WF 4.0

Application Infrastructure Virtual Launch Event

Rick G. Garibay — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:34:14 GMT

As you are probably aware, AppFabric is Microsoft’s delivery vehicle for brining the next generation of on-premise and cloud application hosting infrastructure to the masses.

If you are interested in learning more about this new platform and how it can help you build and gain insight into composable applications more easily and effectively while taking advantage of the benefits that Windows AppFabric and Windows Azure AppFabric provides, be sure to check out the launch event on May 20th.

In looking at recent poll results, 33% of those surveyed are looking to leverage AppFabric to simplify the composition of their applications and 26% are interested in cloud hosting and connectivity. How are you thinking about leveraging AppFabric for your on-premise and cloud investments?

You can register for this free virtual event here: http://www.appinfrastructure.com/

Windows Server AppFabric Beta 2 Now Available

Rick G. Garibay — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

OK, I finally get to talk about *something* from the MVP summit!

As for 9 AM Pacific Windows Server AppFabric Beta 2 is available on the Developer Center on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/appfabric

First publically announced at PDC 2009, Windows Server AppFabric is a set of application services focused on improving the speed, scale, and management of Web, Composite, and Enterprise applications.

Developers and IT pros can expect the following benefits from Windows Server AppFabric:

Faster Web Apps Made Easy - Windows Server AppFabric helps developers improve the speed and availability of web applications through distributed in-memory caching and replication technology that works with current ASP.NET applications.

Simplified Composite Apps - Developers can simplify the development of composite applications with the pre-built application services in Windows Server AppFabric, used in conjunction with Visual Studio tools and .NET Framework capabilities (ASP.NET, WCF and WF).

IT Pros can also simplify the deployment, monitoring, and management of composite applications with configuration and monitoring capabilities that are integrated with familiar tools (PowerShell, IIS Manager, and System Center).

Enterprise Performance and Availability - An enterprise's most important and demanding applications can achieve elastic scale, performance, availability, and reliability (benefits often associated with the cloud) with the help of Windows Server AppFabric. These and countless other benefits from an unparalleled partner ecosystem utilize familiar skills from the .NET Framework and Windows Server.

Here are some additional links which may also be of interest:

Beta 2 Blog Post on Windows Server Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver
Windows Server AppFabric on Microsoft.com: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/app-main.aspx
Windows Azure AppFabric on Microsoft.com: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/appfabric/
Gartner Research Report: Microsoft AppFabric: http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol13/article6/article6.html

Note: If you installed App Fabric Beta 1 and are having problems uninstalling, please see Damir Dobric’s post here and follow instructions from clean removal of Beta 1: http://developers.de/blogs/damir_dobric/archive/2010/02/19/uninstalling-of-appfabric-beta-1.aspx

Byte-Size WCF Episode 1: Default Endpoints in WCF 4.0

Rick G. Garibay — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 01:35:27 GMT

WCF 4.0 simplifies the configuration experience significantly by providing a new default endpoint feature. This saves time and simplifies the configuration requirements for hosting a WCF service by providing a File –> New Project –> Code –> F5 hosting experience.

In this episode you’ll learn how to get up and running quickly with default endpoints and how to gain more control over the default bindings for each scheme (HTTP, TCP, MSMQ, etc) you may want to configure using the new protocol mapping capabilities in WCF 4.0.

.NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Announcements

Rick G. Garibay — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:30:00 GMT

.NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is now available to MSDN subscribers as of 9:30 AM PST. This release includes the new version of Connected Framework products like WCF and WF 4.0, Entity Framework 4.0 and a host of additional new features across work streams including MEF, Parallel Extensions, and significant enhancements to Visual Studio Team System and Team Build.

Having spent some time with both WCF and WF limited CTP, Beta and pre-Beta 2 bits, this release includes significant improvements, re-design and new features specifically around WCF and WF 4.0. If you are like me, you will likely welcome many of the designer enhancements in WF 4.0 and may lament a number of designer design changes within messaging activities. You’ll just need to rip off the shrink wrap on Beta 2 to find out yourself!

