Workflow TV

Developers often say that there is a steep learning curve with Windows Workflow Foundation (WF4).  I won't deny that... instead, allow me to share three simple rules that will help you to get over that curve sooner and to make them easy to remember, they all begin with "U" which is…

With WF3, a lot of people wrote apps that enabled/disabled controls based on the current state of a StateMachine and the possible transitions but to do this with WF4 you had to write a fair bit of code.  In this episode I'll show you how you can take advantage of the new classes in…

Imagine you want to create a library that supports different versions of .NET.  Of course there are multiple ways to do this but this is the technique that I have adopted for my CodePlex projects.  In this episode I'll show you the sample project I used to test out my targets files and how…

What do you do if you want to store state in an activity? Use a field? Be careful—you can get into trouble. In this episode, I show you the right way to manage state in Workflow Activities using Variable<T>. Windows Workflow Foundation (WF4) - Activity State Sample Ron…

In this episode I'll show you our new and improved activities for loading XAML and invoking child workflows.  About 6 months ago we did a first release of these activities and the feedback came back with some changes we needed to make.  Now you can Load XAML and set the LocalAssembly…

Create custom activities with Windows Workflow Foundation is easy, but creating a fully featured activity designer is not quite as easy.  In this episode I'll show you the tips and tricks of creating an activity designer to get you up and running quickly. Links How to create a Custom Activity…

In this video Steve Danielson, a Programming Writer on the WF team, gives a walkthrough of the WF4 State Machine Getting Started Tutorial from the MSDN documentation. Links Getting Started Tutorial Completed Version of the WF4 Getting Started Tutorial .NET Framework 4 Platform Update 1 Overview…

Wondering how you can secure your Workflow Service? On this episode, I'm joined by Dave Cliffe who explains how Workflow Security works with WCF Security. Links: Windows Workflow Foundation (WF4) - Role Based Security for Workflow Services (Sample Code) Workflow Security Pack Ron Jacobs…

What happens to a Workflow if an attacker can lure the workflow host into running XAML which references an assembly replaced by the attacker?  This is what I call an Activity Assembly Spoofing attack.  On this episode I'll show you how it can happen, what you need to know about the…

Customers often ask me How can I store my Workflow Service definitions (xamlx files) in a database with IIS and AppFabric? On this episode I'll show you how you can create a VirtualPathProvider that enables you to build a Workflow respository with a database. Links Windows Workflow Foundation…