Get Workflow State

It is possible to retrieve the complete internal state of a workflow directly from storage as a JSON string ready for display. This provides access to all workflow execution details including running methods, workflow properties, buffered messages, and more.

This feature requires storage to be configured in the client. If storage is not configured, calling getWorkflowStateJsonById will throw an IllegalStateException.

Configuration

First, configure storage in your Infinitic client:

import io.infinitic.clients.InfiniticClient;
import io.infinitic.storage.config.PostgresStorageConfig;

// Configure storage (PostgreSQL example)
PostgresStorageConfig storage = PostgresStorageConfig.builder()
    .setHost("localhost")
    .setPort(5432)
    .setDatabase("infinitic")
    .setUsername("user")
    .setPassword("password")
    .build();

// Create client with storage
InfiniticClient client = InfiniticClient.builder()
    .setTransport(transport)
    .setStorage(storage)
    .build();

import io.infinitic.clients.InfiniticClient
import io.infinitic.storage.config.PostgresStorageConfig

// Configure storage (PostgreSQL example)
val storage = PostgresStorageConfig.builder()
    .setHost("localhost")
    .setPort(5432)
    .setDatabase("infinitic")
    .setUsername("user")
    .setPassword("password")
    .build()

// Create client with storage
val client = InfiniticClient.builder()
    .setTransport(transport)
    .setStorage(storage)
    .build()

Retrieving Workflow State JSON

Once storage is configured, you can retrieve the state of any workflow by its ID as a pretty-printed JSON string:

// Get JSON state for a specific workflow
String stateJson = client.getWorkflowStateJsonById("05694902-5aa4-469f-824c-7015b0df906c");

if (stateJson != null) {
    System.out.println(stateJson);
} else {
    System.out.println("Workflow not found or already completed");
}

// Get JSON state for a specific workflow
val stateJson: String? = client.getWorkflowStateJsonById("05694902-5aa4-469f-824c-7015b0df906c")

stateJson?.let(::println) ?: println("Workflow not found or already completed")

The generated JSON is intended for inspection and display. It expands internal SerializedData values and renders metadata in a readable JSON form.

Workflow State Contents

The workflow state JSON contains comprehensive information about the workflow:

workflowId: Unique identifier for the workflow instance
workflowName: Name of the workflow
workflowVersion: Version of the workflow implementation
workflowTags: Tags associated with the workflow
workflowMeta: Metadata attached to the workflow
workflowMethods: List of running workflow methods with their execution state
runningWorkflowTaskId: ID of the currently executing workflow task (if any)
currentPropertiesNameHash: Current values of workflow properties
messagesBuffer: Messages buffered while a workflow task is running
receivingChannels: Channels currently receiving signals

Use Cases

Debugging

Inspect workflow state to understand why a workflow is stuck or behaving unexpectedly:

String stateJson = client.getWorkflowStateJsonById(workflowId);
if (stateJson != null) {
    System.out.println(stateJson);
}

val stateJson = client.getWorkflowStateJsonById(workflowId)
if (stateJson != null) {
    println(stateJson)
}

Monitoring

Check the execution progress of running workflows:

String stateJson = client.getWorkflowStateJsonById(workflowId);
if (stateJson != null) {
    System.out.println(stateJson);
}

val stateJson = client.getWorkflowStateJsonById(workflowId)
stateJson?.let {
    println(it)
}

Storage Support

The method automatically handles:

Compression: Supports gzip, bzip2, and deflate compression algorithms
Deserialization: Converts Avro binary format to workflow state objects internally
JSON Rendering: Produces a readable JSON representation suitable for display
Multiple Databases: Works with Redis, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and in-memory storage

The getWorkflowStateJsonById method returns null for workflows that don't exist or have been completed and removed from storage.

Async Access

Infinitic proposes also an asynchronous version of the method:

CompletableFuture<String> getWorkflowStateJsonByIdAsync(String workflowId);

suspend fun getWorkflowStateJsonByIdSuspend(workflowId: String): String?