I plan to start doing a significant amount of writing around WF 4.0 because I think that having been re-written from the ground up, WF 4.0 addresses many, many of the pain points in the 3.0 and 3.5 version, and I believe that WF + WCF 4.0 will lower the barrier of entry for writing workflow and service/model-oriented applications. In addition, the improvements within Workflow Services and the ease with which those new to WCF can get a service up and running are both significant and necessary to increasing the reach of these fantastic technologies.

Another major area of VS 2010 I am excited about is in the new architecture and design tools in Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 Architecture Edition which introduces new UML designers, use cases, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams and the ability to explore and visualize existing code, design and apply layering to enforce dependency rules, and physical designers to visualize, analyze, and refactor your software. In May of the year, I demonstrated how VS 2010 extends UML logical views into physical views of your code along with how to create relationships from these views to work items and project metrics, and how to programmatically transform models into patterns for other domains and disciplines.

Needless to say, I’m excited about VS 2010 Beta 2, and am even more excited to announce that the official launch of Visual Studio 2010 will take place on March 22nd, 2010.

Until then, you can download Beta 2 on October 21st here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx

Some other notes of interest:

Microsoft is announcing a new, streamlined packaging lineup and licensing options for Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN. This includes an "Ultimate Offer" to help customers upgrade to the latest developer tools. For more information on the new packaging, licensing, and pricing of Visual Studio 2010, visit: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=166249
As you may have noticed, MSDN has undergone a significant redesign which includes new benefits for all MSDN subscribers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

March 22nd will be here before you know it, so jump on the Beta 2 bits now and get ready!

Oh, and don’t forget, PDC 2009 is right around the corner. Register now for key insights you just won’t find at any other conference: http://microsoftpdc.com/

The Modeling Vision Continues

Rick G. Garibay — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:43:16 GMT

Recently the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft, who is responsible for technologies including Windows Application Server, BizTalk Server, and .NET Framework technologies including Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation,.NET cloud services, and the "Oslo" modeling platform was reorganized into the Data and Storage Platforms Division as the Business Platform Division (BPD) which is part of the Server and Tools Group responsible for products like Windows Server, Visual Studio and SQL Server.

This move was not a big surprise, because if you look at products like BizTalk, Dublin and Oslo, Windows Server and SQL Server are intrinsically related, delivering on the need for a comprehensive plug-and-play platform for connecting disparate systems. For example, BizTalk, Dublin and Oslo run on the Windows Server platform, and each depend on SQL Server to varying extents.

SQL Server has proven itself as a RDBMS platform and Dog-fooding SQL Server is good for business. I’ve also talked about the robustness of Windows Server, and the fact that it not only runs the .NET stack faster than Java, put runs Java faster than AIX. Needless to say, the server platform that was beat up throughout the 90's as not worthy of the enterprise has certainly come of age.

Anyone who knows me, has come to PCSUG meetings or reads this blog has probably heard me talk about the progression from imperative programming into declarative software development and how critical model-driven development will become in the not so distant future. As a believer, I strive to incorporate technologies like WCF, which is declarative, and Entity Framework which is both declarative and model-driven into my solutions. Entity Framework raises the level of abstraction beyond the logical/data layer in the database, to the conceptual layer, which is the true “stuff” of software, the model. With a model, we can have solution-oriented conversations about the problem domain without talking about tables, views, classes, bits or bytes. In addition, developer’s benefit from significant productivity gains by avoiding boiler-plate ADO.NET code which is largely commoditized into the Entity Framework.

