Create a variable called listurl and assign the value to http://sp2010/_vti_bin/listdata.svc 3. Create a dictionary variable called RequestHeaders and add the following key value pairs. 4. Call the web service with the HttpHeaders you just build in the previous step and store the response in the variable ResponseContent. 5. The ResponseContent variable is the Dynamic values (in SharePoint designer it will be called dictionary type) and it is new feature for SharePoint2013 workflow. We can use the following actions to count the number items in the variable. 6. You can use loop in SharePoint 2013 workflow and out each list title as shown below.

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• How to use call web service action in SharePoint2013 workflow

  - by ybbest

  In SharePoint2013, you can use call web service action and loop. In this post, I will show you how to achieve this. 1. Create a List workflow called CallWebService 2. Create a variable called listurl and assign the value to http://sp2010/_vti_bin/listdata.svc 3. Create a dictionary variable called RequestHeaders and add the following key value pairs. 4. Call the web service with the HttpHeaders you just build in the previous step and store the response in the variable ResponseContent. 5. The ResponseContent variable is the Dynamic values (in SharePoint designer it will be called dictionary type) and it is new feature for SharePoint2013 workflow. We can use the following actions to count the number items in the variable. 6. You can use loop in SharePoint 2013 workflow and out each list title as shown below.

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• State Machine WF: Issues with workflow termination

  - by AgentHunt

  Hello, We have a state machine workflow for maintaining the state of an application submitted by a user. One of the issues I am having is related to workflow termination. In one of the states, I had a bug. When the application reached that state, it threw an exception and as a result, the terminate event of the workflow was called and the particular workflow instance got removed from the persistence database. So I am not able to load that workflow instance anymore. I would have hoped, if there is an error in one of the states, an exception would be thrown(so that we know what the issue is), yet the entire workflow instance should not disappear. Can the fault handler activity ensure that the workflow does not terminate. Also, is there a way, when the terminate event is called, the instances do not get removed from the persistence store. Thanks for any help/suggestions.

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• Scheduling runtime-specified Activity in Workflow 4 RC

