Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tag 'VS2010'

Workflow 4 and Visual Basic expressions

Maurice — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

When using Windows Workflow Foundation 4 you often need to enter expression in some activity property. The new thing is these expressions are all in the Visual Basic dialect regardless of what language you project is in. So when developing a project in C# the expressions are sill in Visual Basic.

Weird right?

Well not really when you think about it!

After all power business users are expected to be able to modify workflows. And guess what their favorite tools are. That would be Microsoft Excel and Word. And what do they use to create macros? Right Visual Basic for Applications is their language of choice.

So if they use VBA letting them enter VB into expression dialogs is a far more natural fit than having them use C#.

A case for the Delay activity

So lets take a look at the delay activity. This activity takes 1 input property Duration of type Time Span. So I guess that means our VBA power users are going to have to enter something like if they want to wait 5 seconds:

Now for some reason I suspect that is not the first thing they are going to type. In fact they are more likely to time something like “0:0:05” instead. Not very VB like right?

Well it turns out workflow is smart enough to realize it can convert the string literal to a Time Span and use this. So when our power users does the following it just works

Nice, I like this!

Enjoy WF4!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

Workflow parameters in Window Workflow Foundation 4

Maurice — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Creating parameters for a workflow is quite easy to do in WF 4. Just open the arguments tab in the workflow and add each input or output parameter you need and the required type.

Now in WF 3 passing data to a workflow was done using a Dictionary<string, object> to specify the input. This is very flexible but also very brittle as it is all magic of key names matching property names. This approach still works as the following code demonstrates.

var input = new Dictionary<string, object>();

input["FirstName"] = "Maurice";

input["LastName"] = "de Beijer";

var result = WorkflowInvoker.Invoke(new Workflow1(), input);

Console.WriteLine(result["Greeting"]);

However WF4 has a new approach that includes full type safety. Every time you create an in or out argument the workflow will also get a corresponding public property. These properties are of type InArgument<T> but they contain an implicit cast from T so the code is quite easy as shown below.

var workflow = new Workflow1();

workflow.FirstName = "Maurice";

workflow.LastName = "de Beijer";

var result = WorkflowInvoker.Invoke(workflow);

Console.WriteLine(result["Greeting"]);

Much cleaner!

Unfortunately the OutArgument Greeting is there but printing it’s contents to the console only results in the type being printed. There is also a Get() method but this requires an ActivityContext to be passed. So in the case of output we are still restricted to using the Dictionary<string, object>.

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

TFS 2010 Client Compatibility Matrix

Mathias — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The short version is that TFS 2010 will support most of the clients used with TFS 2008 today.

There will be places where VS 2005/2008/2010 behave differently but for me it makes sense that 2005 and 2008 will work with their current feature set and only the latest features will be available in 2010.

One small noticeable difference in 2005 and 2008 is that the URL to TFS changes so that we can specify which project collection in TFS to connect to. The default collection (where all upgraded 2008 projects will be placed by default) would require the following setting in Team Explorer 2008:

For older clients to operate correctly with the new TFS version a “Forward Compatibility Update (GDR)” needs to be applied. In fact, in order to guarantee correct operation, TFS 2010 will block all unpatched clients. You can get the GDR for 2008 here: Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010. Updates for 2005 and MSSCCI are coming later.

Read the detailed post “Compatibility Matrix for 2010 Beta 2 Team Foundation Server to Team Explorer 2008 and 2005” for all the info about the compatibility from different clients with TFS 2010.

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is out

Mathias — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Today Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 was released. It's very exciting to be able to start talking to people about the features in beta 2. A lot has changed since beta 1 and most importantly beta 2 comes with a "go-live" license which means we can actually start building production software using this version. See "Get ready to "go live" with Team Foundation Server 2010 beta 2!" in case you're wondering that "go-live" means.

There's also been a change in the SKUs for Visual Studio and the new editions for 2010 are:

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Professional
Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Professional with MSDN
Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Premium with MSDN
Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Ultimate with MSDN
Microsoft® Visual Studio® Test Elements 2010 with MSDN
Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team Foundation Server 2010
Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team Lab Management 2010
Microsoft® Visual Studio® Load Test Virtual User Pack 2010

Sadly for us working the VSTS, the Team System brand has been dropped. But fortunately this doesn't mean that Microsoft is stepping back from the ALM space, instead all MSDN editions will include Team Foundation Server. And for teams who want to start working with TFS but not interested in documents in Sharepoint or reporting the TFS Basic edition will be a great starting point.

As an MSDN subscriber you can get beta 2 today and on Wednesday it will be made available on the Microsoft Download Center as well.

Preparing for VSTS 2010: Upgrade process

Mathias — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

I've earlier posted about the new installation process, which really simplifies the way we setup TFS. With VSTS 2010 Beta 2 around the corner it's time to start planning for upgrade to TFS 2010 Beta 2 and then forward to RTM. This post is an overview of the overall process of upgrading a TFS 2008 server to TFS 2010. In coming posts I'll dig in to the key steps below in detail.

