SharePoint: accessing the workflow variables after StartWorkflow() has terminated

Question

I am running a SharePoint workflow programmatically from a SharePoint event receiver by calling workflowManager.StartWorkflow().

The workflow is setting some workflow variables during execution. Is there a way to access the last value of these variables after the workflow has terminated (e.g., the call to StartWorkflow() returns)?

Here's my sample code that demonstrates my intent:

    public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)
    {
        SPWorkflow workflow = null;
        SPWorkflowManager workflowManager = null;
        try
        {
            base.ItemAdded(properties);

            workflowManager = properties.OpenWeb().Site.WorkflowManager;
            var workflowAssociation = properties.ListItem.ParentList.WorkflowAssociations[0];

            workflow = workflowManager.StartWorkflow(properties.ListItem, workflowAssociation, "<Data></Data>");

            // I can read any fields that were updated by the WF
            SPListItem item = properties.ListItem.ParentList.GetItemById(properties.ListItemId);
            string validationResult = (string) item["ValidationResult"];

            // how can I access any workflow variables created during execution?
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Debug.WriteLine(ex);
            if (workflow != null && workflowManager != null)
            {
                SPWorkflowManager.CancelWorkflow(workflow);
            }
            throw;
        }
   }

Answer 1

Maybe write them out to a List? This might your least messy option.

Alternatively, there's a SPWorkflow.Xml property that "returns a string that represents the workflow instance in XML format" but I've never tried it out. Though passing this back into SharePoint could be awkward.