  - by johnny g

  Hi, so I have this requirement to kick off Activities provided to me at run-time. To facilitate this, I have set up a WorkflowService that receives Activities as Xaml, hydrates them, and kicks them off. Sounds simple enough ... ... this is my WorkflowService in Xaml <Activity x:Class="Workflow.Services.WorkflowService.WorkflowService" ... xmlns:local1="clr-namespace:Workflow.Activities" > <Sequence sap:VirtualizedContainerService.HintSize="277,272"> <Sequence.Variables> <Variable x:TypeArguments="local:Workflow" Name="Workflow" /> </Sequence.Variables> <sap:WorkflowViewStateService.ViewState> <scg3:Dictionary x:TypeArguments="x:String, x:Object"> <x:Boolean x:Key="IsExpanded">True</x:Boolean> </scg3:Dictionary> </sap:WorkflowViewStateService.ViewState> <p:Receive CanCreateInstance="True" DisplayName="ReceiveSubmitWorkflow" sap:VirtualizedContainerService.HintSize="255,86" OperationName="SubmitWorkflow" ServiceContractName="IWorkflowService"> <p:ReceiveParametersContent> <OutArgument x:TypeArguments="local:Workflow" x:Key="workflow">[Workflow]</OutArgument> </p:ReceiveParametersContent> </p:Receive> <local1:InvokeActivity Activity="[ActivityXamlServices.Load(New System.IO.StringReader(Workflow.Xaml))]" sap:VirtualizedContainerService.HintSize="255,22" /> </Sequence> </Activity> ... which, except for repetitive use of "Workflow" is pretty straight forward. In fact, it's just a Sequence with a Receive and [currently] a custom Activity called InvokeActivity. Get to that in a bit. Receive Activity accepts a custom type, [DataContract] public class Workflow { [DataMember] public string Xaml { get; set; } } which contains a string whose contents are to be interpreted as Xaml. You can see the VB expression that then converts this Xaml to an Activity and passes it on. Now this second bit, the custom InvokeActivity is where I have questions. First question: 1) given an arbitrary task, provided at runtime [as described above] is it possible to kick off this Activity using Activities that ship with WF4RC, out of the box? I'm fairly new, and thought I did a good job going through the API and existing documentation, but may as well ask :) Second: 2) my first attempt at implementing a custom InvokeActivity looked like this public sealed class InvokeActivity : NativeActivity { private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.GetLogger (typeof (InvokeActivity)); public InArgument<Activity> Activity { get; set; } public InvokeActivity () { _log.DebugFormat ("Instantiated."); } protected override void Execute (NativeActivityContext context) { Activity activity = Activity.Get (context); _log.DebugFormat ("Scheduling activity [{0}]...", activity.DisplayName); // throws exception to lack of metadata! :( ActivityInstance instance = context.ScheduleActivity (activity, OnComplete, OnFault); _log.DebugFormat ( "Scheduled activity [{0}] with instance id [{1}].", activity.DisplayName, instance.Id); } protected override void CacheMetadata (NativeActivityMetadata metadata) { // how does one add InArgument<T> to metadata? not easily // is my first guess base.CacheMetadata (metadata); } // private methods private void OnComplete ( NativeActivityContext context, ActivityInstance instance) { _log.DebugFormat ( "Scheduled activity [{0}] with instance id [{1}] has [{2}].", instance.Activity.DisplayName, instance.Id, instance.State); } private void OnFault ( NativeActivityFaultContext context, Exception exception, ActivityInstance instance) { _log.ErrorFormat ( @"Scheduled activity [{0}] with instance id [{1}] has faulted in state [{2}] {3}", instance.Activity.DisplayName, instance.Id, instance.State, exception.ToStringFullStackTrace ()); } } Which attempts to schedule the specified Activity within the current context. Unfortunately, however, this fails. When I attempt to schedule said Activity, the runtime returns with the following exception The provided activity was not part of this workflow definition when its metadata was being processed. The problematic activity named 'DynamicActivity' was provided by the activity named 'InvokeActivity'. Right, so the "dynamic" Activity provided at runtime is not a member of InvokeActivitys metadata. Googled and came across this. Couldn't sort out how to specify an InArgument<Activity> to metadata cache, so my second question is, naturally, how does one address this issue? Is it ill advised to use context.ScheduleActivity (...) in this manner? Third and final, 3) I have settled on this [simpler] solution for the time being, public sealed class InvokeActivity : NativeActivity { private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.GetLogger (typeof (InvokeActivity)); public InArgument<Activity> Activity { get; set; } public InvokeActivity () { _log.DebugFormat ("Instantiated."); } protected override void Execute (NativeActivityContext context) { Activity activity = Activity.Get (context); _log.DebugFormat ("Invoking activity [{0}] ...", activity.DisplayName); // synchronous execution ... a little less than ideal, this // seems heavy handed, and not entirely semantic-equivalent // to what i want. i really want to invoke this runtime // activity as if it were one of my own, not a separate // process - wrong mentality? WorkflowInvoker.Invoke (activity); _log.DebugFormat ("Invoked activity [{0}].", activity.DisplayName); } } Which simply invokes specified task synchronously within its own runtime instance thingy [use of WF4 vernacular is certainly questionable]. Eventually, I would like to tap into WF's tracking and possibly persistance facilities. So my third and final question is, in terms of what I would like to do [ie kick off arbitrary workflows inbound from client applications] is this the preferred method? Alright, thanks in advance for your time and consideration :)

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• Multi-step Workflows: make Workflow A depend on results of Workflow B and/or Workflow C