Yesterday, Doug Purdy announced that the Olso team is joining the Data Programmability Team which is responsible for technologies like… wait for it… Entity Framework. Despite mixed messaging from Microsoft, Oslo represents the culmination of the declarative and model-driven vision within the Microsoft CSD. As of today, Oslo will deliver languages like “M” which will at a minimum allow developers to further reduce the impedance mismatch between RDMS and application development by raising the abstraction of how developers and architects develop data models that are decompiled into TSQL. I demonstrated this in June in Phoenix at Desert Code Camp, and while it is cool, it is only the beginning. “M” will allow developers to create domain specific languages that will bring the conceptual layer closer to the design and problem solving stage. Applications built on foundational frameworks such as WCF and WF will take advantage of their declarative model to easily be serialized into the Oslo Repository for centralized management. These applications are surfaced via Quadrant, which provides a model with which to interact with the applications both individually and at the solution and enterprise scope.

As Doug teases in his post, look for some key insights at PDC 09 this year as to the future of the modeling vision which appears to be very bright indeed.

Global MVP Summit 2009

Rick G. Garibay — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:59:39 GMT

The 2009 Global MVP Summit is winding down.

Day 1 kicked off with a welcome keynote from Toby Richards, General Manager of Microsoft Community Support Services along with Rich Kaplan, CVP Customer and Partner Advocacy. It was a very uplifting message around the impact that MVPs have, not only within the community but at Microsoft as well. It is just fantastic to be a part of a worldwide community of folks who care deeply about the technology and believe that technology can transcend all barriers.

Day 2 included deep dives into modeling with “M”, new stuff coming out for WCF and REST and other WCF service enhancements, none of which I can talk about.

Yesterday was all about WF 4.0 and Dublin and all I can say is the bits are getting baked.

Today, we’ll meet with Steve Ballmer and get his perspective on the Microsoft ecosystem, as well as get an update on Windows 7 from Mike Nash and a recap of everything we’ve discussed from S. Somasegar.

So, since there is not much I can talk about, I thought I’d share how fortunate I feel to be a part of this great group of people from all of the world. As one of 4,400 MVPs I feel privileged I feel to be an extension of an organization I am proud to represent. No, Microsoft is not perfect, and I’ve never worked for or with an organization that is, but when you get an opportunity to collaborate on a rich technical level with folks that are so passionately committed, you can’t help but be optimistic. I am not only talking about MVPs, but the product teams themselves.

While this is now my second MVP Summit, and third time I’ve been on campus, I still marvel at how efficient things are run. From Microsoft Connect taxis that will shuttle you to any building you choose, to the extremely friendly and competent bus drivers and event coordinators that make the commute to and from Seattle run so smoothly. It was very cool to see the MVP Summit banners adorn the exterior walls of campus buildings including the Microsoft Convention Center and light posts along Microsoft Way.

Of course, one of the biggest highlights is the opportunity to catch up with my Phoenix MVP friends like Dave Campbell, Lorin Thwaits and Scott Cate. We joked that we have to fly up to Redmond to hang out which we must definitely fix! In addition, I enjoyed catching up with fellow Connected Systems Developer MVPs like Roman Kiss, Mick Bradan and Alan Smith and getting to know folks like Matt Milner whose work I’ve followed for quite some time- Brian Loesgen and Sam Gentile, you were definitely missed but I know someone has to work while we play :-)

And, as with last year’s summit, the genuineness with which the product teams interact with MVPs, and the effort put forth my the MVP leads, and Customer Experience folks like Ed Hickey is just remarkable. These folks live and breath this stuff, and the chance to geek out and be speaking completely the same language on the same wave length is something that few technologists really get a chance to experience. What I mean is that so often, our dialog can easily become a victim of the impedance mismatch that is pervasive in engineering communication (for more information, please see pattern language). The opportunity to have deep, rich discussions with the very teams behind the technologies that I work with customers on every day is truly a privilege.

