Workflow Status: Writing to SharePoint Workflow History mapping EventID to Event Type

I recently created a Sequential Workflow using Visual Studio and wanted to display the value of parameters as well as status messages for debugging purposes of the workflow to the Workflow History portion of the Workflow Status page in the browser. I was getting tired of having to go to the ULS logs on the server to look for debug and error messages that I was writing out there. I was able to add items to the Workflow History using the SPWorkFlow.CreateHistoryEvent method. This method allows users to specify the data that is displayed in the workflow history.

TimeSpan time = new TimeSpan(0);

SPWorkflow.CreateHistoryEvent(this.workflowProperties.Web, this.workflowProperties.WorkflowId, eventId, time, “Outcome text”, “Description text”, “Other Data text”);

There are several Event Types (SPWorkflowHistoryEventType) that you can use, as seen in the screenshot below.

The Event Type maps to a specific eventId based on the following table.

EventID	Event Type	Member Name	Description
		None	There is no specific event type for this workflow event.
0	Comment	WorkflowComment	The workflow event concerns a comment being written for the workflow instance.
1	Workflow Initiated	WorkflowStarted	The workflow event concerns the workflow instance being initiated.
2	Workflow Completed	WorkflowCompleted	The workflow event concerns the workflow instance being completed.
3	Workflow Cancelled	WorkflowCancelled	The workflow event concerns the workflow instance being cancelled.
4	Workflow Deleted	WorkflowDeleted	The workflow event concerns the workflow instance being deleted.
5	Task Created	TaskCreated	The workflow event concerns a workflow task being created.
6	Task Completed	TaskCompleted	The workflow event concerns a workflow task being marked as complete.
7	Task Modified	TaskModified	The workflow event concerns a workflow task being modified.
8	Task Rolled Back	TaskRolledBack	The workflow event concerns changes to a workflow task being rolled back.
9	Task Deleted	TaskDeleted	The workflow event concerns a workflow task being deleted.
10	Error	WorkflowError	The workflow event concerns the workflow instance generating an error.

 

Hope this helps you to debug your visual studio workflows without having to log on to the server and looking through ULS logs, or to just provide workflow status feedback to your users on the Workflow Status page in the browser.