  - by Joey

  I have been tasked with creating a Software Installation Approval section for our Intranet. When a person requests that a particular piece of software be installed on their workstation, we need to get IT approval and then business approval. Once those are obtained, it is to be installed. I am using Sharepoint Designer to do this. I have List A, where the user enters the information on the requested software. Workflow A then creates a Task in List B, which is then assigned to the IT approver. Workflow B works on List B on item creation, setting the due dates, titles, and other fields, and then pauses until the due date. The IT approver works with the business side and completes the task. Once List B task is complete, the item in List A should be marked as complete -- I have everything up to this point working fine. I want to make this more robust in 2 ways. As the only real option is to mark List B task as "completed", which essentially means "Approved", we have no way of really denying a request. What I want to add is the option to approve or deny a request through the task on List B -- if it is approved, I want the item in List A to continue to show "In Progress" with a custom status of "Approved", and I want to create a new task for software installation; once the installation task is marked as completed, then I want List A to show "Completed" with a status of "Installed". If it is denied, I want the item in List A to show as "Completed", with a status of "Denied". The problem is, I'm not even sure where to start making these modifications. Creating and modifying the custom status fields isn't that big of an issue -- I have messed around with this and I'm fairly confident I can do this easily. My main concern is that I know I will need a Workflow C, but I don't know where or how to trigger this to get the results I need. I've managed to get Workflows A and B working fine, but anything beyond this is really pushing the limit of my knowledge. It's probably obvious that I am rather new to Sharepoint workflows. I was very much thrust into this position and I am still feeling my way around. Thanks in advance for any help!

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• Workflow versioning

  - by Nitra

  I believe I have a fundamental misunderstanding when it comes to workflow engines which I would appreciate if you could help me sort out. I'm not sure if my misunderstanding is specific to the workflow engine I'm using, or if it's a general misunderstanding. I happen to use Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF). TLDR-version WWF allows you to implement business processes in long-running workflows (think months or even years). When started, the workflows can't be changed. But what business process can't change at any time? And if a business process changes, wouldn't you want your software to reflect this change for already started 'instances' of the business process? What am I missing? Background In WWF you define a workflow by combining a set of activites. There are different types of activities - some of them are for flow control, such as the IfElseActivity and the WhileActivty while others allows you to perform actual tasks, such as the CodeActivity wich allows you to run .NET code and the InvokeWebServiceActivity which allows you to call web services. The activites are combined to a workflow using a visual designer. You pretty much drag-and-drop activities from a toolbox to a designer area and connect the activites to each other. The workflow and activities have input paramters, output parameters and variables. We have a single workflow which sometimes runs in a matter of a few days, but it may run for 5-6 months. WWF takes care of persisting the workflow state (what activity are we currently executing, what are the variable values and so on). So far I think WWF makes sense. Some people will prefer to implement a software representation of a business process using a visual designer over writing all of it in code. So what's the issue then? What I don't really get is the following: WWF is designed to take care of long-running workflows. But at the same time, WWF has no built-in functionality which allows you to modify the running workflows. So if you model a business process using a workflow and run that for 6 months, you better hope that the business process does not change. Because if it do, you'll have to have multiple versions of the workflow executing at the same time. This seems like a fundamental design mistake to me, but at the same time it seems more likely that I've misunderstood something. For us, this has had some real-world effects: We release new versions every month, but some workflows may run for a year. This means that we have several versions of the workflow running in parallell, in other words several versions of the business logics. This is the same as having many differnt versions of your code running in production in the same system at the same time, which becomes a bit hard to understand for users. (depending on on whether they clicked a 'Start' button 9 or 10 months ago, the software will behave differently) Our workflow refers to different types of entities and since WWF now has persisted and serialized these we can't really refactor the entities since then existing workflows can't be resumed (deserialization will fail We've received some suggestions on how to handle this When we create a new version of the workflow, cancel all running workflows and create new ones. But in our workflows there's a lot of manual work involved and if we start from scratch a lot of people has to re-do their work. Track what has been done in the workflow and when you create a new one skip activites which have already been executed. I feel that this alternative may work for simple workflows, but it becomes hairy to automatically figure out what activities to skip if there's major refactoring done to a workflow. When we create a new version of the workflow, upgrade old versions using the new WWF 4.5 functionality for upgrading workflows. But then we would have to skip using the visual designer and write code to inject activities in the right places in the workflow. According to MSDN, this upgrade functionality is only intended for minor bug fixes and not larger changes. What am I missing?