So, again, while NDAs keep me from sharing any juicy details around all the tremendous vNext stuff emerging from buildings 42 and 43, I want to thank Toby and Rich for continuously building a case for the MVP program at the organizational level, Ed Hickey and Mark Clargett for making the CSD program what it is and putting forth the tremendous effort both every single day as well as in making this yearly event such a pleasure. I also want to thank members of the CSD team like Ed Pinto, Kenny Wolf, Matt Winkler, Don Box, Chris Sells, Richard Orr, Kent Brown, Cliff Simpkins and Marjan Kantlar- to name just a few- that make it so easy for guys like me to do what I do.

November PCSUG Meeting on WF 3.5 - Recap + Late Breaking Update on WF 4.0

Rick G. Garibay — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:09:34 GMT

If you attended the Phoenix Connected Systems User Group meeting last week you know what a great talk it was. For those who attended and would like a summary, and for those that were not able to make it, here's what you missed.

Recap

Rob Wisehart, Technical Team Lead at DriveTime Sales & Finance did a fantastic job introducing the group to WF 3.5. He provided an Overview and Essentials of WF and really did a great job of explaining why WF is important and why it matters. People are visual. We've learned thousands of languages since the beginning of time, but our Neanderthal ancestors had it right. We still communicate best with drawings and pictures. At least I do. Rob went on to talk about Sequential and State Machine Workflows and when each is appropriate. Rob really showed his experience with WF applications here, talking about the pros/cons of each worklfow type. Discussed as well was Hosting and Services. Just like WCF, WF needs hosting love too. In fact, any CLR process can host a WF service, and the models are quite similar.

My favorite part of the talk was on Custom Activities. Rob did an awesome job talking about why Custom Activities should be the preferred way to build WF applications. He really hit the nail on the head, talking about how, at DriveTime, they color code their Custom Activities, so that users (developers, and analysts) start to build that emotional connection with the software. For example, brown Custom Activities are always queue based activities while blue might be database related.

Of course, Rob closed out with a discussion on using WF as a WCF Service. While in 3.0 this required heroics, the story got better in 3.5, and today, if you are building a WCF service, using WF to orchestrate the logic should be compelling. On this topic, I believe that .NET 4.0 will really focus on WF from a marketing perspective, and WCF will be somewhat in the shadows of WF. This is OK, because .NET 3.0 and 3.5 was really all about WCF because it was a) a tremendous accomplishment that *will* change your life as a developer and b) fully baked. WF 4.0 will focus much more on the modeling aspects of building service-oriented applications, relegating WCF as a utility player. Of course, anyone that knows WCF understands that this could be further from the truth due to the incredible robustness and richness of the framework, but when a technology becomes commoditized, its a clear sign of success, both as a technology and from an adoption perspective. To say that WCF will commoditize cross-process communication between WF 4.0 applications is a very good thing indeed.

The Goods

Rob's deck can be downloaded from SkyDrive here:

Rob's code can be downloaded from SkyDrive here:

Swag

We closed the event with some great handouts, including WF+WCF 4.0 t-shirts courtesy of the Connected Systems Division, some laptop stickers and a group photo with folks that were lucky enough to get a t-shirt. Many thanks to Marjan Kalantar at Microsoft CSD for taking such good care of us.

Late Breaking Update on WF 4.0

I also took about 5 minutes to talk about some of the changes that are coming in WF 4.0. Most of this content is a combination of what I learned at PDC along with a draft of a whitepaper that Kenny Wolf shared with me. While I've been asked not to circulate the paper until it is fully baked, I provided some of the biggest highlights and key points with Kenny's permission, of course.

