Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) Using Visual C#

Audience

Developers wishing to add workflow capabilities to their applications.

Prerequisites

This course assumes that students have a strong programming background in developing applications using C#. This course assumes intermediate knowledge of Visual C#, and of building Windows and Console applications using Visual Studio 2008 and 2010.

Duration

3 days. Hands on.

Course Objectives

Windows Workflow Foundation makes it easy to create applications that follow a flow, or react to events and move from state to state. By providing a visual interface for designing the applications, and by binding code activities directly to the design of the application, Windows Workflow Foundation makes it easier than ever to create and maintain complex business applications. In addition, Windows Workflow Foundation provides a runtime engine that manages your application’s behavior (that is, the “plumbing”) and enforces the workflow. The runtime makes sure the workflow behaves in the manner in which you designed and coded it.

• At the end of this course, delegates will be able to:
• Learn the prerequisites for Windows Workflow Foundation.
• Investigate all the available workflow activities.
• Learn how to handle exceptions in workflow applications.
• Work with Delay and Listen activities.
• Learn how to use RuleSets and Policy activities in workflows.
• Provide bi-directional communications between the workflow and the host.
• Understand the difference between sequential and state machine workflows.
• Learn when and how the workflow runtime persists information about a workflow.
• Learn when and how the workflow runtime tracks information about a workflow.
• Understand how to group activities into a transaction.
• Modify an executing workflow from the host application.
• Explore how to maintain state between workflow Web service method calls.

Course Content

Introduction to Workflow
•What is Windows Workflow Foundation?
•Creating Your First Workflow
•Hosting a Workflow in a Windows Application

Handling Conditions an Exceptions
•Introducing Conditional Activities
•IfElse Activity
•While Activity
•ConditionedActivityGroup Activity
•Replicator Activity
•Handling Exceptions

Flow Activities
•Introducing Flow Activities
•Delay Activity and Handling Properties
•Listen Activity
•Suspend and Terminate Activities
•Parallel and SynchronizeScope Activities
•Handling Cancellation

Making Decisions in Workflows
•Using Rules in Workflows
•Using the Policy Activity
•Setting Priorities
•Forward Chaining

Workflow Communications
•Calling Methods in the Host from the Workflow
•Handling Host Events in the Workflow
•Bi-Directional Communications

Creating State Machine Workflows
•Introduction to State Machines
•State Machine Activities
•Creating a State Machine Workflow
•Circular Navigation in State Machines

Using and Building Persistence Services
•Introducing Workflow Persistence
•Using the SQL Persistence Service
•Creating a Custom Persistence Service

Using and Building Tracking Services
•Workflow Tracking Services
•Using the SQL Tracking Service
•Tracking Profiles
•Creating a Custom Tracking Service

Creating Custom Activities
•Introducing Custom Activities
•Creating a Simple Activity
•Creating a More Complex Activity
•Creating Composite Activities

Handling Workflow Transactions
•Transactions
•Transactions in Workflows
•Transactions and Batches of Work
•Compensation in Workflows

Dynamic Workflow Updates
•Introduction to Dynamic Updates
•Modifying a Workflow from the Host Application
•Modifying a Workflow from within the Workflow
•Dynamic Rule Conditions

Workflows and Web Services
•Workflow-Based Web Services
•Building a Workflow Web Service
•Maintaining State in Web Services
•Invoking a Web Service in a Workflow