Entries tagged with wf - Channel 9

Navigating through the hypes, Software architectures and patterns to help avoiding your projects to crash. (Dutch)

Matthijs Hoekstra — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:01:00 GMT

When it comes to .Net software development, more and more frameworks enter the market. Both from Microsoft and in open source. Just think of all the very useful frameworks, such as ASP.NET MVC, Castle, WF, Entity Framework, Unity, Linq2SQL, ADO.NET Data Services, WCF, nHibernate, Spring.NET, CSLA, NUnit, Enterprise Library or ADF. Once a project chooses to apply one or more frameworks, trouble begins. What if you require additional features that aren’t implemented in the framework? What if you decide that another framework would have been better and want to switch halfway your project? What if the author of your favorite open source framework suddenly stops developing? What if the framework contains bugs or omissions? And what if a new version of the framework is released that is implemented totally different? These and many more everyday problems will cause your project to come to a halt, or at least make you perform serious refactoring. During this highly interactive talk Sander Hoogendoorn, principal technology officer at Capgemini, chief architect of Capgemini’s agile Accelerated Delivery Platform, and member of Microsoft’s Visual Studio Advisory Board, will demonstrate pragmatic software architectures and patterns that will help your projects to stay away from framework problems, and how to keep your code independent of framework choices. In his well known slightly ironic style Sander will present different models of layered architectures, and explain and use bridge patterns, managers, dependency injection, descriptors, and layer super-types. Of course, the speaker will illustrate these insightful patterns with lots of demo’s and (bad) code examples using blocks from Microsoft’s Enterprise Library, nHibernate, Log4Net, and the Entity Framework. Delegates will benefit from this talk by learning how to improve the structure and quality of their software architecture and code, and how to avoid the pitfalls of applying frameworks to .Net software development.

Deze video is opgenomen tijdens de DevDays in Den Haag in juni 2009. DevDays is het grootste evenement op het vlak van softwareontwikkeling en -architectuur in Nederland. Duizenden development professionals bezoeken dit jaarlijkse evenement om in twee dagen weer volledig op de hoogte te zijn van alle ontwikkelingen op hun vakgebied.

What's new in WF/WCF 4.0

Matthijs Hoekstra — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:24:00 GMT

.NET 4.0 brings several improvements in the areas of WCF and WF, including improved REST capabilities, a new workflow model, seamless integration between WF and WCF, and a new visual designer. It also provides the ability to author completely declarative (XAML-based) workflow services that can be more easily deployed, hosted, and managed. This session walks you through the various new 4.0 features and shows you how to write code using them today.

This video is recorded at the Dutch DevDays in Den Haag The Netherlands in June 2009. DevDays is the largest industry event for developers in the Netherlands. Thousands of professional developers visit DevDays yearly to keep in touch with the latest developments in their field.

XAML in .NET 4

Adam Kinney — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:00:00 GMT

This isn't your Grandpa's XAML!

XAML in .NET 4 is much more than just a Reader and Writer and also is now being consumed by many technologies including Silverlight, WCF, WF and of course WPF. Rob Relyea and Mike Shim came by to talk about what's new in XAML for 2009 and beyond.

For instructions on how to download and install Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 check out this episode of 10-4.

MS Virtual Labs: Connected Applications with WCF and WF

joelercoaster — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:41:00 GMT

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) are relatively new technologies, having only been officially released with .NET 3.0 in November 2006. Despite this, each technology has received some significant updates for Visual Studio 2008. For WCF, the most visible update is the new tooling that enables developers to be more productive in creating and testing services. For WF, many of the improvements revolve around integration with WCF.

The purpose of this demo/lab is to show the new tooling for WCF and WCF/WF Integration. The demo covers the following topics:

• Windows Communication Foundation Test Server & Client
• Building a Workflow Service.

Try it http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8692023

Northeast Roadshow - Services in Workflow Foundation

Brian Johnson — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:52:00 GMT

Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is the unsung hero of the .NET 3.0 release. With Workflow Foundation you can model business processes as sequential flows and state machines at a level of abstraction that brings both the developer and the business analyst in on the conversation.

