Windows Workflow Foundation using Visual Studio 2005 Training

Course Duration:

3 Days

Course Description:

Microsoft has provided the Windows Workflow Foundation, a set of assemblies based on the .NET Framework 2.0 (as part of the .NET Framework 3.0), along with a full-featured workflow designer built on top of Visual Studio 2005. 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. This course can be delivered in Visual Basic or Visual C# to accommodate a student’s language preferences.

Course Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the prerequisites for Windows Workflow Foundation
• Investigate all the available workflow activities
• Handle exceptions in workflow applications
• Work with Delay and Listen activities
• 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
• Understand when and how the workflow runtime persists information about a workflow
• Understand 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 Audience:

This course is designed for .NET Developers who are interested in implementing the features of Windows Workflow Foundation to create applications that rely on workflow processing.

Course Prerequisites:

This course assumes that students have a strong programming background. This course assumes intermediate knowledge of Visual Basic or C#, and of building Windows and Console applications using Visual Studio 2005.

Course Syllabus:

1. Introduction to Workflow
• What is Windows Workflow Foundation?
• Creating Your First Workflow
• Hosting a Workflow in a Windows Application
2. Handling Conditions an Exceptions
• Introducing Conditional Activities
• IfElse Activity
• While Activity
• ConditionedActivityGroup Activity
• Replicator Activity
• Handling Exceptions
3. Flow Activities
• Introducing Flow Activities
• Delay Activity and Handling Properties
• Listen Activity
• Suspend and Terminate Activities
• Parallel and SynchronizeScope Activities
• Handling Cancellation
4. Making Decisions in Workflows
• Using Rules in Workflows
• Using the Policy Activity
• Setting Priorities
• Forward Chaining
5. Workflow Communications
• Calling Methods in the Host from the Workflow
• Handling Host Events in the Workflow
• Bi-Directional Communications
6. Creating State Machine Workflows
• Introduction to State Machines
• State Machine Activities
• Creating a State Machine Workflow
• Circular Navigation in State Machines
7. Using and Building Persistence Services
• Introducing Workflow Persistence
• Using the SQL Persistence Service
• Creating a Custom Persistence Service
8. Using and Building Tracking Services
• Workflow Tracking Services
• Using the SQL Tracking Service
• Tracking Profiles
• Creating a Custom Tracking Service
9. Creating Custom Activities
• Introducing Custom Activities
• Creating a Simple Activity
• Creating a More Complex Activity
• Creating Composite Activities
10. Handling Workflow Transactions
• Transactions
• Transactions in Workflows
• Transactions and Batches of Work
• Compensation in Workflows
11. Dynamic Workflow Updates
• Introduction to Dynamic Updates
• Modifying a Workflow from the Host Application
• Modifying a Workflow from within the Workflow
• Dynamic Rule Conditions
12. 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