Frequently Asked Questions

What is this course about? Enterprise applications are typically developed to model complex business processes, such as hiring a staff member, placing an order or tracking a bug in a piece of software. These processes are commonly composed of multiple steps which coordinate the activities of several people in different roles. They frequently take many days or months to complete. Currently, many organisations solve this type of problem by writing custom code. This creates a particular problem - the business rules and logic are locked away in the application. Only developers are able to create and manage the logic, rather than business analysts or end users. This results in applications that are inflexible and hard to change to meet business or regulatory requirements. Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) solves this problem by supporting the development of workflow-enabled applications. WF provides a sophisticated design-time environment and services for the construction of applications that map complex business processes. Developers code individual steps in the process called activities, which are linked together using a simple drag and drop designer. With WF, developers and business specialists work effectively together. What are .NET and the .NET Framework? They are the same thing. The .NET Framework is a programming platform that allows you to build Windows and Web applications that run on Microsoft operating systems. The .NET Framework 3.0 added the following technologies to.NET 2.0: Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and Cardspace. The .NET Framework 3.5 added Language INtegrated Query (LINQ). For WF, .NET 3.5 adds in integration with Windows Communication Foundation, which is covered in this course. For courses that focus on technologies that were new with .NET 3.0, you may be interested in Course 513, Windows® Communication Foundation (WCF): Developing SOA Applications, or Course 975, Windows® Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight Introduction: Hands-On. For courses that focus on technologies that were new with .NET 3.5, you may be interested in Course 973, Programming C# Extended Features: Hands-On, or Course 974, Programming Visual Basic® Extended Features: Hands-On. What is Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)? Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is part of the .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5 and offers a programming model, engine and tools to build workflow-enabled applications that model business processes. What is the relationship between WF and WCF? Windows Communication Foundation is Microsoft's technology that is used to construct Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications. In .NET 3.5, Microsoft have created a bridge between WF and WCF that allows for the construction of Workflow Services - SOA applications that use WF to support long running complex business processes, and this is covered in Course 514. Who will benefit from this course? This course is valuable for developers, system and business analysts and anyone who wants to incorporate workflow capabilities into new or existing applications. What background do I need? Programming experience at the level of Course 503, Visual Basic® 2008 Programming: Hands-On, or Course 419, C# Programming: Hands-On, is assumed. For example you should know how to: Develop applications in Visual Studio Write and understand language constructs, syntax and classes using VB or C# Create classes and use collections Define and implement an interface Apply attributes to classes I'm designing advanced workflows for use in Microsoft SharePoint 2007 or BizTalk. Will this course be useful to me? Yes. While SharePoint and BizTalk are not covered, this course can still help you design workflows in other Microsoft products. Microsoft has committed to using WF for workflow processes in all of its products. Learning WF and the WF toolkit provides you with the knowledge to fully leverage the features of Microsoft's current and future workflow-enabled products. I use another workflow engine. Will this course be useful to me? Yes. This course enables you to make a competitive evaluation of WF compared to your workflow engine, as it provides a detailed and comprehensive review of the WF toolkit. Which version of Visual Studio and .NET is used in this course? This course uses Visual Studio 2008, the latest version of Visual Studio, and .NET 3.5, the latest version of the .NET Framework. However, an archive of the exercises and solutions that will run on .NET 3.0 and Visual Studio 2005 is provided for students have yet to move to the latest versions. I already have written an application. Will this course help me add workflow to it? Yes. This course shows you how to modify existing applications to work with WF, such as the addition of Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) to existing database tables. How much time is spent on each topic? Content Hours Introduction 0.5 Workflow fundamentals 4.0 Hosting the WF runtime 2.5 Implementing workflow logic 2.0 Communicating between workflow and host 4.0 Designing state machine workflows 2.0 Persisting and tracking workflows 1.5 Applying security to WF 1.5 Times, including the workshops, are estimates; exact times may vary according to the needs of each class. How much of this course is hands-on? You spend nearly 50% of class time in hands-on exercises. Throughout the course, you build complete Windows and Web applications that use the features and functions of WF. Exercises include using the features of Visual Studio 2008 Workflow extensions to design workflows; applying security to workflow applications to prevent unauthorised access; and programming a state machine workflow to model a non-linear business process. Why should I take this course instead of one offered by Microsoft? Learning Tree is dedicated to helping accelerate the careers of our clients by providing them with world-class technology and management training. Our independence from Microsoft (and any other vendor) allows us to give an unbiased view of what works and what does not. This course is objective in its approach, having been developed independently from Microsoft by industry experts who bring their real-world experience to the classroom. How does this course relate to Course 955? Course 955, Microsoft Office SharePoint® Designer 2007: Hands-On, covers the construction of workflows within the SharePoint environment using SharePoint Designer. Course 514 focuses on developing a workflow application from the ground up using WF. This course will benefit those who want to create more advanced workflows, for example containing custom activities within a SharePoint environment. I want to embed a workflow into an ASP.NET application. Does this course cover that? Absolutely. Exploiting workflow in ASP.NET is a significant focus of this course. Specifically, this course covers features of WF that allow you to maximise workflow performance and scalability in ASP.NET applications, such as manual scheduling of workflows. Does this course cover embedding a workflow into a Windows Forms application? Yes. This course covers hosting the workflow runtime and correct routing of workflow events for Windows Forms, so you can build a full-featured workflow-enabled Windows Forms application. How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses? In addition to the aforementioned Course 503 and Course 419, the following courses may also be of interest: 513, Windows® Communication Foundation (WCF): Developing SOA Applications offers the skills to leverage WCF, a .NET 3.0 and 3.5 technology, to easily and quickly build SOA applications. 975, Windows® Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight Introduction: Hands-On provides the skills to program applications that integrate the major components of WPF. 955, Microsoft Office SharePoint® Designer 2007: Hands-On covers creating workflows in SharePoint, as well as how to create and customise SharePoint Web applications with SharePoint Designer 2007. 512, Developing ASP.NET Web Applications: Hands-On provides the skills to create dynamic Web applications and user interfaces using ASP.NET 2.0. 509, Programming Windows® and Smart Client Applications with .NET: Hands-On covers how to construct Windows Forms applications. Other related courses include: 511, .NET Best Practices and Design Patterns: Hands-On  931, Agile Programming: Principles and Practices for Software Success  211, Introduction to Business Analysis: Defining Successful Projects  315, Developing User Requirements: The Key to Project Success

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