SharePoint 2013 Visual Studio Workflow not updating

Question

I created a workflow with 2 sequences. I deployed it to test and everything worked fine. I went back and added a sequence between the two. Now it doesn't seem to execute anything in the new sequence. Is there a catch to reload the workflow in SharePoint to get these to appear?

In the image below, the new sequence is GetHRContextInfo. The WriteToHistory event never fires.

Also, I can't debug the workflow now, either.

Workflow Designer

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 13 '14 at 23:42

7

Andrew Connell's answer will work, but personally I find it a nuisance having to create a new workflow each time I want to do a minor change in the XAML/designer. Right click on your workflow project > Properties and find the sharepoint tab on the left. Then, under the "pre-deployment command line" paste this command:

tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq vssphost5.exe" 2>NUL | find /I /N "vssphost5.exe">NUL
if "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" taskkill /f /im vssphost5.exe
exit 0

enter image description here Be sure to deploy from visual studio. I have been working for months using this technique - visual studio will retract / clean up, remove associations, remove workflow XAML files where necessary and re-deploy flawlessly if you end that process. Kindly note that this is a microsoft bug.

edited Jun 13 '14 at 23:42

Joel Tipke

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answered Oct 15 '13 at 14:14

David

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Works beautifully :) Thanks!! – Muhammedh Jun 18 '14 at 12:17
Here's an article on it: (Click the **Workaround** tab) http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/779905/sharepoint-2013-workflow-deployment-doenst-update-workflow-definition – Muhammedh Jun 18 '14 at 12:18
Same link I had at the end of my answer :P – David Jun 18 '14 at 12:20
Oopz my bad :P :( :O! – Muhammedh Jun 18 '14 at 12:34
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@Jared Nice to know I'm not the only person on the planet using SharePoint 2013 Visual studio workflows – David Mar 06 '15 at 13:21
Doesnt seem to work for me anymore... Btw I have to restart my Dev machine to see the changes. any idea why? – Muhammedh Mar 27 '16 at 09:54
I would switch technology if I were you. Whatever you switch to, you'll live your life at least 200% happier :) Even if you're programming in COBOL, you can rebuild and the debugger actually works... – David Mar 28 '16 at 08:10

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 10 '13 at 10:06

Did you remove & deploy a new workflow or replace it? The latter isn't a good idea because the public signature of the workflow has changed and thus any current associations are either going to error out or not pick up changes to the signature (anything considered public, such as new activities as you've done here). I consider it a good practice & recommend that you deploy a NEW workflow. If this is in development, remove the old one first (this is one of the reasons why I like testing workflows within apps as the AppWeb as automatically torn down for you between debugging sessions). If this is production, deploy it as a NEW workflow.

SharePoint 2013 Visual Studio Workflow not updating

2 Answers2