Book Image

Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook

By : Andrew Zhu
Book Image

Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook

By: Andrew Zhu

Overview of this book

Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 (WF) is a significant part of .NET Framework 4.0. WF makes workflow technology available to every single programmer that uses the .NET Framework 4.0. It is easy to create long running and distributed programs using WF with the right knowledge. With this book, you will discover that working with workflows is easy. This book provides both step-by-step recipes and relevant background information. It covers all the important aspects of Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0. The best thing about this book is that all recipes are based on real-world experiences of Andrew Zhu. Andrew is a global WF and BizTalk technology support engineer for Microsoft. This book covers everything you need to know, when working with workflows. Get to grips with flow control activities, messaging, and transaction processes with easy to understand steps followed by explanations. You will quickly learn to use collection and custom WF activities and WF services.You will see recipes that illustrate integration of Windows Workflow with other applications such as WPF, ASP.NET, WCF service.Lastly, you will discover how easily you can customize W4 Designer with WF rule engine and others.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Foreword
Preface
Index

A number guessing game using a flowchart


The flowchart was not invented in WF4. On the contrary, this type of diagram has a long history. The flowchart was first introduced by Frank Gilbreth in 1921 and he created a tool to use the flowchart in an industrial engineering curriculum.

As a programmer, you may already have experience in using a flowchart to draw an algorithm or process.

In this task, we will create a number guessing game using a flowchart. This task will also demonstrate the usage of the FlowDecision activity.

How to do it...

  1. Create a workflow project:

    Create a Workflow Console Application and name it GuessNumberGameInFlowChart.

  2. reate a ReadNumberActivity to receive the guess number:

    Create a new code file, name it ReadNumberActivity.cs, and fill the file with the following code:

    using System;
    using System.Activities;
    namespace GuessNumberGameInFlowChart {
        public sealed class ReadNumberActivity : CodeActivity {
            public OutArgument<int> OutNumber { get; set; }...