Building Systems Using The Workflow Approach
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The document discusses using a workflow approach to represent software systems. It describes workflows as breaking problems down into smaller independent units or activities that can be assembled into a desired sequence. This allows systems to be built by composing existing activities rather than creating everything from scratch. The workflow approach makes systems easier to understand, maintain, and scale across multiple machines. It also brings problem solving closer to business users by using a more declarative style. The document then introduces Windows Workflow Foundation as a tool for visually designing and executing workflows through a set of activities, services, and a runtime engine.
Building Systems Using The Workflow Approach
- 1. Building Systems using the Workflow ApproachBijoy SinghalDeveloper EvangelistMicrosoft Indiabsinghal@microsoft.com
- 2. Assume it’s a:CD/DVD Repairing Assembly Line
- 4. How can we represent this in software ?ActivitiesConnectionsFlowchartsThe Workflow Approach
- 5. What? Why? How?Work Flows
- 6. What
- 7. “Meta”
- 8. Meta-data
- 10. Meta-Programming
- 11. A Higher Level of Abstraction
- 12. Breaking down a problem into smaller independent units that can be assembled later
- 13. How?Lets see…
- 14. What did we just do?Decomposed a larger business problem into smaller independent entities of “work”Created Graphical RepresentationsGave it to our customersThey could combine them using a designer into desired sequenceMonitor, Persist, change…
- 15. Why?
- 16. Rules andpoliciesFormsWorkflow modelApplicationcodeDataServicesToday’s Application Development Applicationlogic
- 17. The workflow way…Easy to “Compose” Systems as compared to “Create” themBuilding Human and Machine interacting systemsTaking Problem Solving closer to Business FolksDeclarativeEasy to understand and maintainTracking/Parallelizing/Persisting/ScalingA unified system implemented on multiple machine and infrastructure
- 18. Windows Workflow FoundationVisual DesignerKey ConceptsWorkflows are a set of ActivitiesA WorkflowWorkflows run within a Host Process:any application or serverDevelopers can build their own Custom Activity LibrariesAn ActivityCustom Activity LibraryComponentsWindowsWorkflow FoundationBase Activity Library:Out-of-box activities and base for custom activitiesBase Activity LibraryRuntime Engine:Workflow execution and state managementRuntime EngineRuntime Services:Hosting flexibility and communicationRuntime ServicesVisual Designer: Graphical and code-based constructionHost Process
- 19. Domain-SpecificWorkflow PackagesComplianceCRMExtend activityCompose activitiesRosettaNetAuthor new activityIT MgmtVertical-specificactivities & workflowsBest-practice IP &KnowledgeActivities: An Extensible ApproachCustom ActivityLibrariesBase ActivityLibraryOut-of-Box ActivitiesOOB activities,workflow types,base typesGeneral-purposeActivity libraries define workflow constructsCreate/Extend/Compose activitiesApp-specificbuilding blocksFirst-class citizens
- 20. Workflow ScenariosDocument Life Cycle ManagementLOB Application WorkflowBusiness Process ManagementUI Navigation Logic
- 21. Referenceshttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa663328.aspxFirst steps with WF: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/first-steps-with-wf.aspxhttp://wiki.windowsworkflowfoundation.eu/http://blogs.msdn.com/endpoint/archive/2009/05/29/a-tour-on-the-wf4-activity-palette.aspx
- 22. Thank You
Editor's Notes
- #2: by Bijoy Singhal.In the past years software development and programming methodologies have evolved to include more and more declarative constructs. This makes the developer’s job easier by letting him focus on the core business problem rather than the intricacies of the underlying platform. Windows Workflow Foundation is one such paradigm that can enable developers to quickly build process based, long running, service oriented systems faster and manage them easily. In this session I will show you with an example scenario – how you can plan, build, test and manage a system based on workflows from scratch using .NET 4.0 The session will also throw light on the various aspects of the Workflow based approach – different ways to benefit from it and how to make workflows an intrinsic part of your architecture. I will also try and shed some light on basics of various components of Workflow Foundation including the runtime engine, rules, base activity library, runtime hosting options, designer hosting, activities and custom activities.