How to Debug Workflow With Workflow Manager 1.0 and Visual Studio 2012

1. Open the workflow XAML in designer
2. Click on the activity you want to debug
   
   
   
3. Click on the right button in the mouse to open the context menu
   
   
   
4. If you want insert a code breakpoint then insert it
   
   
   
5. Set the scope URI in the code to the URL in which Microsoft.Workflow.TestServiceHost exe is listening
   
   var rootClient = new WorkflowManagementClient(new Uri("http://Myserver:12292"));
   
6. Go to the debug menu and attach the process
   
   
   
7. Select Microsoft.Workflow.TestServiceHost exe from the process list.
   
   
   
8. Run the Console Program in debug mode
   
   
   
9. You will see the designer breakpoint is hit
   
   
   
10. You can also step into code the breakpoint
    
    
    

You can also look at the database table in the WFInstanceManagementDB



In case of failure in the startup of an instance due to an exception you can check the preceding highlighted tables.

SELECT TOP 1000 [InstanceCounter]

,[InstanceId]

,[SessionId]

,[ScopeId]

,[WorkflowName]

,[WorkflowId]

,[MonitoringParameter]

,[ActivationInfo]

,[WorkflowStatus]

,[WorkflowStatusDetails]

,[InstanceCreated]

,[LastModified]

,[SequenceNumber]

,[Expiration]

,[ExecutionTime]

,[DatabaseWriteTime]

FROM [WFInstanceManagementDB].[dbo].[Instances]

Example

InstanceCounter InstanceId SessionId ScopeId WorkflowName WorkflowId MonitoringParameter ActivationInfo WorkflowStatus WorkflowStatusDetails InstanceCreated LastModified SequenceNumber Expiration ExecutionTime DatabaseWriteTime

32 820EF89C-4EA4-433A-98D6-A2ABBC8BED02 149e84ef-1fb8-5b56-a85c-ad951c2f8c40_570bc95a-843d-4665-bed1-6eca3837c6d3 434A6F9A-8D93-41A5-C29D-ED69F3A9439C DebugSample 62E4B6D5-149E-4D91-94BC-0D38CDAC47AF NULL NULL SystemSuspended An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the workflow instance. Exception details: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: bookmark at System.Activities.NativeActivityContext.ResumeBookmark(Bookmark bookmark, Object value) at CustomActivitiesSample.BookmarkActivity.Execute(NativeActivityContext context) at System.Activities.NativeActivity.InternalExecute(ActivityInstance instance, ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager) at System.Activities.Runtime.ActivityExecutor.ExecuteActivityWorkItem.ExecuteBody(ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager, Location resultLocation) 2013-04-17 20:53:46.650 2013-04-17 20:53:46.650 1 NULL 2013-04-17 20:53:46.980 2013-04-17 20:53:47.060