Form Designer (ASP.NET webforms) integration with OpenAI's .NET API

Development Integration
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Discover how to integrate the powerful capabilities of OpenAI’s .NET API into your WorkflowGen Form Designer (ASP.NET webforms) with this sample implementation.

By combining the flexibility of WorkflowGen’s process automation with the intelligence of OpenAI’s API, you can unlock a variety of innovative possibilities. For example, you can automate content generation, create intelligent form validation that adapts to user inputs, and provide contextual suggestions and completions directly within your forms, enhancing user experience.

This article walks you through the essential configurations and setup to help you seamlessly integrate OpenAI into your WorkflowGen-powered workflows.

Note: The example is for illustrative purposes only. It’s crucial to properly sanitize any user-provided input data before sending messages to the chat.

Getting started

References

  • OpenAI NuGet Package: This link includes additional integration examples and detailed how-to guides for leveraging the OpenAI .NET API.

Prerequisites

  • The API key from your OpenAI account.

Configuring the webforms IIS web app

  1. Install the OpenAI NuGet package.

    An easy way to do this is by opening your /wfgen/wfapps/webforms IIS web app in Visual Studio (in administrator mode) as a project and adding the OpenAI package to the web app using the NuGet Package Manager.

    If you don’t have access to Visual Studio, you can install the package manually using NuGet CLI. To do this:

    Step 1: Ensure NuGet CLI is Installed
    • If you haven’t already, download NuGet.exe from the official NuGet downloads page.
    • Place NuGet.exe in a folder included in your system’s PATH or use the full path to execute it.
    Step 2: Create or update packages.config

    Manually create a packages.config file if your web application doesn’t already have a packages.config file, in the root directory of your web app (\wfgen\wfapps\webforms ). The content of the file should look like this:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<packages>
  <package id="Microsoft.Bcl.AsyncInterfaces" version="6.0.0" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="OpenAI" version="2.1.0" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.Buffers" version="4.5.1" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.ClientModel" version="1.2.1" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource" version="6.0.1" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.Memory" version="4.5.4" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.Memory.Data" version="6.0.0" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.Numerics.Vectors" version="4.5.0" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Unsafe" version="6.0.0" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.Text.Encodings.Web" version="6.0.0" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.Text.Json" version="6.0.10" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.Threading.Tasks.Extensions" version="4.5.4" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="System.ValueTuple" version="4.5.0" targetFramework="net48" />
</packages>
    Step 3: Restore the packages

    Run the following command in the directory where packages.config is located (your web app root \wfgen\wfapps\webforms):

    nuget restore packages.config -PackagesDirectory packages
    Step 4: Copy DLLs to the bin folder

    After restoring the packages, manually copy the required .dll files from each packages folder to your web app’s bin folder:

    • Navigate to: \wfgen\wfapps\webforms\packages\*\lib\netstandard2.0 or \wfgen\wfapps\webforms\packages\*\lib\net461.
    • Copy the specific package .dll into \wfgen\wfapps\webforms\bin.

    You can use the following PowerShell commands to facilitate the file copy.

    • Update the DRIVE:\inetpub\wwwroot\wfgen\wfapps\webforms example path with your actual path.
    • Run both commands in this order (first for netstandard2.0 then net461).
    Get-ChildItem -Path "DRIVE:\inetpub\wwwroot\wfgen\wfapps\webforms\packages" -Recurse -Include "*.dll" | 
Where-Object { $_.FullName -like "*\lib\netstandard2.0\*" } | 
Copy-Item -Destination "DRIVE:\inetpub\wwwroot\wfgen\wfapps\webforms\bin" -Force

    Get-ChildItem -Path "DRIVE:\inetpub\wwwroot\wfgen\wfapps\webforms\packages" -Recurse -Include "*.dll" | 
Where-Object { $_.FullName -like "*\lib\net461\*" } | 
Copy-Item -Destination "DRIVE:\inetpub\wwwroot\wfgen\wfapps\webforms\bin" -Force

  2. Add or update the \wfgen\wfapps\webforms\web.config file to target .NET Framework 4.8 and reference all the packages and dependencies (including netstandard 2.0) if this isn’t already the case. The content of the file should look like this:

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="false" targetFramework="4.8">
      <assemblies>
        <add assembly="System.Numerics, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
        <add assembly="netstandard, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=CC7B13FFCD2DDD51"/>
      </assemblies>
    </compilation>
    <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.8"/>
  </system.web>
  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Text.Json" publicKeyToken="cc7b13ffcd2ddd51" culture="neutral"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-6.0.0.10" newVersion="6.0.0.10"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource" publicKeyToken="cc7b13ffcd2ddd51" culture="neutral"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-6.0.0.1" newVersion="6.0.0.1"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Buffers" publicKeyToken="cc7b13ffcd2ddd51" culture="neutral"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.0.3.0" newVersion="4.0.3.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Unsafe" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-6.0.0.0" newVersion="6.0.0.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
</configuration>

Sample process configuration in WorkflowGen

  1. Import the OPENAI_DOTNET_API_CHATv1.xml sample process XPDL into WorkflowGen.

  2. Set your OpenAI API key in the form code-behind. To do this:

    1. Open the process and go to the Form tab.
    2. Switch to the ASP.NET code-behind editor.
    3. Replace the text OPENAI_API_KEY with your OpenAI API key.
    4. Save the form.
    protected void CHAT_SEND_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) 
{
    OpenAI.Chat.ChatClient client = new OpenAI.Chat.ChatClient("gpt-4o", "OPENAI_API_KEY");
    OpenAI.Chat.ChatCompletion completion = client.CompleteChat(CHAT_MESSAGE.Text);
    CHAT_RESPONSE.Text = "[ASSISTANT]: " + completion.Content[0].Text;
}

  3. You should now be ready to launch a new request and start sending chat messages to OpenAI within your webform.

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