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• How to fix “Add Host to Workflow Farm problem” when installing Windows Azure Workflow in SharePoint2013 Preview

  - by ybbest

  Problem: When I try to configure the windows Azure workflow in SharePoint2013 preview, I got the following error see screenshot below. Detailed log can be found here. Solution: I asked the question in SharePoint StackExchange , Rajat’s help me to fix the problem .The solution for this is quite simple, instead of using the short form for your RunAs account, you should use the fully qualified name. So change administrator@YBBEST to [email protected] make the problem go away as shown below. References: How to: Set up and configure SharePoint 2013 workflows

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• How to fix “The requested service, ‘net.pipe://localhost/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/appsts.svc’ could not be activated.”

  - by ybbest

  Problem: When I try to publish a SharePoint2013 workflow, I received the error: The requested service, ‘net.pipe://localhost/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/appsts.svc’ could not be activated. After that, my workflow stopped working and every time I start a work I receive the following error message: System.ApplicationException: PreconditionFailed ---> System.ApplicationException: Error in the application. --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Activities.Statements.Throw.Execute(CodeActivityContext context) at System.Activities.CodeActivity.InternalExecute(ActivityInstance instance, ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager) at System.Activities.Runtime.ActivityExecutor.ExecuteActivityWorkItem.ExecuteBody(ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager, Location resultLocation) Analysis: After analysis, I found the error by visiting the http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc and the error I got on the message is                                                                                                                                              Solution: The solution is basically getting more memory to the server. For development environment, you can restart your noderunner.exe or some other services to release some memories. To verify you have enough memory    you can browse to http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc , it should return the information below. Then you can republish your workflow and it will work like a charm.

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• How to fix “The requested service, ‘net.pipe://localhost/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/appsts.svc’ could not be activated.”

  - by ybbest

  Problem: When I try to publish a SharePoint2013 workflow, I received the error: The requested service, ‘net.pipe://localhost/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/appsts.svc’ could not be activated. After that, my workflow stopped working and every time I start a work I receive the following error message: System.ApplicationException: PreconditionFailed ---> System.ApplicationException: Error in the application. --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Activities.Statements.Throw.Execute(CodeActivityContext context) at System.Activities.CodeActivity.InternalExecute(ActivityInstance instance, ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager) at System.Activities.Runtime.ActivityExecutor.ExecuteActivityWorkItem.ExecuteBody(ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager, Location resultLocation) Analysis: After analysis, I found the error by visiting the http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc and the error I got on the message is                                                                                                                                              Solution: The solution is basically getting more memory to the server. For development environment, you can restart your noderunner.exe or some other services to release some memories. To verify you have enough memory    you can browse to http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc , it should return the information below. Then you can republish your workflow and it will work like a charm.

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• How to create a link to Nintex Start Workflow Page in the document set home page