As I've discussed in earlier posts (http://rickgaribay.net/archive/2008/10/28/wf-4.0-big-changes-ahead.aspx, http://rickgaribay.net/archive/2008/10/30/more-on-wf-4.0.aspx), there are several new features and key changes coming in WF 4.0:

WF 4.0 ships with a completely new designer which very much resembles the look and feel that is being demo' d in Quadrant.
WF 4.0 provides full declaration of activities using XAML. While this is the same XAML that is used in WPF and WF 3.0/3.5, the file extension has been changed from .xoml to .xamlx.
There is a new activity model which makes all WF 4.0 artifacts activities. There is no longer the concept of distinguishing between Workflows and activities. In WF 4.0, all artifacts *are* are activities, and this includes Sequential Workflow Activities, State Machine Activities and a new Flowchart Activity. The key is that activities are the root of everything in WF 4.0 and activities compose other activities, be they custom activities or workflow activities.
Significant runtime performance, between 10% and 100%.
Better persistence and re-hydration performance largely due to the fact that the entire workflow need not be persisted as is the case in 3.0/3.5, but instead, because the XAML model is extended to every aspect of the workflow application, persistence can be managed at the activity level (see, there is a method building here).
Code Activities are dead. Don't write them anymore. Seriously, no Code Activities in WF 4.0.

These are just a few of the major improvements/changes coming our way. The next thing we talked about is what do to to prepare and what the migration story is.

WF 3.0/3.5 will run side-by-side with WF 4.0. WF 3.0/3.5 will run in the 2.0 CLR and WF 4.0 will run in the 4.0 CLR. What?! You didn't know there is a brand, spanking new CLR coming in NET FX 4.0? Better start coming to PCSUG meetings!
WF 3.0/3.5 can be composed within WF 4.0 activities using the Interop Activity. I joked here that this is like the P-Invoke of WF, and I don't mean that in a critical way, it's just necessary. If you look at how we pass variables around in WF 3.0/3.5 and the fact that in WF 4.0, variables are just neatly bound at the activity level with in/out semantics (and thus, different signatures) you need a bridge. The Interop Activity is that bridge.
There is no support for the Code Activity. Is there an echo in the room? Stop using them and start writing Custom Activities.
There will be a migration tool to port from 3.0/3.5 to 4.0, but like any tool, CSD will try their best but it won't be perfect.

Start preparing for WF 4.0 now by:

Choosing the fully declarative workflow template in 3.5
Do not use Activity.Initialize to initialize your activity, instead use Activity.Execute. The former goes away in 4.0.
Being diligent about scoping your variables within your 3.5 activities.
Think in terms of activities. Think in terms of your domain. Build activities.
Using WCF Send/Receive Activities in 3.5
Stop using Code Activities (there's that echo again)

As promised before, as soon as the guidance whitepaper becomes public, I will post it here.

Note: There will be no PCSUG meeting in December as we will be participating at the MSDN Unleashed Presents: The Best of PDC event on December 10th. Be sure to register for this event as seating is limited and when you arrive, be sure to fill out our PCSUG registration card so we can stay connected and inform you of what's coming in 2009.

November PCSUG Meeting on WF 3.5 Next Thursday 11/13

Rick G. Garibay — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:32:12 GMT

Join the Phoenix Connected Systems User Group at the Phoenix Microsoft office for an introduction to Windows Workflow 3.5 on November 13th.

Rob Wisehart, technical team lead for internal systems at DriveTime will provide a foundational introduction to WF, Microsoft’s premier framework for building workflow-enabled applications and services. This session will focus covering workflow types, basic activities, custom activities and demonstrating how to workflow enable a WCF service and compose it with other WCF services hosted in different runtimes.

In addition, I will be providing a whitepaper on what you need to know and how to prepare for changes coming your way in WF 4.0.

We will also have a bunch of cool swag from PDC 2008, courtesy of the Connected Systems Division. WF + WCF 4.0 and Oslo T-shirts, laptop stickers, and other cool stuff will be available on a first-come first-serve basis. In addition, I will have a few books on "M" Oslo's new modeling language which is only available in limited release.

As always, details regarding location and logistics can be found at www.azgroups.org or www.pcsug.org.

See you there!

More on WF 4.0

Rick G. Garibay — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:38:23 GMT

Per my last post I have been eagerly pursuing more information on the impact of the changes to WF 4.0, and specifically, what these changes mean for applications written in 3.5 and new composable applications.

