- Describing Workflow and Workflow Systems
- .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5
- Overview of WF
- Standard Modeling Activities
- Multiple Workflow Styles
- Hosting
- Tracking
- Rule Capabilities
- Custom Activities
- XAML Workflows and Serialization
- Dynamic Update
- WF and WCF
- SharePoint Workflow
- Designer Rehosting and External Modeling
- Summary
- Installation Instructions
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
.NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is part of the .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5. The .NET Framework 3.5 is a newer version of the .NET Framework 3.0. Both the .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5 are add-ons to the 2.0 Framework (see Figure 1.2). Neither replaces the 2.0 Framework. They simply add new namespaces that make up WF, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Cardspace, and other new features.
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Figure 1.2 .NET 3x stack.
WCF unifies Microsoft's current messaging technologies: web services, .NET Remoting, and Enterprise Services/Com+ .WCF is significant to WF because it provides a resilient way for WF to communicate with other applications, inside and outside of the firewall. Hour 19 covers WF and WCF integration.
WPF is Microsoft's new forms technology that looks to unify and improve on its current web and Windows forms capabilities while simultaneously adding multimedia and other features. WF and WPF can both be created using the same markup language, XAML (described in the "XAML Workflows and Serialization" section of this hour), which may prove interesting when creating applications that utilize both.
Windows Cardspace is Microsoft's new consumer-oriented authentication technology and has no underlying connecting to WF.
WF is very similar across the 3.0 and 3.5 Framework versions. The main difference across framework versions is there are two WCF modeling activities in WF 3.5 that are not in 3.0 (covered in Hour 19 "Learning WF–WCF Integration").