  - by ybbest

  In this blog post, I’d like to show you how to create a link to start Nintex Workflow Page in the document set home page. 1. Firstly, you need to upload the latest version of jQuery to the style library of your team site. 2. Then, upload a text file to the style library for writing your own html and JavaScript 3. In the document set home page, insert a new content editor web part and link the text file you just upload. 4. Update the text file with the following content, you can download this file here. <script type="text/javascript" src="/Style%20Library/jquery-1.9.0.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_layouts/sp.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function() { listItemId=getParameterByName("ID"); setTheWorkflowLink("YBBESTDocumentLibrary"); }); function buildWorkflowLink(webRelativeUrl,listId,itemId) { var workflowLink =webRelativeUrl+"_layouts/NintexWorkflow/StartWorkflow.aspx?list="+listId+"&ID="+itemId+"&WorkflowName=Start Approval"; return workflowLink; } function getParameterByName(name) { name = name.replace(/[\[]/, "\\\[").replace(/[\]]/, "\\\]"); var regexS = "[\\?&]" + name + "=([^&#]*)"; var regex = new RegExp(regexS); var results = regex.exec(window.location.search); if(results == null){ return ""; } else{ return decodeURIComponent(results[1].replace(/\+/g, " ")); } } function setTheWorkflowLink(listName) { var SPContext = new SP.ClientContext.get_current(); web = SPContext.get_web(); list = web.get_lists().getByTitle(listName); SPContext.load(web,"ServerRelativeUrl"); SPContext.load(list, 'Title', 'Id'); SPContext.executeQueryAsync(setTheWorkflowLink_Success, setTheWorkflowLink_Fail); } function setTheWorkflowLink_Success(sender, args) { var listId = list.get_id(); var listTitle = list.get_title(); var webRelativeUrl = web.get_serverRelativeUrl(); var startWorkflowLink=buildWorkflowLink(webRelativeUrl,listId,listItemId) $("a#submitLink").attr('href',startWorkflowLink); } function setTheWorkflowLink_Fail(sender, args) { alert("There is a problem setting up the submit exam approval link"); } </script> <a href="" target="_blank" id="submitLink"><span style="font-size:14pt">Start the approval process.</span></a> 5. Save your changes and go to the document set Item, you will see the link is on the home page now. Notes: 1. You can create a link to start the workflow using the following build dynamic string configuration: {Common:WebUrl}/_layouts/NintexWorkflow/StartWorkflow.aspx?list={Common:ListID}&ID={ItemProperty:ID}&WorkflowName=workflowname. With this link you will still need to click the start button, this is standard SharePoint behaviour and cannot be altered. References: http://connect.nintex.com/forums/27143/ShowThread.aspx How to use html and JavaScript in Content Editor web part in SharePoint2010

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• How to create Adhoc workflow in UCM

  - by vijaykumar.yenne

  UCM has an inbuilt workflow engine that can handle document centric workflow approval/rejection process to ensure the right set of assets go into the repository. Anybody who has gone through the documentation is aware that there are two types of work flows that can be defined using the Workflow Admin applet in UCM namely Criteria and Basic While criteria is an Automatic workflow  process based on certain metadata attributes (Security Group and One of the Metadata Fields) , basic workflow is a manual workflow that need to be initiated by the admin. Any workflow  that can be put on the white board can be translated into the UCM wokflow process and there are concepts like sub workflows, tokens, events. idoc scripting that be introduced to handle any kind of complex workflows. There is a specific Workflow Implementation guide that explains the concepts in detail. One of the standard queries i come across is how to handle adhoc workflows where at the time of contributing the content, the contributors would like to decide on the workflow to be initiated and the users to be picked for approval in each step, hence this post.This is what i want to acheive, i would like to display on my Checkin Screen on the kind of workflows that a contributor could choose from:Based on the Workflow the contributor chooses, the other metadata fields (Step One, Step Two and Step Three)  need to be filled in and these fields decide who the approvers are going to be.1. Create a criteria workflow called One_Step_Review2.create two tokens StepOne <$wfAddUser(xWorkflowStepOne, "user")$>,  OrginalAuthor  <$wfAddUser(wfGet("OriginalAuthor"), "user")$>View image3.create two steps in the work flow created (One_Step_Review)View image4. Edit Step1 of the Workflow and add the Step One token and select the review permissionView image5. In the exit conditions tab have atleast One reveiwerView image6. In the events tab add an entry event <$wfSet("OriginalAuthor",dDocAuthor)$> to capture the contributor who shall be notified in the second step of the workflowView image7. Add the second step Notify_Author to the workflow8. Add the original author token to the above step9.  Enable the workflow10. Open the configration manager applet and create a Metadata field Workflow with option list enabled and add the list of values as show hereView image11. Create another metadata field WorkflowStepOne with option list configured to the Users View. This shall display all the users registered with UCM, which when selected shall be associated with the tokens associated with the workflow. Refer the above token.View imageAs indicated in the above steps you could create multiple work flows and associate the custom metadata field values to the tokens so that the contributors can decide who can approve their  content.

