TechEd EMEA 2009 – Session “Deep Dive in Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0” – Part 2/4

   After the part 1 in which we talked about the Changes from WF 4.0 Beta 1 to Beta 2, in this part 2 we will talk about the new Flowchart Workflow.

   And so first of all let’s start by identifying the challenges that we currently have when using Workflow development, and they are:

• Defining Workflows based on flowcharts made by Business Analysts and Users
• Making Workflows easier for Business Analysts and user validation
• Unit Testing Workflows

In order to do this I’ve started by searching the web about samples of flowcharts built by Business Analysts, and I’ve found this one here.

In order to do the same sample as me in the presentation, just follow the demo script that is attached to this post.

As a summary we can look at Flowchart like:

• Typically used to implement non-sequential workflows, or in order words we can think of it as a loopback sequential workflow in which in we can define that an element of the sequence can loopback to a previous sequence element.
• Can also be used for sequential workflows if no FlowDecision nodes are used
• A Flowchart activity is an activity that contains a collection of flow nodes that inherit from FlowNode.
• FlowNode types:
  • FlowStep
  • FlowDecision
  • FlowSwitch
• Single path of execution (each activity can only transition to one and only one activity)
• Provides a more literal translation (“The way in which I think about my process is the way in which I write it down”)
• Power + Simplicity
• Similar to how you would draw a process in a whiteboard or Visio