I had a great conversation with Cliff Simpkins, Technical Product Manager for the WF team who was able to answer a lot of my questions and provide some clarity as to what specifically has changed, why and how it affects WF applications.

Let's circle back to the points that Kenny Wolf made when we discussed the changes at a higher level and use these as talking points.

"First is delivering a truly model-based framework that allows every aspect of the WF to be represented declaratively."

In WF 4.0, all aspects of an activity are represented as XAML. Most importantly, this includes variables within each activity which are bound as input/output parameters from one activity to another. This is a significant change from 3.5 because variables are no longer scoped at the global workflow level, but instead are scoped to the activity level. And this is an important point. In WF 4.0, the paradigm is based on Activities, Runtime and Tooling. Activities form a logical workflow as a consequence of their composition. The focus is on the activities which consist of a root activity and child activities. The root activity is the orchestration of the child activities, and all activities exist as a logical workflow but are truly autonomous. They gain this autonomy by not being dependant on variables and state at the global level, but instead at each corresponding activity scope. This is huge when it comes to persistence as I'll discuss shortly.

"Second, was being able to truly participate in the repository ecosystem, which is key for deployment, management and operations scenarios."

This one should be obvious. XAML is the key to being able to serialize services and workflows in the repository. Reengineering how variables are managed by scoping them to the activity (I'll post some sample code soon) completes the picture. WF 4.0 (and incidentally WCF 4.0) will be repository ready, and this is the gestalt of the Oslo vision.

"And last, but not least was performance."

I don't yet have a full picture of how the performance improvements were attained. I suspect that there has been some runtime tuning, and I am eager to learn more here. However, a major positive consequence of the full schematization of the logical workflow is that the entire workflow does not need to be persisted, but instead, only the relevant activities. For example, if you have a workflow with 4 activities and the first two complete and the third activity waits for a stimulus before it resumes work, only the third and forth activity need to be persisted as opposed to the entire worklfow. I do still have questions about atomic versus long-running behavior, and this, along with other details will soon come to light.

Some more stuff

Another thing that you will immediately notice is that the designer has been completely redesigned, and there is a definite Quadrant influence. What is very cool is that both Quadrant and WF designer are using WPF. On this topic, I have to be honest. The design initially struck me as very drab. If you look at the picture I snapped in my original post you'll see a severe departure from the 3.0/3.5 aesthetic. The interesting thing though, is that as I sat in more sessions and touched and felt the designer it really grew on me. At the risk of sounding cliche, the simplicity of the designer makes for a very fluid user experience, perhaps less is more.

What about WF 3.5?

This is a logical burning question. First, let us all agree that WF 3.0 is not relevant to service developers, so I will ignore it, pretending it doesn't exist. The marriage of WF and WCF in WF 3.5 finally makes WF a compelling tool for composing services and this, by the way is going to be a common theme in the NET 4.0 timeframe and beyond.

So what about 3.5? Should we continue to build composable service-oriented applications with WF 3.5 or bite the bullet and build on early WF 4.0 bits? Well, according to Cliff, a couple large flagship products will be shipping with 3.5 over the next couple years, and if Microsoft is willing to invest this heavily in 3.5 in a brand new product that hasn't shipped, you can imagine that it should be suitable for LOB applications as well as the enterprise.

A better question is probably how bad the pain will be in upgrading from 3.5 to 4.0. I talked about the Interop activity which will be the bridge from 3.5 to 4.0, but we can't be so naive to assume it will solve all compatibility issues. I spoke with Jurgen Willis who commited to the early guidance paper I mentioned very soon. As promised, when I get it, you'll have it here.