After an initial overview of WF, this session uses a coffee shop metaphor to dive deeper into the use of local services (via the the CallExternalMethod and HandleExternalEvent activities) and external services (via the Send and Receive activities introduced in .NET 3.5).

You can find slides and samples from the Northeast Roadshow events at the Northeast Roadshow Code Gallery Site.

endpoint.tv Screencast - Declarative XAML Workflows in WF 3.5

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to use declarative XAML workflows.

In this screencast, Matt demonstrates how to build and run your workflows in XAML; allowing you to express your workflow completely in this XML-based format. He starts off by creating a new WF workflow using the XAML workflow project file, and walks the viewer through the files that are created by this VS project, and how to remove the code behind (.cs file) so that your workflow project will be based soley on a XAML file to explain it. We then work with the workflow in both the XAML/text editor and the WF designer to add the business logic, modify the .NET application to read in and process the XAML file, and run the workflow.

Along the way, Matt then delves into the created XAML file to examine and explain the structure and used namespaces in that XAML file. Matt also explains the impact of starting XAML only workflows - how and why we need to load the XAML file differently, and some additional exception handling that you should add to handle the runtime exceptions that can come with XAML-only workflows (because the workflow isn't being compiled, the validation is happening at runtime).

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.

endpoint.tv Screencast - Using the Listen Activity in WF 3.5

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to use the listen activity in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) to listen for multiple events.

Matt starts with a basic sequential workflow console project and a couple custom activities. He then builds out a workflow that waits for input from the user (using a read line activity), and also implements a timeout (using a delay activity) that allows the workflow author to place a limit around how long a WF workflow will wait for input.

Along the way, Matt explains the user how the use of IEvent activity interface allows custom activities to subscribe to events that the listen activity can pass along. Also covered is how to catch exceptions that may arise after using the delay activity to 'timeout' the WF workflow.

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.

endpoint.tv Screencast - Fault Handling in WF

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how fault handling works in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) 3.5.

In this screencast, Matt starts with an existing workflow application (a console application), and adds a custom activity that throws an exception. Initially, Matt demonstrates how this is thrown and it's effect on the workflow instance. He then demonstrates how to add fault handlers into a WF sequence to handle faults in a more graceful manner - very similar to the C# try/catch pattern. Matt also explains how exceptions 'bubble up' within a WF workflow - very similar to standard .NET applications.

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.

endpoint.tv Screencast - Working with Transactions in WF

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to work with Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) transactions, from the simple use case of scoping activities to participate in a transaction to the more advanced scenario of queue up work to participate in a transaction from an activity or the WF host application.

In this screencast, Matt demonstrates how to use the transaction scope WF activity and set the necessary properties on the activity. He then dives into how transactions work in WF to guarantee consistency in the activities, the WF workflow, and the overall transaction that WF is participating in. Along the way, Matt uses console outputs to demonstrate the execution order of activites and the transaction to visually demonstrate what the runtime is actually doing once you execute the code.

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.

endpoint.tv Screencast - Using the WF Replicator Activity

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to using the WF replicator activity to add more advanced flow control capabilities to your WF workflows.

In this screencast, Matt introduces the replicator activity, which allows you to implement ForEach-like semantics on workflow data. He adds the replicator to an existing workflow, binds the activity to the incoming data, and demonstrates how the replicator activity runs child activities. For this screencast, Matt uses an example sending e-mail notifications to persons in a data list.

While explaining how the replicator works, Matt explains a few aspects of the replicator activity: (a) how to interact with child activities within the replicators events, (b) how to set the activity execution type to have control over how the iterations are executed (i.e., sequence or parallel), and (c) how to use conditions to set a replicator stopping point.

