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Windows Workflow Foundation added to WinFX!! - FREE book if you are at PDC

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3 years of development, lots of feedback from our TAP partners and internal groups such as Office "12" that builds on this technology - and beta 1 is ready for you to use!  Yes we are adding Windows Workflow Foundation to WinFX.  In so doing, we are redefining workflow as a general developer technology through the namespace System.Workflow.  Yes you can completely write a workflow in code, or use designers in visual studio.net and you can use your favourite language.

Some of my favourite features are:

1. Full code fidelity between the graphical view and the code view. Change the code and the graphical view changes straight away.

2. State Machine workflow model

3. End-user modifiable workflow down to the running instance level (CodeDOM/Model is retained at runtime)

4. Debugging inside Visual Studio .NET all the way into code

and the list goes on.

The beta 1 bits, 12 Labs, 2 Whitepapers, a FREE Beta Book for PDC attendees (until they run out  go to the book store and pick up the book, or get the voucher from the lounge with have 3000 of them for you).

MSDN has a bunch of collateral here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/building/workflow/default.aspx, the new Windows Workflow Foundation community site has more here: https://www.windowsworkflow.net/.  Check out Paul Andrew's blog (Paul is on my team) for more here: https://blogs.msdn.com/pandrew.

Future versions of BizTalk Server, MBS Applications and Office "12" will use this technology.  As of today workflow is a new player in the middle tier for application development.  Every application includes some workflow and with Windows Workflow Foundation you can capture that workflow in a model.

Feel free to add your comments and I'll get to them later tonight. This is super exciting news for all you developers out there!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2005
    Man have you been busy! This is some of the coolest work I've ever seen. In one fell swoop you guys have redefined the entire workflow marketplace and opened it to all levels of developers and applications. Talk about a paradigm shift!
  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2005
    I've got the hands on labs and the bits, and this looks like quite a bit of fun! Where will this stop and BizTalk start? I'm starting to see how some quick hits that BizTalk seemed like a bit of overkill on this may fit very well. Additionally, what do you see as the future for Captaris and K2, and other, more traditional "workflow products"?
  • Anonymous
    September 15, 2005
    This is some cool stuff, I have posted some questions on my blog as I'm trying to understand where this all fits in the SOA picture.
  • Anonymous
    September 19, 2005
    Its nice to hear that we are getting workflow foundation in our VS environement. I had a preview of WWF and it seems to be the extended form of Orchestration we used in BizTalk. Would it replace the orchestration designer in upcoming version of BTS?
  • Anonymous
    September 21, 2005
    we're saying it's free?! aren't partners like K2 going to get a little annoyed about this?
  • Anonymous
    September 23, 2005
    Does WinWF effectively surgically remove much of the Orchestration services from the BizTalk Server and include it in Windows?

    Thanks...Ash
  • Anonymous
    September 23, 2005
    I could not make the PDC. Any way I can get a hold of the book?

    Thanks...Ash
  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2007
    Ahogy Scott is írja az idei PDC-ne bemutatták a Windows Workflow Foundation Beta -t. Ez azért érdekes