Start list workflow by workflow name

Question

i have found solutions where i can start list workflow on item knowking the workflow subscription ID using following lines

var wfServiceManager = SP.WorkflowServices.WorkflowServicesManager.newObject(context, web);
var subscription = wfServiceManager.getWorkflowSubscriptionService().getSubscription(subID); 

After loading the subscription object, wf can be started as follows

wfServiceManager.getWorkflowInstanceService().startWorkflowOnListItem(subscription, itemId, inputParameters);  

This works just fine, the problem i ran into is, that while developing the workflow, its subscription id may change (depending on how you develope it - Visual Studio/Sharepoint designer/sideload/app catalog etc.). This means harcoding the subscription id is a risk - you have to remember that every deployment the subscription id may differ, not even speaking the id is always different on production and development environment.

The question is, is there a way to start workflow by its name or in some other way so that i don't have to hardcode the subscription id?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Checkout this library (works well on SP online) :

https://gist.github.com/balony88/9fad769b9daaad8829d6ffa63828e18f

Answer 2

In on Premise envirement, it would be like this. It should work the same way in online.

public static bool StartWorkflow(SPListItem item, string workflowname)
    {
        SPWorkflow wkfInstance = null;

        SPWorkflowAssociation wkfAssociation = item.ContentType.WorkflowAssociations.GetAssociationByName(workflowname, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

        if (wkfAssociation != null)
        {
            wkfInstance = item.ParentList.ParentWeb.Site.WorkflowManager.StartWorkflow(item, wkfAssociation, "<data />");
        }
        return (wkfInstance != null);
    }