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.

endpoint.tv Screencast - Working with WF Tracking Profiles

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to work with WF tracking profiles (both SQL and custom tracking services). In last week's screencast, Matt introduced you to tracking services in WF 3.5. This week, Matt expands on tracking profiles, detailing out to create a profile via code and SDK sample apps, serialize the profile out for use in applications, and how to use the profiles within your workflow activities and workflows.

To build the profile, Matt demonstrates how to create a tracking profile two ways: by code and using Workflow Tracking Profile Designer from the WF SDK. To build the tracking profile via code, Matt introduces the concepts of workflow track points, workflow tracking locations, and how to use workflow tracking events to specify the details that you want to track. He also demonstrates how to detail which activity types you wish to track. Matt also opens up a serialized profile XML file and walks the viewer through how the profile is stored. For the Workflow Tracking Profile Designer, Matt demonstrates how the app generates the same CML file, but also how it allows you to commit the tracking profile to a SQL database.

Finally, Matt demonstrates how to use tracking in your activities and workflows to track data at runtime. He demonstrates how to send data into the tracking provider from WF activities, and how to use the Workflow Monitor SDK sample application to pull and visually display the tracked data.

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.

endpoint.tv Screencast - Using SQL Tracking Services with WF

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to add tracking capabilities to your WF using SQL Tracking Services.

In this screencast, Matt demonstrates how to add SQL Server workflow tracking services. He first sets up the SQL Server database/tables via Powershell, and how to add (and configure)the tracking service to the workflow runtime within the application. Once added, Matt demonstrates how to use the query API to print basic workflow information back out to a command-line Console.

As we add the service to the application, Matt also discusses the various persistance service settings that are available, such as data partitioning and profile configuration.

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.

endpoint.tv Screencast - Creating Composite Activities

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to create composite activities, combining multiple custom activities into a single custom activity that can be used in WF workflows. This screencast picks up where last week's Creating a Custom Activity screencast leaves off.

In this screencast, Matt demonstrates how to create a custom composite activity and add in two previously created activities. Once the composite activity is created, we then add properties to the composite activity, allowing the WF developer to set properties at design time on the WF designer.

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.

endpoint.tv Screencast - Creating Custom Activities

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to create a custom activity in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) that can be used in WF workflows. To do this, we create a new class that inherits from Activity and has some properties. We then use this activity in a basic sequential workflow (for more information,).

Along the way, Matt explains the Execute method and some basics of the ActivityExecutionStatus.

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.

endpoint.tv - WCF and WF 4.0 First Look with Michele Leroux Bustamante

Ron Jacobs — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:34:00 GMT

Ron interviews Michele Leroux Bustamante about her impressions on WCF and WF 4.0

endpoint.tv Screencast - Using the WCF to Consume Services in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series.

In this short video, CSD MVP Matt Milner from PluralSight guides the viewer through how to use the WF 3.5 SendActivity to synchronously consume services using the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) - it picks up from last week's screencast that introduced use of the ReceiveActivity.

To add a call to a remote service, we add a ReceiveActivity where there had been custom code and wire it to the proper service interfaces. Matt then uses ChannelTokens to use them to map the ReceiveActivity and SendActivity together.

Along the way, we use the Add Service Reference option to talk to the MEX endpoint (created last week), and create the configuration information from the WCF service endpoint. Matt also dives in deeper into the use of workflow activity events and properties.

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.

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

Cliff Simpkins — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT

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.

endpoint.tv - WCF and WF 4.0 First Look with Richard Blewett

Ron Jacobs — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:58:00 GMT

In another first look at WCF and WF 4.0 Ron interviews Richard Blewett of Developmentor about his thoughts on these new technologies.

A Lap around "Oslo"

System — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:38:15 GMT

Please Note: This session will be repeated on October 29th at 4:45PM. "Oslo" is the family of new technologies that enable data-driven development and execution of services and applications. Come and learn how to capture all aspects of an application schematized in the "Oslo" repository and use "Oslo" directly to drive the execution of deployed applications.

