Wrestling with Windows Workflow Foundation Simon Thurman Jeremy Stimson

Objectives Workflow Concepts Impact on Application Architecture Demonstrate through Technology

Agenda Workflow Overview Scenarios Technology Framework Office12 Demonstrations

Hello World Workflow

What Is a Workflow? A set of activities that coordinate people and / or software... EscalateToManager Example activities … CheckInventory Like a flowchart … …organised into a workflow. Or a state diagram...

Workflow Scenario Spectrum Participants: people, roles Flow style: flexible, dynamic Data: unstructured, documents Participants: apps, services Flow style: prescriptive, protocols Data: structured, transactional Information Worker Document Review … Information Worker Document Review … System Workflow Human Workflow Windows Workflow Foundation Business to Business Supply Chain Mgmt … Business to Business Supply Chain Mgmt … Line of Business Apps Quote to Cash, Sales Automation … Line of Business Apps Quote to Cash, Sales Automation … CRM ERP IT Management New H ire Provisioning, Trouble Ticket … IT Management New H ire Provisioning, Trouble Ticket ….NET Developer Pageflow, Service Coordination ….NET Developer Pageflow, Service Coordination …

Why Workflow Technology? Long running and stateful behaviour Transparency Flexible control flow Architectural Abstractions Workflows technology provides abstractions convenient to describe real-world workflows Workflow Technology Value-Add

Windows Workflow Foundation Single workflow technology for Microsoft products, partners and customers A framework to build on – not a server or application Key features Enables long running workflows in any application or server Extensible activity framework Unified model for human and system workflow scenarios Visual designer for graphical and code-based authoring Availability Exposed via WinFX – powers Office ‘12’ workflow Extensible framework and tools for building workflow into Windows applications

WF Runtime Engine and Services Host Process Windows Workflow Foundation WF Base Activity Library My custom workflow Runtime Services: pluggable implementations with defaults PersistenceCommunication Tracking… Runtime Engine: provides intrinsic behaviours to activities Tracking Infrastructure State Management Workflow Execution Dynamic Update

Windows Workflow Foundation Key Concepts Host Process Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Engine A Workflow An Activity Runtime Services Base Activity Library Custom Activity Library Visual Designer Visual Designer: Graphical and code-based construction Workflows are a set of Activities Workflows run within a Host Process: any application or server Developers can build their own Custom Activity Libraries Components Base Activity Library: Out-of-box activities and base for custom activities Runtime Engine: Workflow execution and state management Runtime Services: Hosting flexibility and communication

Hello World Workflow

Activities Activities allow you to model an application semantics in an explicit way Activities all the way down! Basic – opaque/leaf nodes of a program tree Composite – transparent/modelling constructs/containers for other activities Root – a special composite that is a unit of activation

When Do You Write Custom Activities? Out-of-the-box Activities get you started … Write custom activities for modelling advanced control flows modelling various workflow styles integrating with technologies aligning with standards Out-of-the-box activities built using the same framework that’s available to developers

Why Rules? Modelling Power Approachability Ease of Change

Workflow Rules Conditions on activities If-Else While Replicator Conditioned Activity Group (CAG) Policy activity Contains and executes a RuleSet RuleSet execution provides priority-based, forward-chaining semantics

Rules

Model-driven development Rules and Application DevelopmentForms Data Applicationlogic Rules and policies Applicationcode Workflow model Services

Flexible Control Flow Rules-driven Activities Step2 Step1 Rule1 Rule2 Data Rules + data state drive processing order Data-driven Simple conditions, complex policies Constrained Activity Group State Machine Workflow State2 State1 Event Event External events drive processing order Reactive, event-driven Skip/re-work, exception handling Graph metaphor Sequential Workflow Step1 Step2 Sequential structure prescribes processing order Prescriptive, formal Automation scenarios Flowchart metaphor

State Machine

WinFX Workflow and BizTalk Server Windows Workflow Foundation Messaging Desig n Tools Busines s ActivityMonitorandAdminTools Orchestration Transformation Adapters BizTalk Server Accelerators Premium BPM server Premium BPM server Distinct server product Distinct server product Use in B2B, EAI, BPM scenarios Use in B2B, EAI, BPM scenarios Deployable solutions Deployable solutions Manageability, scale-out Manageability, scale-out Workflow framework Workflow framework Exposed via WinFX Exposed via WinFX Broad set of scenarios Broad set of scenarios Used to build solutions Used to build solutions Enables manageability Enables manageability and scale-out in solutions Use for building workflow into apps or workflow-enabled servers Use for building workflow into apps or workflow-enabled servers Visual Studio Designer Future version will migrate to Windows Workflow Foundation for orchestration Future version will migrate to Windows Workflow Foundation for orchestration Workflow

Office Workflow Vision Facilitate human processes by attaching business logic to items and documents in Windows SharePoint Services, while providing context and tracking progress Empower information workers using Office Server with out-of-the- box solutions and self-service tools to support a broad range of routing & tracking scenarios without IT involvement Empower organisations to build a broad range of sophisticated workflow solutions that take advantage of the full functionality of the Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) platform and integrate into the SharePoint and Office experiences

Visual Studio & Workflow SDK Out-of-the-BoxSolutions (with customisation) FrontPage Workflow Routing & Approval Tracking Applications List Moderation Document Expiration Professional Developer End User Custom Tracking Apps Document Processes Custom Form Actions LOBIntegration Industry-specific Processes Authoring Scenario Pyramid

Workflow Authoring Tools FrontPage (Web Designer) Activities Re-use OOB/deployed activities Forms Autogenerated Forms -InfoPath-ASPX Deployment Workflow authored live against server Runtime compilation Development Model Wizard-based workflow designer Visual Studio (Pro-Dev) Activities Re-use OOB/deployed activities Can author new activities Forms Designed Forms -InfoPath-ASPX Deployment Solutions package generated Box administrator installable Development Model Visual workflow designer

Office