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• How to fix “Add Host to Workflow Farm problem” when installing Windows Azure Workflow in SharePoint2013 Preview

  - by ybbest

  Problem: When I try to configure the windows Azure workflow in SharePoint2013 preview, I got the following error see screenshot below. Detailed log can be found here. Solution: I asked the question in SharePoint StackExchange , Rajat’s help me to fix the problem .The solution for this is quite simple, instead of using the short form for your RunAs account, you should use the fully qualified name. So change administrator@YBBEST to [email protected] make the problem go away as shown below. Having other problems , check out AC’S blog on trouble-shooting the installation. References: How to: Set up and configure SharePoint 2013 workflows

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• SharePoint State Machine Workflow walkthrough

  - by d-frag

  I haven't seen an actual SharePoint state machine workflow example on here, but figured this post, How to create a SharePoint State Machine Workflow, is as thorough as it gets. Its a 6-part series. It has a step-by-step approach so even a 9 year old could just follow along and do it. It shows exactly how to use InfoPath to create the initiation form and task form, how to create the state machine workflow (with both C# and VB code), and also how to add workflow history logging and task notification emails. It does not go into modification forms, but does everything else, pretty much. Hope someone finds this useful.

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• Memento with optional state?

  - by Korey Hinton

  EDIT: As pointed out by Steve Evers and pdr, I am not correctly implementing the Memento pattern, my design is actually State pattern. Menu Program I built a console-based menu program with multiple levels that selects a particular test to run. Each level more precisely describes the operation. At any level you can type back to go back one level (memento). Level 1: Server Type? [1] Server A [2] Server B Level 2: Server environment? [1] test [2] production Level 3: Test type? [1] load [2] unit Level 4: Data Collection? [1] Legal docs [2] Corporate docs Level 4.5 (optional): Load Test Type [2] Multi TIF [2] Single PDF Level 5: Command Type? [1] Move [2] Copy [3] Remove [4] Custom Level 6: Enter a keyword [setup, cleanup, run] Design States PROBLEM: Right now the STATES enum is the determining factor as to what state is BACK and what state is NEXT yet it knows nothing about what the current memento state is. Has anyone experienced a similar issue and found an effective way to handle mementos with optional state? static enum STATES { SERVER, ENVIRONMENT, TEST_TYPE, COLLECTION, COMMAND_TYPE, KEYWORD, FINISHED } Possible Solution (Not-flexible) In reference to my code below, every case statement in the Menu class could check the state of currentMemo and then set the STATE (enum) accordingly to pass to the Builder. However, this doesn't seem flexible very flexible to change and I'm struggling to see an effective way refactor the design. class Menu extends StateConscious { private State state; private Scanner reader; private ServerUtils utility; Menu() { state = new State(); reader = new Scanner(System.in); utility = new ServerUtils(); } // Recurring menu logic public void startPromptingLoop() { List<State> states = new ArrayList<>(); states.add(new State()); boolean redoInput = false; boolean userIsDone = false; while (true) { // get Memento from last loop Memento currentMemento = states.get(states.size() - 1) .saveMemento(); if (currentMemento == null) currentMemento = new Memento.Builder(0).build(); if (!redoInput) System.out.println(currentMemento.prompt); redoInput = false; // prepare Memento for next loop Memento nextMemento = null; STATES state = STATES.values()[states.size() - 1]; // get user input String selection = reader.nextLine(); switch (selection) { case "exit": reader.close(); return; // only escape case "quit": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(first(), currentMemento, selection).build(); states.clear(); break; case "back": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(previous(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); if (states.size() <= 1) { states.remove(0); } else { states.remove(states.size() - 1); states.remove(states.size() - 1); } break; case "1": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); break; case "2": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); break; case "3": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); break; case "4": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); break; default: if (state.equals(STATES.CATEGORY)) { String command = selection; System.out.println("Executing " + command + " command on: " + currentMemento.type + " " + currentMemento.environment); utility.executeCommand(currentMemento.nickname, command); userIsDone = true; states.clear(); nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(first(), currentMemento, selection).build(); } else if (state.equals(STATES.KEYWORD)) { nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); states.clear(); nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(first(), currentMemento, selection).build(); } else { redoInput = true; System.out.println("give it another try"); continue; } break; } if (userIsDone) { // start the recurring menu over from the beginning for (int i = 0; i < states.size(); i++) { if (i != 0) { states.remove(i); // remove all except first } } reader = new Scanner(System.in); this.state = new State(); userIsDone = false; } if (!redoInput) { this.state.restoreMemento(nextMemento); states.add(this.state); } } } }

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• Executing a workflow from another workflow ?

