Welcome!
This site is about Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) , Windows Communication Foundations(WCF) and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and their associated technologies
WF, WCF and WPF are new and very powerful frameworks for developing complex and visually appealing business applications. and we hope this site's expertise contributes to the community to better evolve the technologies.
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a technology for defining, executing, and managing workflows. This technology was first released in November 2006 as a part of .NET Framework 3.0.
Workflows, like traditional programs, allow you to coordinate work but have some important differences.
- Workflows can handle long running work by persisting to a durable
store, such as a database, when idle and loading again once there is
work to do
- An instance of a workflow can be modified dynamically while running
in the event that new conditions require the workflow to behave
differently than it did when it was created
- Workflows are a declarative way of writing programs by linking
together pre-defined activities rather than an imperative programming
model of writing lines of code
- Workflows allow you to declare business rules that are separated from your code making it easier for you to modify them in the future
- Workflows support different styles of systems with sequential and state machine workflows
Windows Communication Foundations(WCF)
Windows Communication Foundation, or just WCF, is a programming framework used to build applications that inter-communicate. WCF is the part of the .NET Framework dedicated to communications.
WCF is one of the four new application programming interfaces introduced with .NET Framework 3.0,
which was released in December 2006. The .NET Framework is Microsoft
technology that ships in Windows operating systems (client, server and
mobile platforms). The .NET Framework v3.0 is included in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008; It is available as a free download for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, and a similar but separate version is also available for .NET Compact Framework version 3.5.
Because WCF is part of the .NET Framework, applications that use WCF
can be developed in any programming language that can target the .NET
runtime.
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
Windows Presentation Foundation (or WPF), is a graphical subsystem in .NET Framework 3.0 , which uses a markup language, known as XAML for rich user interface development. WPF is included with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008,
and is also available for Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later, and
Windows Server 2003.
It provides a consistent programming model for
building applications and provides a clear separation between the user interface and the business logic.
A WPF application can be deployed on the desktop or hosted in a web
browser. It also enables rich control, design, and development of the
visual aspects of Windows programs. It aims to unify a number of
application services: user interface, 2D and 3D drawing, fixed and
adaptive documents, advanced typography, vector graphics, raster graphics, animation, data binding, audio and video.
Microsoft Silverlight is a web-based subset of WPF that enables Flash-like web and mobile applications with the same programming model as .NET applications.
So feel free to browse through the site , register yourself in the forums and take a look at some of the demo's we will provide via podcasts and streaming SilverLight video.
Thanks