How to: Log to the History List from a Workflow Activity

Overview

When you create custom full-trust workflow activities for Microsoft® SharePoint® solutions, you might often want to add entries to the Workflow History list on your SharePoint site. This how-to topic describes how to log to the History list from a workflow activity class.

Note:
This how-to topic assumes that you have already created a workflow activity class that derives from the System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Activity base class. For more information about creating a custom workflow activity, see the Workflow Activities reference implementation.

Steps

To log to the history list from a workflow activity

Locate the Execute method in your workflow activity class.

protected override ActivityExecutionStatus Execute(ActivityExecutionContext 
                                             executionContext) 
{ 
  // The activity logic goes here.
  return base.Execute(executionContext);
}

In the Execute method, retrieve an implementation of the ISharePointService interface from the execution context object.
C#
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ISharePointService wfService = executionContext.GetService<ISharePointService>();

On the ISharePointService implementation, call the LogToHistoryList method.

wfService.LogToHistoryList(executionContext.ContextGuid, 
  SPWorkflowHistoryEventType.WorkflowComment, 
  0, 
  TimeSpan.Zero, 
  "Information", 
  "Logged via ISharePointService", 
  string.Empty);

The LogToHistoryList method will create an entry in the Workflow History list that corresponds to the execution context of the workflow.