June 2007 - Posts
As I mentioned recently, the BizTalk Adapter for Windows Workflow Foundation Sample was announced at TechEd 07. This samples shows how to use Biztalk Server as a hosting environment for WF business Processes.
The June CTP of this sample is available for download though the connect site. You should participate in a short survey that asks you about your experience with WF and Biztalk, and you'll be able to download and evaluate it.
In the installation folder you can find a ReadMe file and 2 sample solutions that can help you get started with the sample.
Enjoy!
I've been playing a lot with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) in the past year, and these days mostly playing with both technologies and their integration features in Visual Studio 2008.
I've recently posted some getting started tutorials:
WF and WCF Integration in "Orcas" - Part 1 - Workflow Enabled Services WF and WCF Integration in "Orcas" - Part 2 - Service Enabled Workflows Yesterday, a new screencast was published about building WCF Services with WF in Visual Studio 2008. This 75 minutes screencast is given by Pravin Indurkar, the PM responsible for these features.
You can watch the screencast here.
Enterprise Library - Policy Injection Application Block - Screencast
This screencast shows the basic usage of the Policy Injection Application Block through attributes and configuration.
You are encouraged to see the previous screencast in this series:
Enterprise Library - Logging Application Block - Screencast [HE]
Enterprise Library - Exception Handling Application Block - Screencast [HE]
Enterprise Library - Validation Application Block - Screencast [HE]
Download the screencast(WMV)
Enjoy!
Enterprise Library - Validation Application Block - Screencast
This screencast shows how to configure validations using attributes or configuration, and talks about the integration of the Validation Application Block with other technologies.
You are encouraged to see the previous screencast in this series:
Enterprise Library - Logging Application Block - Screencast [HE]
Enterprise Library - Exception Handling Application Block - Screencast [HE]
Download the screencast(WMV)
Enjoy!
The day Beta 1 was released, I played a little bit with the integration with WCF and WF:
I have just spotted a great post by Serge Luca that shows a step by step tutorial for using the new Send and Receive activities in Visual Studio "Orcas".
Enjoy!
Today I gave a WF sessions in the IVCUG meeting. The audience had good time and went away with valuable knowledge about WF.
You can find the slide decks and demos from the session in my presentations page.
If you have any feedback about the session, I'd like to hear it!
Enjoy!
I've posted about the WCF Integration with Validation Application Block and the integration with Exception Handling Application Block in the past, and the missing piece was the integration with the Logging Application Block.
Pablo M. Cibraro (aka Cibrax) has posted about this integration. In his post he explains the idea behind the integration and gives some configuration snippets that helps.
If you're not familiar with the Logging Application Block, you can watch my screencast about it in here.
Enjoy!
Enterprise Library - Exception Handling Application Block - Screencast
This screencast shows the API and configuration required for using the Exception Handling Application Block.
If you haven't watched the Introduction screencast about the demo application and the Logging Application Block, you are invited to watch it here.
Download the screencast(WMV)
Enjoy!
Enterprise Library - Logging Application Block - Screencast
Lately, I presented several application blocks from Enterprise Library 3.1. You can find the slide decks and demos in this post.
Due to audience demand, I recorded some screencast of the demos I showed during the presentation, and they are finally available for you.
The first screencast shows the demo application that I have used in order to show the capabilities of the application blocks, and some nice features of the Logging Application Block. Please notice that the screencast was recorded in Hebrew, but the demo is clear enough to be watched without understanding a word.
Download the screencast(WMV)
Enjoy!
If you haven't caught any of my Windows Workflow Foundation sessions lately - this is your last chance. This week, I will be presenting WF in the June meeting of C# User Group.
The purpose of this session is not to go over any API or go over each of the activities that are available in the WF toolbox. From this session you'll walk out with deep understanding of WF, and have the ability to start adapting it in your solutions right away.
The session will take place in Microsoft Israel Building in Hapnina 2 (Amdocs Building), Raanana on Wednesday (20/6) between 17:30 to 20:00. (
Download to Outlook).
