Windows Workflow 1

I’ll write (en shaa ALLAH) about Workflow, and especially on its objects that listed in VS toolbox when working with Workflow project.

So, let me introduce workflow to you (If you know, escape next paragraph) Workflow is part of .net framework 3.0 formerly known “WinFx”, .net framework 3.0 consists of WCF (Windows Communication Foundation), WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), WF (Windows Workflow) and Windows CardSpace (CardSpace) and built on .net framework 2.0.

In this series I’ll focus on Workflow and spot light on Workflow rich controls and Workflow engine.In brief Workflow empowers you as software engineer to deliver workflow-based application using Workflow engine and Workflow controls that enable business managers, software engineers, software developers, and each one in the project to interact and understand the most complex business process.So, I’ll explain the architecture of Workflow for better understand on
This image from “Introduction to Developing with Windows® Workflow Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005” http://www.microsoftlearning.com/

1-You can use Workflow controls from VS to draw Workflows for most complex business processes.
2-Workflow contains a lot of built-in activities that commonly used in business processes such as send mail, handle errors, etc…
3-You can create your custom activity.
4-Activity framework contains common functions that used by a lot of activity such as compilation, validation and so on.
5-Workflow runtime, the components that run workflow instance.
6-Persistence services used to save Workflow instances in database or another location.
7-Transaction services to guarantee that data remains consistent all the time.
8-Tracking services help to determine and record which activity in specific Workflow run and when it run it helps in optimizing Workflow.
9-Scheduling services to control the way Workflow runtime creates threads for workflow instances.

Workflow types:
1-Sequential Workflow: has specific start, specific end and activities in predefined order may have loops, conditional tests and so on.
2-State machine Workflow: has specific start, specific end and states that change Workflow transitions that change a workflow instance from one state to another.