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

Creating an activity by inheriting the root activity


The abstract Activity class is the root of all subactivity classes. In this task, we will create a custom activity inheriting directly from Activity.

How to do it...

  1. Customize an Activity:

    Add a new code file MyActivity.cs in the ActivityLibrary project, and fill the file with the following code:

    using System;
    using System.Activities;
    using System.Activities.Statements;
    public class MyActivity:Activity {
        public MyActivity() {
            this.Implementation = () => new Sequence {
                Activities = {
                    new WriteLine(){Text="Hello MyActivity"}
                }
            };
        }
    }

    Then build the activity project so that MyActivity appears in the toolbox panel of the workflow designer.

  2. Add a reference to ActivityLibrary:

    In the WorkflowConsoleApp project, add an assembly reference to ActivityLibrary for us to be able to use these customized activities in the WorkflowConsoleApp project.

  3. Create a workflow to test the Activity...