posted on Saturday, November 05, 2005 3:53 AM
by
davidboschmans
System.Workflow (Beta 1.2) for Office 12
The Windows Workflow Foundation is one of the core components of WinFX, the next generation .NET Framework that will be available to all users of Windows running Windows Vista, Windows Server 200X, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The Windows Workflow Foundation is an engine and a framework - a set of assemblies System.Workflow and not a product - that can be used across many scenarios:
- workflow within line-of-business applications
- user interface page flow
- document-centric workflow
- human workflow
- composite workflow for service-oriented applications
- business rule-driven workflow
- workflow for systems management
Typically developers and ISVs are very interested in this extensible approach to workflow.
One of the many scenarios where this workflow approach will be very valuable is in Office 12. One of the key requests for the next version of Office was the capability to collaborate on documents using workflow. The great news is that Office 12 uses the Windows Workflow Foundation engine that is embedded in SharePoint host for workflow. This means that the workflow is executed on SharePoint. Of course several prebuilt workflows like review, approval and document expiration will ship with Office 12 Also custom workflows will be supported. There's even a wizard interface in FrontPage 12 that you can use for developing workflow for Office.
The excellent news is that for the professional developers using Visual Studio 2005 there is now the Windows® Workflow Foundation Beta 1.2 for Office "12" (Beta 1). It's important to know that for this wokflow beta you have to use the release versions of .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005, as well as Office "12" (Beta 1). The Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 1.2 runtime components are required for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services "3.0" (Beta 1), Office "12" servers (Beta 1), and "FrontPage 12" (Beta 1) and the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation are required for customers who are designing workflows in Visual Studio 2005 and/or require the Windows Workflow Foundation SDK.