Chapter 45
Windows Workflow Foundation
WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?
- Learning the different types of workflows that you can create
- Exploring descriptions of some of the built-in activities
- Creating custom activities
- Getting an overview of a workflow
WROX.COM CODE DOWNLOADS FOR THIS CHAPTER
The wrox.com code downloads for this chapter are found at http://www.wrox.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=1118314425 on the Download Code tab. The code for this chapter is divided into the following major examples:
- Hello World
- Parallel Execution
- Pick Demo
- Custom Activities
- Args and Vars
- Workflow Application
- Workflow as Services
- Dynamic Update
- Designer Hosting
A WORKFLOW OVERVIEW
This chapter presents an overview of the Windows Workflow Foundation 4.5 (referred to as WF and Workflow throughout the rest of this chapter), which provides a model to define and execute processes using a set of building blocks called activities. WF provides a Designer that, by default, is hosted within Visual Studio, which enables you to drag and drop activities from the toolbox onto the design surface to create a workflow template.
This template can then be executed in a number of different ways, as explained throughout the chapter. As a workflow executes, it may need to access the outside world, and there are a couple of methods typically used that enable you to do this. In addition, a workflow may need to save and restore its state, for example, when a long wait is needed.
A workflow is constructed from a number of activities, ...
Get Professional C# 2012 and .NET 4.5 now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