For more details and registration, please read the invitation.
See you there!
Today, Memi Lavi, a Solution Architect from Microsoft Consulting Services and myself gave a session about Enterprise Library 3.0.
In this session we gave an introduction to the Enterprise Library - what it is, what it isn't, talked about the core architecture and the basic concepts every developer should be familiar with. We showed the Logging Application Block, Exception Handling Application Block, Validation Application Block with its integration with ASP.Net and WCF and Policy Injection Application Block. We also had a demo of creating a typed provider with the Application Block Software Factory.
The session, that was planned for 2.5 hours took almost 4 since the audience was very exited and had a lot of interesting questions. I had a great time working with Memi an I hope we'll have the chance to do this again in the future.
You can download the Slide Decks from here and Demos from here.
You can expect to see some additional posts about the stuff I learned during the preparation of this session...
Enjoy!
BizTalk Adapter for Windows Workflow Foundation Sample
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) can be hosted in any .Net Application Type. In v1 (in .Net Framework 3.0) WF doesn't come with any default hosting environment out of the box, that allow exposing it to the outside world as services and deploy and manage the workflows.
It has already been announced that in the next version of Biztalk Server (currently called vNext, which means that I am not talking about Biztalk 2006 R2) will use WF as the Orchestration Layer for the business processes. Unlike WF, Biztalk has a hosting system which is very robust, and also allows the management of the processes.
So, If you are a WF developer and want to build your business processes using WF, but don't have a hosting environment for it, you can take a look at the BizTalk Adapter for Windows Workflow Foundation Sample that was announced at TechEd 07. This adapter is actually a command-line tool (it will be integrated into Visual Studio in the future) that takes the workflow definition and the WCF Service Contract definition, and creates the send / receive ports for communicating with this process, and a biztalk project with message schemas and orchestration that invokes this workflow.
Check the announcement here, watch the sample video here, and wait for the Sample CTP of BizTalk Adapter for Windows Workflow Foundation sample to be available soon.
Enjoy!
As promised earlier, the first CTP of Microsoft "Acropolis" Client Application Framework is available for download. You can download the CTP from here, and the additional documentation from here.
If you have any questions, visit the Acropolis MSDN Forum.
Note that this CTP should work with Beta 1 and not with Visual Studio 2005.
Enjoy!
This Teched in Orlando the new client application framework called "Acropolis" will be announced. From the session catalog:
DEV302 - Windows .NET Client: Introducing the “Acropolis” Client Application Framework - David Hill DEV318 - Windows .NET Client: Building Rich Client UI with the “Acropolis” Framework - Kathy Kam From the "ClientFX" Blog:
"Unfortunately, developing smart client solutions can be challenging. The lack of an application model, supporting infrastructure, and out-of-the-box implementations for commonly used client-side services forces each developer to address these sometimes complex issues themselves.
Acropolis aims to remedy this situation by providing an application framework and tools to support the development of smart client line-of-business solutions. Acropolis is based on the composite smart client approach where solutions are constructed from a number of loosely coupled ‘parts’. Each part provides a unit of self-contained functionality that can be independently tested and developed and re-used in many different solutions. Parts allow solutions to be assembled in a very flexible way so that they can be more easily updated to include new functionality or more easily changed to suit new business requirements.
Acropolis provides tools that support the visual assembly of solutions from parts and for the definition of business logic via workflow. Acropolis leverages the power of the Windows Presentation Framework (formerly Avalon), allowing Acropolis applications to provide next generation user experiences with support for advanced data visualization, theming and customization. Acropolis also integrates with ASP.NET supporting services for managing authentication, authorization and user personalization, allowing a common administrative experience across both thin and smart client solutions."
Acropolis is partially based on the new Client Application Services that will ship in Visual Studio "Orcas" and will give the ability to leverage the ASP.NET Application services in any client application (ASP.NET, Ajax, WinForms, WPF, or even Silverlight!).
Stay tuned for more posts and news about "Acropolis" as CTP1 will be available in a few days.
Enjoy!