Create WorkflowHistory list during Workflow deployment?

Question

How do you deploy your custom Visual Studio Workflows to automatically create a WorkflowHistory and task list (Creating a List programmatically using the object model)?

I know I can first deploy the Workflow and afterwards run a Powershell/Console script to create my lists and associate the Workflow with these - but is there a better solution?

I'm asking because Visual Studio can associate the Workflow with a list on deployment, but only with existing lists so I would have to have the lists created beforehand.

Answer 1

Normally i have the workflow in one wsp, and the list that i am attaching the workflow to in another wsp. I deploy and activate the workflow first, then deploy and activate the list. The list wsp has a feature with event receiver.

public static readonly string Workflow_Name = "Custom Approval";
public static readonly string History_List_Name = "Custom Workflow History";
public static readonly string Tasks_List_Name = "Workflow Tasks";
public static readonly string List_Name = "Custom List";

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {

    SPWeb web = properties.Feature.Parent as SPWeb;
        SPList list = web.Lists[List_Name];

        bool historylistfound = false;
        foreach (SPList l in web.Lists) {
            if (l.Title == History_List_Name) {
                historylistfound = true;
            }
        }
        if (!historylistfound) {
            SPListTemplateType listtemplate = SPListTemplateType.WorkflowHistory;
            web.Lists.Add(History_List_Name, History_List_Name, listtemplate);
        }

        SPWorkflowAssociation assoc = null;
        foreach (SPWorkflowAssociation a in list.WorkflowAssociations) {
            if (a.Name == Workflow_Name) {
                assoc = a;
            }
        }

        SPList workflowtasks = web.Lists[Tasks_List_Name];
        workflowtasks.EnableAssignToEmail = true;
        workflowtasks.Update();

        if (assoc == null) {
            SPWorkflowTemplate template = web.WorkflowTemplates.GetTemplateByName(Workflow_Name, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture);
            assoc = SPWorkflowAssociation.CreateListAssociation(template, Workflow_Name, workflowtasks, web.Lists[History_List_Name]);
            assoc.AssociationData = string.Empty;
            assoc.AllowManual = true;
            assoc.AutoStartChange = false;
            assoc.AutoStartCreate = false;
            list.AddWorkflowAssociation(assoc);
            list.Update();
        }
}