The first of a set of starter kits for WF and WCF on the .NET Framework 3.0 has just been released. These starter kits are planned to help developers new to these technologies to get started on their first project faster. The starter kits are not supported by Microsoft but include full source code to common scenarios examples.
The Windows Workflow Foundation Web Workflow Approvals Starter Kit is a Visual Studio 2005 project that demonstrates using Windows Workflow Foundation for simple task oriented workflow in an ASP.NET web application in a minimal number of lines of code. A workflow model is used to automate work order requests at a small example company. It includes three pre-defined roles which each play a part in the work orders creation, approval and monitoring. The starter kit may be modified for other workflow models to suit other small web based task management systems.
This starter kit can be downloaded from MSDN here. Once installed you can create a new project from the template and press F5 to start the application. This is a great way to try out workflow enabled applications yourself.
Its time to add a new category to the existing blog entry categories and that new category is going to be called “.NET Framework 3.5“. Yea i know many of us have already heard about this and even started playing around with this latest .Net framework release which is right now in the CTP stages.
In the first week of March 2007, Microsoft released the Visual Studio codename “Orcas” March 2007 CTP and this is the first time that features from .NET Framework 3.5 have been included.
Brief on .NET Framework 3.5
Many ISV’s, enterprises and even Microsoft product teams are successfully building on the new features WF, WCF, WPF and CardSpace in the .NET Framework 3.0. Microsoft plans to continue to invest in the .NET Framework developer platform and in support of existing users the .NET Framework 3.5 has no serious breaking changes so existing applications built for .NET Framework 2.0 or .NET Framework 3.0 will continue to execute. The .NET Framework 3.5 adds new features in several major technology areas.
- Integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness
- Support for Web 2.0 AJAX style applications and services in ASP.NET and WCF
- Full tooling support for WF, WCF and WPF including the new workflow-enabled services technology
- New classes in the base class library (BCL) for the .NET Framework 3.5 address the most common customer requests
.NET Framework 3.5 will ship with Visual Studio codename ”Orcas” and will be available for separate download from MSDN.
Just The Server Side (WF and WCF)
Here’s some detail of the new things to look for from WF and WCF.
- Workflow enabled services – process and messaging together
- Web 2.0 AJAX friendly (works with ASP.NET AJAX Client) and REST enabled WCF services
- New project templates and other new features in Visual Studio for WF and WCF
- More WS-* Standards Support including WS-AtomicTransaction, WS-ReliableMessaging, WS-SecureConversation and WS-Coordination
- RSS and ATOM Syndication Support in WCF
- Partial Trust for WCF applications deployed through click-once
- Rules Data Improvements
You get the Team Suite-Only VPC to review the new features in .NET Framework 3.5.
I have always believed in the fact that life is never going to be a bed of roses. Time and again life throws a volley of questions back at you which leave you clueless. Life has been a little hard for me since the past 2 months and i had to attend to my personal and family life. That has taken me slightly away from technology, but not that far. I am really trying to catch up with the fast pace at which technology is changing and growing. This speed really amazes me. Talking just about Microsoft and the .Net Framework, I am already getting a lot of information and mails on .Net 3.5. God!!! Lot of catching up to do… and i feel there is so less time 
. Hope i can continue from where i left off and keep you folks out there interested in the new technologies that are out there or might come out in the near future. I leave you with the following lines…
Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.
(adapted)
Cheers!!!
In August of 2005 the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which changes the dates of both the start and end of daylight saving time (DST). When this law goes into effect in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November) than what had traditionally occurred.
This article summarizes the updates and tools that Microsoft is developing for its customers to address the DST change.
Microsoft’s long-awaited Windows Vista was finally released yesterday – and already a hacker has claimed to have broken the operating software’s encryption.
Read the article