Douglas Purdy
Douglas Purdy is a product unit manager at Microsoft working on next-generation languages and tools to broaden the franchise of people building applications. His vision is to “make everyone a programmer” (even if they don’t know it). Previously, Douglas was the group program manager for the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF/Indigo) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF/WinOE) teams. Douglas has been with Microsoft, on and off, since 1998 where he has worked in consulting, evangelism and engineering.
Vijaye Raji

WF 4.0: Extending with Custom Activities

System — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:38:11 GMT

Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) 4.0 coordinates and manages individual units of work, encapsulated into activities. WF comes with a rich library of activities. Learn how to extend this library by encapsulating your own APIs with custom activities. See how to compose those basic activities into higher level units using rules, flowchart, and state machine control flow styles. Learn how to build your own WF control styles. Learn how to customize and re-host the workflow authoring experience using the new WF designer framework.

Matt Winkler
Matt is currently the program manger focused on building the WF Designer in Visual Studio.

WF 4.0: A First Look

System — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:38:06 GMT

Programs coordinate work. The code for coordination and state management often obscures a program's purpose. Learn how programming with Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) 4.0 provides clarity of intent while preserving the functional richness of the .NET framework. See how easy it is to build workflows with the new Visual Studio workflow designer. Learn about text-based authoring options for WF. Hear how WF integrates well with other Microsoft technologies (WCF, WPF, ASP.NET). If you've looked at WF before, come and see the changes to data flow, composition, and new control flow styles. Significant improvements to usability, composability, and performance make Workflow a great fit for a broad range of solutions on both the client and the server.

Kenny Wolf
Kenny Wolf is an Architect at Microsoft responsible for WF and WCF. Previously, Kenny was the Technical Lead for WCF Transports and Channels. Kenny has been with Microsoft since 1997. After shipping 3 versions of Office for the Macintosh, Kenny joined a platform incubation called "Indigo" (now WCF). Kenny holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science from Yale University.

Microsoft .NET Framework: Declarative Programming Using XAML

Adam Kinney — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:38:00 GMT

If you're using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), or Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), then XAML is your new best friend! Learn how an entire application-from presentation to data to services to workflow--can be authored using simple, declarative XAML notations introduced in the next version of the .NET Framework. Learn about XAML additions like: support for generics, object references, non-default constructors, and more.

Daniel Roth

Daniel Roth has been working on the Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation for the past four years. He is excited to bring the benefits XAML to the world of webservices and workflows.
Rob Relyea

WCF 4.0: Building WCF Services with WF in Microsoft .NET 4.0

System — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:37:44 GMT

Eliminate the tradeoff between ease of service authoring and performant, scalable services. Hear about significant enhancements in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) 4.0 and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) 4.0 to deal with the ever increasing complexity of communication. Learn how to use WCF to correlate messages to service instances using transport, context, and application payloads. See how the new WF messaging activities enable the modeling of rich protocols. Learn how WCF provides a default host for workflows exposing features such as distributed compensation and discovery. See how service definition in XAML completes the union of WF and WCF with a unified authoring experience that simplifies configuration and is fully integrated with IIS activation and deployment.

Ed Pinto

SharePoint 2007: Advanced Asynchronous Workflow Messaging

System — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:33:13 GMT

Learn how to build an employee on-boarding application that depends on a server located inside another company. We show how to use Microsoft Visual Studio to build the document workflow and have it asynchronously message a business service hosted behind another company's firewall.

Alex Malek

.NET Services: Orchestrating Services and Business Processes Using Cloud-Based Workflow

System — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:32:46 GMT

See how simple it is to use cloud-based workflow services to run business processes in the cloud as well as perform orchestration across on-premises and cloud services while running workflows in an environment that scales automatically.

Moustafa Ahmed
Moustafa Khalil Ahmed is a Program Manager with the .Net Online Services team at Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA. Since joining Microsoft in 2000, he helped develop and ship multiple server products and development frameworks and tools including BizTalk Server 2004, Windows Workflow Foundation in .Net Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio 2008. Moustafa is currently focused on Cloud-Based Services and particularly Workflow Service.