# How to replicate active\_map\_zone for dynamic mapping in the latest aiida-workgraph?

**URL:** <https://aiida.discourse.group/t/how-to-replicate-active-map-zone-for-dynamic-mapping-in-the-latest-aiida-workgraph/682>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [October 4, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/how-to-replicate-active-map-zone-for-dynamic-mapping-in-the-latest-aiida-workgraph/682 "2025-10-04T16:43:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DoriniTT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ea924/32.png) [@DoriniTT](https://aiida.discourse.group/u/DoriniTT)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/how-to-replicate-active-map-zone-for-dynamic-mapping-in-the-latest-aiida-workgraph/682/1 "2025-10-04T16:43:38Z")

</div>

Hi everyone,

I’m migrating a project from `aiida-workgraph==0.5.2` and need some help finding the modern equivalent for the **`active_map_zone`** functionality.

Previously, my workflow would dynamically generate an _unknown number_ of slab structures and then use `active_map_zone` to run a parallel relaxation for each one. The pattern looked like this:

```python
# 1. A task generates a dictionary of slab structures (number unknown beforehand)
generate_slabs_task = wg.add_task(
    get_slabs,
    name="generate_slabs",
    relaxed_structure=output_struct_node,
    # ... other parameters
)

slab_structures = generate_slabs_task.outputs.structures

# 2. active_map_zone takes this output and creates parallel tasks
with active_map_zone(slab_structures) as map_zone:
    slab_task = map_zone.add_task(
        dft_workchain,
        name="slab_relaxation",
        structure=map_zone.item, # Placeholder for each slab
    )
    slab_task.set_from_builder(builder_slab)

```

This worked perfectly, creating a dynamic number of parallel calculations based on the output of `generate_slabs_task`.

However, the `active_map_zone` context manager has been removed in the latest version of `aiida-workgraph`. My attempts to use the new `Map` or `Zone` context managers to replicate this behavior have failed — I tried several different approaches without success.

What is the correct way to achieve this _“generate-then-map”_ pattern in the current version of `aiida-workgraph`? Specifically, how can I:

- Generate a variable number of inputs dynamically within a workflow, and
- Map a sub-workflow/task over those inputs in parallel?

Any pointers, code snippets, or example workflows would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Xing](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/aiida.discourse.group/xing/32/10_2.png) [@Xing](https://aiida.discourse.group/u/Xing)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/how-to-replicate-active-map-zone-for-dynamic-mapping-in-the-latest-aiida-workgraph/682/2 "2025-10-04T17:09:20Z")

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Hi @DoriniTT , there are two ways for this `generate-then-map` .

- **Pythonic approach** , please refer to [Run tasks in parallel (Scatter-Gather)](https://aiida-workgraph.readthedocs.io/en/latest/howto/autogen/parallel.html).
- **Zone approach** , please refer to [Map zone](https://aiida-workgraph.readthedocs.io/en/latest/advanced/autogen/context_manager.html#map-zone).

The online docs correspond to the latest code of the aiida-workgraph repository, and the `Map` zone was updated recently, which could be the reason why it does not work. I suggest you install the latest pre-stable release.

```auto
pip install aiida-workgraph==1.0.0b3

```

If the `Map` zone still does not work, could you open an issue on the github page: [GitHub · Where software is built](https://github.com/aiidateam/aiida-workgraph/issues). Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DoriniTT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ea924/32.png) [@DoriniTT](https://aiida.discourse.group/u/DoriniTT)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/how-to-replicate-active-map-zone-for-dynamic-mapping-in-the-latest-aiida-workgraph/682/3 "2025-10-04T22:59:40Z")

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Thanks for the suggestions and quick answer! I tried today to make the Zone approach working, but unfortunately it fails when trying to map over a task’s output socket. Maybe its due to my lack of experience, but I will try to explain what I am getting.

I will put here a minimal example to illustrate the problem.

## Minimal Example

```python
from aiida_workgraph import WorkGraph, task, Map
from aiida.orm import Dict, StructureData

@task.calcfunction(outputs=["structures"])
def generate_slabs():
    """Returns a dictionary of structures."""
    return {'structures': {'s_0': StructureData(), 's_1': StructureData()}}

@task
def process_structure(structure):
    return structure

# This works fine:
with WorkGraph('static_map') as wg:
    static_dict = {'s_0': StructureData(), 's_1': StructureData()}
    with Map(static_dict) as map_zone:
        result = process_structure(structure=map_zone.item).result

# This fails with the error above:
with WorkGraph('dynamic_map') as wg:
    gen_task = wg.add_task(generate_slabs, name="generate")
    dynamic_dict = gen_task.outputs.structures

    with Map(dynamic_dict) as map_zone: # ❌ Fails here
        result = process_structure(structure=map_zone.item).result

```

The error occurs when trying to pass `map_zone.item` to a task parameter inside the Map context, specifically when the Map is iterating over a task output socket rather than a concrete dictionary.

The previous version ‘active\_map\_zone’ worked for what I needed, so I think that I’ll stick with version 0.5.2 of aiida-workgraph for the moment.

If you think that this is indeed a problem and not just me that’s having a problem with this, I’ll open an issue in Github.

Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Xing](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/aiida.discourse.group/xing/32/10_2.png) [@Xing](https://aiida.discourse.group/u/Xing)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 5:30am UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/how-to-replicate-active-map-zone-for-dynamic-mapping-in-the-latest-aiida-workgraph/682/4 "2025-10-05T05:30:45Z")

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In the latest version, `map_zone.item` has `key` and `value` outputs. For your example code, you only need to change `map_zone.item` to `map_zone.item.value` in both cases (static and dynamic).

```auto
result = process_structure(structure=map_zone.item.value).result

```

**important** : you need to install the pre-stable release `1.0.0b3`,

```auto
pip install aiida-workgraph==1.0.0b3

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DoriniTT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ea924/32.png) [@DoriniTT](https://aiida.discourse.group/u/DoriniTT)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/how-to-replicate-active-map-zone-for-dynamic-mapping-in-the-latest-aiida-workgraph/682/5 "2025-10-05T15:08:56Z")

</div>

I see! Thank a lot, it is working now!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/aiida/original/1X/c417197d3750949351575d03ed03f5e2ad32e649.png) [@system](https://aiida.discourse.group/u/system)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2025, 11:09am UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/how-to-replicate-active-map-zone-for-dynamic-mapping-in-the-latest-aiida-workgraph/682/6 "2025-10-11T11:09:19Z")

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