Programming Windows Workflow Foundation

Practical WF Techniques and Examples using XAML and C#

A Concise and Practical Guide to Installation, Administration, and Customization

A fast-paced and practical developer's road map to working with Windows WF, from compilation to the base activity library to runtime services.

Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a technology for defining, executing, and managing workflows. It is part of the .NET Framework 3.0 and will be available natively in the Windows Vista operating system.

Windows Workflow Foundation might be the most significant piece of middleware to arrive on the Windows platform since COM+ and the Distributed Transaction Coordinator. The difference is, not every application needs a distributed transaction, but nearly every application does have a workflow encoded inside it.

In this book, K Scott Allen, author of renowned .NET articles at www.odetocode.com, provides you with all the information needed to develop successful products with Windows Workflow.

From the basics of how Windows Workflow can solve the difficult problems inherent in workflow solutions, through authoring workflows in code, learning about the base activity library in Windows Workflow and the different types of workflow provided, and on to building event-driven workflows using state machines, workflow communications, and finally rules and conditions in Windows Workflow, this book will give you the in-depth information you need. Throughout the book, an example "bug reporting" workflow system is developed, showcasing the technology and techniques used.

What you will learn from this book

• Create an example "bug reporting" workflow solution using the techniques and skills gained from each chapter
  
  
• Understand what Windows WF is, and what it can do for you
  
  
• Learn about the runtime services available in Windows WF
  
  
• Author workflows with C#, and with XAML, the extensible application markup language
  
  
• Use the workflow compiler to better understand how WF uses code generation to produce classes from workflow markup
  
  
• Combine generated workflow code with our hand-written code to produce a workflow type
  
  
• Learn about the events fired by the workflow runtime during the life of a workflow instance
  
  
• Build workflows that accept parameters and communicate with a host process by invoking methods and listening for events
  
  
• Learn about each activity in the Windows WF base activity library; the control flow activities, communication activities, and transaction-oriented activities
  
  
• Learn about web service activities, rule-centric activities, and state activities
  
  
• Creating custom activities using both a compositional approach and a derivation approach
  
  
• Master the execution context, a vital ingredient for creating any robust activity
  
  
• Learn about the workflow runtime, workflow diagnostics, and the out-of-the-box services provided for WF by Microsoft.
  
  
• Using scheduling services, persistence services, and tracking services
  
  
• Select and configure the services needed for a wide variety of scenarios and environments
  
  
• Use local services for communication with a host process, and web service activities for communication across a network
  
  
• Uncover the queuing service used behind the scenes of a workflow to coordinate and deliver messages
  
  
• Create rules and conditions in Windows Workflow Foundation
  
  
• Understand the role of business rules in software development and see examples of how Windows WF's rules engine can take away some of the burden of rule development

Who this book is written for
This book is for .NET developers who want to enhance their applications with flexible workflow capabilities using Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation. The author assumes that you have read other texts on the overall architecture of WF and on WF application design strategies, and instead focuses on real-work implementation issues for C# developers.

About the Author
K. Scott Allen is the Chief Software Architect for Medisolv, Inc and holds MCP and MCSD certifications. In 12 years of software development Scott has worked on everything from real time firmware in 8 bit embedded devices to highly scalable Internet applications connecting COM+ and J2EE components with web services. Living in Hagerstown, Maryland, Scott tries to play as much softball as possible during the summer. Scott is a cofounder of the site http://www.OdeToCode.com, a .NET developer resource built using the Community Starter Kit.