In the meantime, if you want to watch live recordings of the following PDC sessions on WF, I've provided the links below:

WF 4.0: A First Look: http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL17/
WCF 4.0: Building WCF Services with WF in Microsoft .NET 4.0: http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL06/

WF 4.0: Big Changes Ahead

Rick G. Garibay — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:42:38 GMT

If attendees in Kenny W's session on WF 4.0 yesterday at PDC 08 are like me, they are both elated, shocked and awed in the lead architect's discussion on major, major changes heading our way in Windows Workflow 4.

When I attended the WCF and WF SDRs in Redmond back in April, Kenny, Ed Pinto and his team talked to us about new workflow types and activities and sought our feedback. It was evident that these improvements that were afoot were positive, and building on a foundation that I had only recently grown to love having been primarily focused on WCF for the last 2 years. In fact, I have pretty much shifted my focus completely from BizTalk Server to WF, WCF and service bus technologies.

Anyway, among the improvements/features discussed were changes to existing workflow types and new workflow styles including sequential, flowchart, state machine and a unification of activities and rules. Also reviewed were improvements to XAML support for modeling and deployment. So, I was very interested to see how far these committed improvements had gone since April, but I was not prepared for such a big surprise.

A framework for writing workflow applications, now in its second release (WF 3.5) is being completely overhauled, from the ground up. Kenny asserted that these drastic changes were necessary to deliver on the changes the team had already been discussing for months, but had expertly kept the details of just what that meant safe within the walls of building 43.

So what does this mean?! This is a question anyone working today with WF is asking. How drastic is the impact to my applications? What should I know about what's coming so that my existing and future investment in WF can be leveraged. Is this another ".NET Remoting has been deprecated" situation?

I couldn't wait for public messaging to address this burning concern, so I talked to Kenny after his session and asked a number of questions, which he was, as usual, very open and willing to answering.

My first question was around the impetus for such a major overhaul. Kenny shared that they focused very, very deeply on key customer requests and opportunities based on earlier versions of the framework. There were 3 feature types that resonated most. First, is delivering a truly model-based framework that allows every aspect of the WF to be represented declaratively. Second, was being able to truly participate in the repository ecosystem, which is key for deployment, management and operations scenarios. And last, but not least was performance.

Earlier in his talk, Kenny cited intriguing improvements, including 10x to 100x performance improvements and persisted workflows becoming essentially "free" with WF 4.0. In our more one-on-one discussion after his talk, he used the analogy of swinging at a baseball with a wooden baseball bat. While the wooden baseball bat is effective, it feels a bit heavy, if not clunky at times. When you pick up an aluminum baseball bat, it is markedly lighter, and feels significantly more aerodynamic. WF 3.0 and 3.5 work, but WF 4 is a new and improved aluminum baseball bat.

While the metaphor was effective, of course, I wanted to know what, specifically I should stop/start doing immediately and ensure my clients receive this guidance. Kenny had partially addressed this earlier in his public talk by pretty much prescribing that WF developers should stop using custom code activities and opt for custom activities instead. In fact, he demo'd a new "Interop" activity that allows your WF 3.0/3.5 custom activities to talk to WF 4.0 activities and workflows. I must admit that this does feel a bit like a P-Invoke for WF, and I don't mean that to be critical, it is just an observation.

Obviously, there are many more questions to be answered, but the first takeaway is to stop using custom code activities and focus existing efforts on developing custom activities, which are really the way we should be developing for WF anyway. To help answer some of the other burning questions we all undoubtedly have, Kenny committed to do his best to provide some prescriptive guidance by the end of the week to fill in the rest of the gaps, or at least provide some early guidance to get begin to prepare.

As soon as I get my hands on it, I will post it, along with any other gems of wisdom here.

On a final note, lest my prose present me as stoic, of course these changes make me nervous. I have yet to appreciate the full impact of these changes, and am eager to learn more. This said, I have to applaud Microsoft CSD for doing what is right, even when it is painful. We've seen this happen before (.NET Remoting) and will likely see it again. It is both the cost and benefit of forward progress in our great field of software engineering.