Is it possible to easily call a long running WF service from an other long running workflow service and have the calling service wait for the called service to complete. Is there any out of the box support for this scenario.
I am not talking about using library services, but rather a whole contained sub workflow service.
One of the reasons for doing this would be so as to decouple parts of a complex system so that they can version independently.
An example might be – an ordering fulfillment system where there is a separate customer service work flow – the ordering system might want to wait for customer service to process and correct a problem order before continuing. From a systems point of view the ordering system would version independently of the customer support workflow – unless the customer support workflow’s inputs and outputs changed.
Yes you can. Because you are using 2 long running workflows your best option is to use duplex communications with the second workflow calling back into the first workflow when it is done.
See here and here for 2 blog posts I did on duplex WCF and workflow services. They us a simple console app as the client but with a workflow the principle is the same.