This print for content only-size & color not accurate 7" X 9-1/4" / casebound / malloy

■

I N T R O D U C I N G  W I N D O W S   C O M M U N I C AT I O N   F O U N D AT I O N

915

8849CH25.qxd  10/16/07  10:51 AM  Page 915

---

8849CH25.qxd  10/16/07  10:51 AM  Page 916

---

Introducing Windows Workflow

Foundation

.N

ET 3.0 shipped with a particular programming framework named Windows Workflow Founda-

tion (WF). This API allows you to model, configure, monitor, and execute the 

workflows (which, for

the time being, can simply be regarded as a collection of related tasks) used internally by a given

application. The out-of-the-box solution provided by WF is a huge benefit when building software,

as we are no longer required to manually develop complex infrastructure to support workflow-

enabled applications.

This chapter begins by defining the role of 

business processes and describes how they relate to

the WF API. As well, you will be exposed to the concept of a WF “activity,” the two major flavors of

workflows (sequential and state machine), and various WF assemblies, project templates, and pro-

gramming tools. Once we’ve covered the basics, we’ll build several example programs that illustrate

how to leverage the WF programming model to establish business processes that execute under the

watchful eye of the WF runtime engine.