Windows Workflow Foundation Toys

We're making Windows Workflow Foundation Toys for Us and Now for You

As we are discovering the nuances of WF we are putting together some learning materials for ourselves and sharing it with you through the CodePlex community (which is so very cool). We were just tired of the things that were so sales-oriented and sounding. We've done most of this as videos (screen captures) - which I find particularly helpful with complicated technologies.

We wanted stuff for developers. So you will find a lot of sample code projects and ALL of the video time is spent in Visual Studio. There's stuff if you are brand new to WF and there's stuff here for some serious developers. Do you think you would like to contribute? Send an email to codeplex - at - winworkflow.net so we can set something up.

I hope it is a benefit to you.

- Jerry Nixon, Principal Architect

Our WF Resources for you

WF Controls: (level 100)

Introduction to all the base activities of Windows workflow foundation seen in the toolbox.All the properties and functionalities introduced for both State Machine and Sequence workflow activities.
Video - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4216
Screenshot - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4848

WorkFlow Canvas: (level 100)
This gives us a basic introduction of the Workflow canvas in the workflow designer with its various properties and handlers.
Video - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4217

State Machine Workflow: (level 200)

This video introduces the StateMachine Workflow together with event based actvities. Source code is attached to the .zip file
Video - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4224
Code - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4223
Screenshot - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4846

External Data Exchange Service: (level 200)

The External Data Exchange Service is used to communicate from inside a workflow to external consumers. This video gives an introduction to the interface implementation.Source code is attached to the .zip file
Video - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4099
Code - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4221
Screenshot - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4843

WebService Activity:

WebServices can be invoked from a workflow and a workflow can as such be used as a Webservice. This video provides us an example of these using the base activities - InvokeWebService, WebserviceInput and WebserviceOutput activities.Source code is attached to the .zip file
Video - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4210
Code - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4222
Screenshot - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4841

SynchronizationScope activity:

The SynchronizationScopeActivity activity executes contained activities sequentially in a synchronized domain. Concurrently executing SynchronizationScopeActivity activities that are configured to use the same synchronization handle(s) provide their child activities with synchronized and mutually exclusive access to shared variables.Source code is attached to the .zip file
Video - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4211
Code - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4219
Screenshot - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4211

Replicator Activity:

The ReplicatorActivity activity enables you to create an arbitrary number of instances of a single activity during run time. Each ReplicatorActivity activity can contain only one child activity, but the child can be a composite activity.By default, the ReplicatorActivity activity finishes when all child activities have finished. You can use the UntilCondition property to stop execution of the ReplicatorActivity before the completion of the child activity instances.Source code is attached to the .zip file
Video - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4212
Code - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4220
Screenshot - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4837

Rule Chaining:

WF provides a powerful evaluation engine to support complex rules scenarios, demanding forward chaining evaluation and precise evaluation control.Forward chaining refers to the ability for the actions of one rule to cause other, dependent rules to be reevaluated.This video provides us an introduction into the dependencies among the actions of a rule and the conditions of other rules. Source code is attached to the .zip file
Video - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4215
Code - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4218
Screenshot - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4836

Custom activities:

Custom workflow activities are one of the most important aspects of WF. There are two kinds of Custom activities - Simple and Composite.Simple, or basic, activities are those whose logic and execution are encapsulated within the code of the activity.Composite activities, on the other hand, achieve their goals by relying on the execution of child activities.In this video we look at how both kinds of custom activities are created and used. Source code is attached to the .zip file.
Video - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4269
Code - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4239
Screenshot - http://www.codeplex.com/WinWf/download?DownloadId=4833

Other WF Videos and Web Casts on the web:

MSDN Webcast: Windows Workflow Foundation Exposed (Level 200)
In this session, we introduce you to concepts in Windows Workflow Foundation, the programming model, engine, and tools for quickly building workflow-enabled applications on Windows. .....
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032314327&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

MSDN Webcast: Introduction to Windows Workflow Foundation
Windows Workflow is one of the cornerstone technologies in .NET 3.0. This one hour Introduction will concentrate on the basics of “How to” (demonstration) build Workflow into .NET solutions, with a little bit of “What is” (PowerPoint) at the beginning.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032313217&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

MSDN Webcast: Understanding Windows Workflow Foundation
Windows Workflow Foundation is the programming model, engine and tools for quickly building workflow-enabled applications on Windows. This session is a code-focused introduction to this new technology and shows you how to design, build and debug workflows. Learn how to build the "hello world" of workflow-enabled applications and also how to make the right decisions when choosing to use workflows in everyday applications.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032309836&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

MSDN WebCast: An Overview of ASP.NET and Windows Workflow Foundation Integration
This session explores designing and developing UI workflow applications. The next release of ASP.NET will provide a key integration point with Windows Workflow Foundation, enabling developers to build PageFlow scenarios making it easier to create representative UI for the business process layer.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032305056&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Resources and Help

Online Windows WorkFlow Foundation SDK
http://windowssdk.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms735967.aspx

WF MSDN
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa663328.aspx

Introduction to Hosting Windows Workflow Foundation
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/hostingwf.asp

Dave Green's WebLog: Which Style of Workflow When?
http://blogs.msdn.com/davegreen/archive/2005/10/20/483309.aspx

Introduction to the Windows Workflow Foundation Rules Engine
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/intWF_FndRlsEng.asp

Windows Workflow Foundation: Everything About Re-Hosting the Workflow Designer
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480213.aspx

Other Blogs and Forums

WF .NET Framework 3 Forum
http://wf.netfx3.com/

WF Team Bloggers
http://wf.netfx3.com/blogs/wf_team_bloggers/

Rules Team Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/rulesteam/default.aspx

Paul Andrew
http://blogs.msdn.com/pandrew/default.aspx

Don's McBlog
http://blogs.msdn.com/Don_McCrady/

Mark Schmidt
http://blogs.msdn.com/markhsch/default.aspx

Runtime Components and Plugins:

Microsoft® Windows® Workflow Foundation Runtime Components Beta 2.2 and Visual Studio® 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 2.2
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5C080096-F3A0-4CE4-8830-1489D0215877

.NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en

Windows SDK for Vista and the .NET Framework 3.0
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C2B1E300-F358-4523-B479-F53D234CDCCF&displaylang=en

Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5D61409E-1FA3-48CF-8023-E8F38E709BA6&displaylang=en

Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF), November 2006 CTP
# http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F54F5537-CC86-4BF5-AE44-F5A1E805680D&displaylang=en

Who are We?

http://nixoncorp.com