Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook

Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook

By : Andrew Zhu

Buy this Book

Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook

By: Andrew Zhu

Buy this Book

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.

Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

Foreword

Preface

Free Chapter

Workflow Program

Introduction

Creating the first WF program: HelloWorkflow

Creating a WF program using C# Code

Initializing a WF program using InArguments

Creating a WF program using OutArgument

Creating a WF program using InOutArgument

Using Variable in a WF program

Running a WF program asynchronously

Customizing a MyReadLine activity with Bookmark

Converting a WF program instance to XAML

Loading up a WF program from an XAML file

Testing a WF program with a unit test framework

Debugging a WF program

Built-in Flow Control Activities

Introduction

Using the Foreach activity

A number guessing game in Sequence

A number guessing game using a flowchart

Using the InvokeMethod activity

Using the Switch<T> activity in Sequence workflow

Using the FlowSwitch<T> activity

Using the Parallel activity

Using the ParallelForEach<T> activity

Using the Pick activity

Handling errors

Messaging and Transaction

Introduction

Creating a pure WCF service

Receiving and replying to a WCF message

Receiving and replying to a WCF message in code workflow

Sending and receiving a reply to a WCF message

Sending and receiving a reply to a WCF message in code workflow

Using CancellationScope activity

Performing a transaction by using TransactionScope activity

Performing compensation by using Compensable activity

Performing manual compensation by using Compensate activity

Performing confirmation by using Confirm activity

Manipulating Collections

Introduction

Printing collection items

Using AddToCollection<T> activity

Using ClearCollection<T> activity

Using RemoveFromCollection<T> activity

Using ExistsInCollection<T> activity

Custom Activities

Introduction

Creating an activity by inheriting the root activity

Creating a FileWriter activity

Creating a SendEmail activity

Creating an Input Message activity using Bookmark

Creating an Asynchronous HTTP Get activity

Creating a Composite activity

Creating an Activity Designer for the SendEmail activity

Creating an Activity Designer for theMySquence activity

WF4 Extensions

Introduction

Configuring ETW tracking

Creating FileTrackingParticipant

Configuring the SQL persistence store

Loading a persisted workflow from the database

Using a persistence participant to persist additional data

Using a customized extension

Hosting Workflow Applications

Introduction

Hosting a workflow service in IIS7

Hosting workflow in ASP.NET

Hosting workflow in WPF

Hosting workflow in a Windows Form

Custom Workflow Designer

Introduction

Implementing designer layout

Implementing Toolbox, Workflow Designer, and Property Inspector views

Implementing New Workflow and Load Workflow events

Implementing Save and Save As events

Implementing XAML Workflow Tab and Run events

Implementing visual tracking

Index

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

Testing a WF program with a unit test framework

In this task, we will create a Test Project to do unit testing for a WF program.

How to do it...

Add a Test Project to the solution:
Add a Test Project to the Chapter01 solution and name the project as UnitTestForWFProgram as shown in the following screenshot:
Add a workflow file to the Test Project:
Add a workflow activity to this project. Right-click the newly created Test Project, then go to Add | New Items… | Workflow | Activity and name the activity as WorkflowForTest.xaml. In the opening WF designer, create an OutArgument as OutMessage. Next, drag an Assign activity to the Designer panel and assign the string "Test Message" to the OutMessage argument as shown in the following screenshot:
Tip
In WF4, workflow is actually an Activity class. We could see "Workflow" as a conception from a macroeconomic viewpoint, while considering "Activity" as a development concept.

Create unit test code:

Open the UnitTest1.cs file and fill the file with following code:

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
using System.Activities;

namespace UnitTestForWFProgram {
    [TestClass]
    public class UnitTest1 {
        [TestMethod]
        public void TestMethod1() {
            var output = 
                WorkflowInvoker.Invoke(new WorkflowForTest());
            Assert.AreEqual("Test Message", 
                            output["OutMessage"]);
        }
    }
}

Run it:
Set UnitTestForWorkflow as Startup project. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the test without debugging as shown in the following screenshot:

How it works...

In the preceding code snippet, [TestClass] indicates it is a unit test class, whereas [TestMethod] indicates a test method. When the Test Project runs, the test method will be executed automatically.

There's more...

In real application development, we can also create a separate Unit Test project and add a reference to the target project.

Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook

By : Andrew Zhu

Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook

By: Andrew Zhu

Overview of this book

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Current Title:

Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 Cookbook

Testing a WF program with a unit test framework

How to do it...

Tip

How it works...

There's more...