  - by Mina Samy

  Hi all I have a console sequential workflow that at a certain step I use the InvokeWorkflow activity to invoke another workflow and then check a certain value that is set by the second workflow, and continue the execution of the first workflow normally the problem is when InvokeWorkflow activity is executed the program executes the second workflow and exits, the execution is not returned back to the first workflow. is there a way to call the second workflow from the first and wait till it ends and then continue the execution of the first. thanks

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• Expose NativeActivity Variables to Workflow Designer

  - by sixlettervariables

  I've got a NativeActivity which contains an Activity body. The purpose of this activity is to expose a resource for the duration of the child activity as a Variable. The problem I've encountered is it appears the Variable cannot be used outside the activity. I'll use StreamReader as an example resource. ResourceActivity.cs: [Designer(typeof(ResourceActivityDesigner))] public sealed class ResourceActivity : NativeActivity { [RequiredArgument] public InArgument<string> Path { get; set; } [Browsable(false), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Never)] public Activity Body { get; set; } [Browsable(false), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Never)] public Variable<StreamReader> Resource { get; set; } public ResourceActivity() { this.Resource = new Variable<StreamReader> { Default = null, Name = "reader" }; } protected override void CacheMetadata(NativeActivityMetadata metadata) { if (this.Path != null) metadata.AddArgument(this.Path); if (this.Body != null) metadata.AddChild(this.Body); if (this.Resource != null) metadata.AddVariable(this.Resource); } protected override void Execute(NativeActivityContext context) { this.Resource.Set(context, new StreamReader(this.Path.Get(context))); context.ScheduleActivity(this.Body, new completionCallback(Done), new FaultCallback(Faulted)); } private void Done(NativeActivityContext context, ActivityInstance instance) { var reader = this.Reader.Get(context); if (reader != null) reader.Dispose(); } private void Faulted(NativeActivityFaultContext context, Exception ex, ActivityInstance instance) { var reader = this.Reader.Get(context); if (reader != null) reader.Dispose(); } } I cannot view "Resource" or "reader" in the Variables list in the Workflow Designer. Am I missing something in CacheMetadata?

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• How to (pre)start xamlx workflow service

  - by rwwilden

  Related to this question. I have a xamlx workflow service that loads part of its definition from a database when it runs (using ActivityXamlServices.Load). Reason for this is that I need versioning, see the related question. I'll use WCF routing to direct calls to the right service. The part that I load dynamically contains a Receive activity. However, this activity is 'invisible' as long as the workflow doesn't start because the part of the workflow I load from the database is only loaded when the workflow starts. So from the outside it appears as if there is no Receive activity in the workflow. Apart from not being able to generate a contract for the workflow service, I can't call the service either. My first attempt was to do a soap call with the right contract on the workflow service. However, the runtime doesn't automagically activate my workflow in that case. So the question is, how do I start a workflow that is hosted inside IIS? Regards, Ronald

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• Alternative to Game State System?

  - by Ricket

  As far as I can tell, most games have some sort of "game state system" which switches between the different game states; these might be things like "Intro", "MainMenu", "CharacterSelect", "Loading", and "Game". On the one hand, it totally makes sense to separate these into a state system. After all, they are disparate and would otherwise need to be in a large switch statement, which is obviously messy; and they certainly are well represented by a state system. But at the same time, I look at the "Game" state and wonder if there's something wrong about this state system approach. Because it's like the elephant in the room; it's HUGE and obvious but nobody questions the game state system approach. It seems silly to me that "Game" is put on the same level as "Main Menu". Yet there isn't a way to break up the "Game" state. Is a game state system the best way to go? Is there some different, better technique to managing, well, the "game state"? Is it okay to have an intro state which draws a movie and listens for enter, and then a loading state which loops on the resource manager, and then the game state which does practically everything? Doesn't this seem sort of unbalanced to you, too? Am I missing something?

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