WatchDirectory Activity not working

[noxe]

Hi,

as discussed on Discord - it seems that the WatchDirectory Activity only works when defining an workflow in code.

But i cannot get it working for an workflow designed at runtime via Designer - the workflow is never executed / started?

[noxe]

cool thanks - seems like the builds are failing currently https://ci.appveyor.com/project/sfmskywalker/elsa/history

[noxe]

@sfmskywalker - thanks for the fix - i see it fires now after i create and publish an workflow at runtime in the designer.

but it does not start a new worfkow instance - should it? or i am missing something? Watch Directory is my start activity?

[sfmskywalker]

It should be able to create new workflow instances when used as a starting activity. I will check to see why that's not happening.

[noxe]

thx - i only see that it does query the database on the Bookmark table - where activitytype is WatchDirectory - but i dont see any bookmark record in the database

[sfmskywalker]

Right, that makes sense. For starting activities, they are stored as triggers in memory, not in the database. Only for suspended workflows will these be stored as bookmarks in the database.

[noxe]

ok - so is this an bug currently?

[sfmskywalker]

Well, if it doesn't start new workflow instances when used as a starting activity, then that would be a bug.

However, I just tried but it works fine for me:

[noxe]

hmm interessting - i am on latest preview from today :( will try once again after launch

[noxe]

i ust debugged the TriggerFinder - i see that the "WatchDirectory" is in the trigger stores - but it seems that the store has another Hash then the scoped hash - dont know what is going on here?

[noxe]

damn - just found the bug @sfmskywalker - i used "." as pattern - which does not work then - because the FileSystemWatcher does change this to "" - and so the bookmark is not found - because bookmark is stored as ".*" - while the pattern * is used query the store:

    private void StartWorkflow(FileSystemWatcher watcher, FileSystemEventArgs e)
    {
        var changeTypes = e.ChangeType;
        var notifyFilter = watcher.NotifyFilter;
        var path = watcher.Path;
        var pattern = watcher.Filter;

        var model = _mapper.Map<FileSystemEvent>(e);
        var bookmark = new FileSystemEventBookmark(path, pattern, changeTypes, notifyFilter);

[noxe]

github seems to have problems with the patter - i used * . * in the workflow - but filewatcher does an *

[noxe]

maybe as workaround - add an if (pattern == "* . *") patter = *; in the StartWorkflow method?

[noxe]

i still hava a problem with this - when i change the pattern to * - i see the workflow instance is created - but the workflow is never executed - until i restart the server. the workflow instance is in Idle state - i use hangfire dispatcher - maybe related to this?

[noxe]

ok - seems like some kind of race condition - i see ObjectDisposedExceptrions happening - and so further processing stops - in the StartWorkflow method - there is an async method - shoudnt there be an await?

 _workflowLaunchpad.UseService(s => s.CollectAndDispatchWorkflowsAsync(launchContext, new WorkflowInput(model)));

from what i see code runs across this and disposes the current scope ? @sfmskywalker

[noxe]

This need to be changed to

_workflowLaunchpad.UseServiceAsync(async s => await s.CollectAndDispatchWorkflowsAsync(launchContext, new WorkflowInput(model)));

then everything works fine :)

[noxe]

created an PR for this - please take a look if this is the correct approach