Windows Workflow Foundation announced today at PDC!
Windows Workflow Foundation was publicly announced and demonstrated today at PDC!! ISV’s, you are going to LOVE this!! Workflow is one of those things that so many of you need in your applications and now you have a workflow engine, programming model, and tool (Visual Studio) available to easily build various forms of workflow into your product(s). It’s also great to see several Microsoft product teams such as Office, BizTalk, and Dynamics (MBS) at Microsoft are leveraging WWF as well!
I did some of the hands on labs here at PDC and I’m quite impressed with it. I’ve also just installed it on my laptop and will be delving into this more so will post some more detailed info after PDC. In the meantime, here’s some info to get you going:
What is Windows Workflow Foundation?
It’s a programming model, engine and tools for building workflow enabled applications on Windows.
Is it part of WinFX?
Yes, The Windows Workflow Foundation namespace in WinFX is called System.Workflow
Is there something I need to download in addition to WinFX?
Yes, here you can download Beta 1 of the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation. This includes the Windows Workflow Foundation platform components that are required to execute workflows, it also includes the SDK for developing workflow applications and it includes the Visual Studio 2005 designers for workflow.
What operating systems does it support?
Windows XP (SP2), Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows 2003 (SP1), Windows Vista, and LongHorn Server
How can I get started with Windows WorkFlow Foundation?
This team is awesome, they just publicly announced it today, yet there’s lots of resources ready and waiting. Here’s a few:
Free online lab over on MSDN Virtual Labs (I absolutely love these labs as you just register, sign in, and boom – your right away into an online lab. So easy and it’s all free)
A whole webcast series on WWF (Sept 26 -30th)
Great getting started whitepapers on MSDN:
- Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation: A Developer Walkthrough by Dino Espisito
- Introducing Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation: An Early Look by David Chappel
Download all the WWF Hand On Labs that are available here at PDC!
When will a book be available?
Right now (how cool is that) – check it out here
Lots of other info available at windowsworkflow.net