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Hello Workflow - Announcing Windows Workflow Foundation

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(Ooops... just realized this was not aggregated in the main site. Updated now)

Today at the PDC 2005 Eric Rudder announced the technology that I’ve been focusing on for the last 6 months: Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) . Windows Workflow Foundation is a framework for building workflows that will run within your applications. WWF (yes, I used the acronym WWF :) provides a workflow runtime, programming model, and Visual Studio designer for building workflow applications. Think of WWF as just a set of assemblies (3 core ones in fact) and a Visual Studio designer. WWF is a WinFx component – just like the Windows Communication Foundation (aka Indigo) and the Windows Presentation Foundation (aka Avalon).

Focusing is probably a bit of an understatement. The last six months have been filled with 6-7 day work weeks, 18+ hour days, hundreds of meetings, and thousands of emails. So here are a few of the results:

- Today we launched a new community site focused on Windows Workflow Foundation. The site is located at https://www.windowsworkflow.net. One of the main purposes of the site is to allow you to download and share workflow activities. Think of activities as controls that you can include in a workflow. We’ve built several activities that are available right now. You can download all of the source code for these activities and several tools and examples. You’ll notice that the site is very similar to the beta.asp.net site and has functionality that’s similar to Community Server. The great folks at Telligent Systems (Rob Howard, Jim Martin, Terri Morton) helped us put together this site in record time.

- We’re also releasing a book titled Presenting Windows Workflow Foundation. The information about the book is also available on the community site. If you’re attending the PDC, then go to Don Box's Communications track talk COM200 Halls C & D 11 a.m. today. We will be handing out vouchers for a free copy of the book as you enter Don’s session. I co-authored the book and wrote chapter 10 that explains how to host or run workflows as part of your application.

- Finally, we will also be launching an MSDN forum where you can ask questions about WWF and provide feedback to the product team. You can visit the forum from https://www.WindowsWorkflow.net/Forums

So these three “activities” account for 40-50% of my time for the last 6 months. Please leave comments and let me know what you think of these resources.