I am fairly comfortable once I am dealing with RA and DocumentServices part of the SDK.  It is jumping between LFSO and RA to make the Activity work that is making this tricky. 

I don't have a problem posting my code, as it is pretty generic and will be pretty cool when it runs.  I first had this running correctly in a stand alone Window forms application just to make sure the actual manipulation of the graphics worked as expected.  Anyway, here is the code of my class up until I start making my image processing calls:

    public class LFWFImageInverterV5Activity : CustomSingleEntryActivity
    {
        public bool ToWhite { get; set; }

        private const int BLACK = -16777216;
        private const int WHITE = -1;


        /// <summary>
        /// Called when the activity is run by the workflow server. Implement the logic of your activity in this method. 
        /// Access methods for setting tokens, getting token values, and other functions from the base class or the execution 
        /// context parameter. 
        /// </summary>
        protected override ActivityExecutionStatus Execute(ActivityExecutionContext executionContext)
        {
            using (ConnectionWrapper wrapper = executionContext.OpenConnection83())
            {
                ILFDatabase database = (ILFDatabase)wrapper.Database;
                
                using (Session mysession = Laserfiche.RepositoryAccess.Session.CreateFromSerializedLFConnection(database.CurrentConnection.SerializedConnection))
                {
                    DocumentInfo mydoc = Document.GetDocumentInfo(GetEntryInformation(executionContext).Id, mysession);
                    DocumentExporter exporter = new DocumentExporter();
                    exporter.PageFormat = DocumentPageFormat.Bmp;

                    for (int x = 1; x <= mydoc.PageCount; x++)
                    {
                        System.IO.MemoryStream outdata = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
                        exporter.ExportPage(mydoc, x, outdata);
                        Bitmap temp = new Bitmap(outdata);
                        Dictionary<int, int> results = GetBMPColors(temp);
                        if ((ToWhite == true && results[BLACK] > results[WHITE]) ||
                             (ToWhite == false && results[WHITE] > results[BLACK]))
                        {
                            // Invert Image
                            Bitmap fixedimage = this.InvertPage(temp);
                            DocumentImporter importer = new DocumentImporter();
                            mydoc.Lock(LockType.Exclusive);
                            System.IO.MemoryStream indata = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
                            fixedimage.Save(indata, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Tiff);
                            importer.Document = mydoc;
                            importer.ImportImages(indata);
                            mydoc.DeletePage(x);
                            if (mydoc.PageCount != x)
                                mydoc.MovePagesTo(new PageRange(mydoc.PageCount, mydoc.PageCount), mydoc, x);
                            mydoc.Unlock();
                        }

                    }
                }
            }
            return base.Execute(executionContext);

        }

Have you tried using OpenConnectionRA instead of OpenConnection83? I'm a bit rusty on the ConnectionWrappers but I personally would expect to start with an RA connection directly rather than an LFSO one. I honestly have no idea whether or not the serialized LFSO83 connection would be "accepted" for creating an RA Session (it's all LF SDK territory at that point).

Also, I'd hate to do a "is your computer plugged in" type of question... but you do have a connection profile set, right?

One thing that's worth doing is to try to debug your custom activity by attaching Visual Studio to the WF Server in console mode. By doing so you might be able to better gather useful information such as whether or  database.CurrentConnection is connected and whether or not the serialized connection has any info that might be useful in some way.

Is there a place you can point me detailing the ConnectionWrappers and how they are supposed to be used?  They are not in the Workflow SDK or the Laserfiche SDK documentation (at least that I could find).  It looks like maybe if I use the OpenConnectionRA connection, I can use the GetRepository command to access the repository directly. 

My assumption on how this works is that Workflow passes the connection profile to the Custom Activity and I just need to access it.  My test workflow does have the profile set within the Profile manager.

I was trying to debug earlier.  Instructions from the class suggested connecting Visual Studio to the remote Workflow Service and Workflow Designer.  Doing this and running the workflow did not cause anything to happen in Visual Studio.

Anyway, thanks again for your help and have a good weekend!

Jonathan

I'm not sure about the ConnectionWrappers documentation but I can try to find out if it exists. I have a feeling we currently do not have such documentation, at least not for using it with RA.

Let me know if you are able to do what you're trying to do with OpenConnectionRA. I'd say the other connection calls should be used more to preserve regression with old custom activities than to implement new ones; Instead I'd recommend using an RA connection directly.

As for debugging... the process can be a bit complicated if you are debugging remotely. If VS is on the same machine as the WF Server, then you can just run the server as a console application (there is documentation on how to do that on various more recent WF SDK white papers...) and attach VS to the WF Server, and as long as you have the symbol files (pdbs) for you code you should be able to hit breakpoints. If you see a hollow breakpoint (red outline with nothing inside) instead of a full red dot, it means VS is not able to properly match up your code with the runtime. If you hover over it you will get a note about why this happens; the most likely cases are 

1) Could not find the PDB file

2) PDB file is for a different build

3) You have changed the code since building the dll

4) Some issue with remote debugging

As for remote debugging itself... well, that's a bit complicated. I could give some tips on it but it can be tricky even for us sometimes =). The most typical issue with remote debugging if you manage to actually attach would be with not being able to find the PDB files. You can try loading them directly with the modules window if that's the case. It's in Debug => Windows => Modules. Find your dll in the list, right click it, and try to load symbols directly from there. This sometimes works but sometimes it doesn't. 

Jonathon - I hope this isn't too basic but I believe the problem might have started when you created the project.  When you first created your new project from the Laserfiche Custom Workflow Activity template a 'wizard' like dialog box should have appeared where you can select the 'LFSO Support'.  If you select any of the Repository Access options you will automatically get the correct ConnectionWrapper to start using RA.  Here is a screen shot of that wizard with Repository Access 9.1 selected;

Once the project explorer opens up you can see that the correct references are already included to start using the RA session object; (Obviously VB but the same applies to a C# project)

Yep, I second what Cliff said (having myself written that little wizard about 2 or 3 years ago =)). The wizard was actually created to facilitate the use of those ConnectionWrappers since people had trouble figuring out how to make the LF connections in the past.

I strongly recommend creating a ConnectionWrapper for RA if you want to open an RA Session; I'm not sure whether or not it works using LFSO, but I'm leaning towards no. Check what happens if you run your code as you have it but opening the connection to RA instead (and using the Connection directly rather than trying to create a connection from the Database property). Looks like you can basically get the Session directly from the ConnectionWrapper, as the code generated by the template seems to suggest.