endpoint.tv Screencast - Using the WCF Receive Activity in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)

Posted: Nov 05, 2008 at 8:00 AM

By: Cliff Simpkins

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Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series. This week, we switch back to a series of WF screencasts.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to use the ReceiveActivity within Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) to allow WCF clients to invoke the WF 3.5 workflow.

Matt starts with an existing WF sequential workflow (for more info, see Creating your First Sequential Workflow), and adds a WF 3.5 ReceiveActivity to the beginning of the workflow, and setup the activity to process the incoming work. To configure the activity, we add a service contract and a child activities to the ReceiveActivity that will process the request and return a result to the calling client and continue doing additional work after the workflow responds.

Along the way, Matt configures the workflow to create new instances of the workflow when a WCF call is received, and sets up the workflow in the WorkflowServiceHost that was added in 3.5. We will configure the host with an initial endpoint, add a MEX behavior, and then opens up the host. Matt then uses the WCF Test Client (discussed in Creating your First WCF Service) to interface with the hosted WCF workflow service to step through the workflow in the debugger.

For additional information on WF, please check out the WF Dev Center on MSDN and the .NET Endpoint team blog. For more information on classes offered by Aaron and the PluralSight folks, check out their catalog of instructor led courses and new online courses that cover a variety of Microsoft technologies, ranging from .NET v3.5 to WSS to BizTalk server.

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By 'syndicated like the episodes' - I assume you mean why don't they have the video attached to the RSS feed. That primarily comes down to the way Channel9 treats videos classified as 'screencasts'. When we select 'screencast' as the video type, it sets it up so that when you click on the 'video' on the left, it opens it up in your video player of choice as opposed to opening it up embeded in the webpage. Some of the early feedback we received was that folks didn't realize you could click on 'Downloads' and select WMV from there, and were frustrated with having to read code in the embedded player. So we kept them with a 'screencast' classifications.

The downsides are: no embeddable player by default (which would be great for blogging) and the video links aren't attached to the feeds. I believe the accepted assumption is that most people use screencasts when needed, as opposed to subscribing to them like a typical 'show'.

That being said, I'll follow up with the Channel9 folks to get a more complete answer. Would there be a preference for video feeds for the screencast videos (and having them show up in the same format/player as the podcasts) over the current posting format?

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pajocomo Paulo Morgado

Nov 06, 2008 at 11:38 AM

Why aren't these webcasts being sindicated like the episodes?
cliff.simpkins

Nov 06, 2008 at 5:43 PM

By 'syndicated like the episodes' - I assume you mean why don't they have the video attached to the RSS feed. That primarily comes down to the way Channel9 treats videos classified as 'screencasts'. When we select 'screencast' as the video type, it sets it up so that when you click on the 'video' on the left, it opens it up in your video player of choice as opposed to opening it up embeded in the webpage. Some of the early feedback we received was that folks didn't realize you could click on 'Downloads' and select WMV from there, and were frustrated with having to read code in the embedded player. So we kept them with a 'screencast' classifications.

The downsides are: no embeddable player by default (which would be great for blogging) and the video links aren't attached to the feeds. I believe the accepted assumption is that most people use screencasts when needed, as opposed to subscribing to them like a typical 'show'.

That being said, I'll follow up with the Channel9 folks to get a more complete answer. Would there be a preference for video feeds for the screencast videos (and having them show up in the same format/player as the podcasts) over the current posting format?

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