title: Loading a Workflow Instance
body: <p>Say I have a web application and in one page I need to upload a document.  Then the document get's converted into something else and then the user can see the converted document.</p>
  
  <p>I want a workflow that will have 4 states.</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>New</li>
  <li>Uploaded</li>
  <li>Converting</li>
  <li>Converted</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>So now the user comes in and creates a document record and uploads the file.</p>
  
  <p>At this point they will need to be taken to a dashboard which tells them the document is being converted.  They may log off and come back later.</p>
  
  <p>Once the document is converted they will be allowed to progress to the next step of viewing the document.</p>
  
  <p>I can easily create a workflow that has these states and does all the checking and setting of states depending on flags against the document record.</p>
  
  <p>What I am missing I think, is that if the user logs off and comes back, how do I grab the workflow for that uploaded document and check it's state in the workflow?</p>
  
  <p>All I have is this;</p>
  
  <pre><code>WorkflowInstance instance = workflowRuntime.CreateWorkflow(typeof(WorkflowProject1.Workflow1), parms);
  
  instance.Start();
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Where params is the document id.  When I come back into my application how do I get the workflow instance for this document and check it's current step?</p>
  
  <p>Any links to simple WWF sample/example sites would be greatly appreciated.</p>
  
  <p>Is there in fact a better way of doing this?</p>
  
  <p>Also, once I have the workflow loaded, how can I then check its current step or activity?</p>