Requirements for TFS 2010

Windows Server 2003 or 2008, 32- or 64-bit.
SQL Server 2008
WSS 3.0, 4.0, MOSS

Process

The following steps outline the overall upgrade process:

Uninstall TFS 2008
Upgrade to SQL Server 2008
Upgrade to WSS 3.0 SP1 or SP2
Install TFS. This will copy the bits from the installation media to the local machine.
Configure the features you want from the TFS admin console.
1. Team Foundation Server
2. Team Build Management
3. Team Lab Management
Validate the upgrade
1. SQL Server
2. Reports
3. Sharepoint
Upgrade existing projects to take advantage of the new features in TFS 2010.

Brian Keller has posted more details on Go-Live with 2010 including links to a detailed checklist for rolling out TFS 2010.

With VSTS 2010 comes TFS "Basic"

Mathias — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

TFS is a pretty large piece of software. To deploy a TFS instace will require knowledge of both TFS and the underlying infrastructure (SQL Server DBMS, SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server Analysis Services, Windows Sharepoint Services and so on), which makes it difficult for some companies to handle. Not all team require all the TFS features so dealing with the pre-requisites can be a big deal. The licensing model and its pricing has also been a pain in some segments.

Last night Brian Harry wrote a lenghty post about the latest addition to the TFS suite. In TFS 2010 we'll have the possibility to install a subset of the full TFS, which will not require Sharpoint or Reporting services. The installer in general is much improved in TFS 2010 but in this particual case it will be a "next, next, finish"-experience, it will install the required pre-requites if needed and do the necessary configuration. This means you should have TFS up and running in less than 30 minutes! And it will run on desktop operating systems as well.

Looking forward to beta 2...

WF4&WCF and message correlation

Maurice — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In the previous blog posts, here, here and here, I demonstrated how to use WCF from WF4. This same some more about sending multiple messages to the same workflow, AKA Workflow Correlation.

One of the ugly parts of Windows Workflow Foundation 3 was the message correlation part when you used WCF to send multiple messages to the same workflow.

When using WF3 you where forced to use one of the context bindings like BasicHttpContextBinding or WSHttpContextBinding. Not only that but you also had to retrieve and set the correlation context using the IContextManager and set it to some arcane guid. This guid was the workflow instance ID but having to use that on the client means the client had to be very aware of the server technology used, something that goes against the principals of WCF. Using something in the message itself as to route the message to the correct workflow was just not possible with the build-in activities.

Fortunately the WF4 story is much better. No longer do we need to use the “context” bindings but the standard WCF bindings will do just fine. And the client doesn’t have to work with the workflow instance id but can pass some more logical data, like an invoice number, that will be mapped to the correct workflow. Much better!

To demonstrate this we first need to expand the workflow so it can receive multiple messages for the same workflow. The input for both Receive activities will still be the same person class from the previous example and we will use the persons ID to route the messages.

The new workflow definition looks like this:

private static WorkflowElement CreateWorkflow()

    var result = new Sequence();

    var input = new Variable<Person>();

    result.Variables.Add(input);

    XNamespace ns = "http://tempuri.org";

    var handle1 = new Variable<CorrelationHandle>();

    result.Variables.Add(handle1);

    var handle2 = new Variable<CorrelationHandle>();

    result.Variables.Add(handle2);

    var receive1 = new Receive()

        OperationName = "Operation1",

        ServiceContractName = ns + "MyService",

        Value = new OutArgument<Person>(input),

        AdditionalCorrelations = {

           {"ChannelBasedCorrelation", new InArgument<CorrelationHandle>(handle1)}

},

        CorrelationQuery = CreateCorrelationQuery(),

        CanCreateInstance = true

};

    result.Activities.Add(receive1);

    var write1 = new WriteLine()

        Text = new InArgument<string>(env => string.Format("\tThe workflow was called with '{0}'.", input.Get(env)))

};

    result.Activities.Add(write1);

    var reply1 = new SendReply()

        Request = receive1,

        Value = new InArgument<string>("The result")

};

    result.Activities.Add(reply1);

    var receive2 = new Receive()

        OperationName = "Operation2",

        ServiceContractName = ns + "MyService",

        Value = new OutArgument<Person>(input),

        AdditionalCorrelations = {

           {"ChannelBasedCorrelation", new InArgument<CorrelationHandle>(handle2)}

},

        CorrelationQuery = CreateCorrelationQuery()

};

    result.Activities.Add(receive2);

    var write2 = new WriteLine()

        Text = new InArgument<string>(env => string.Format("\tThe workflow was called again with '{0}'.", input.Get(env)))

};

    result.Activities.Add(write2);

    var reply2 = new SendReply()

        Request = receive2,

        Value = new InArgument<string>("The second result")

};

    result.Activities.Add(reply2);

    return result;

This is very similar to the previous workflow except we have two Receive activities and only the first is configured to allow the message to create a new instance.

The trick in getting the second message routed to the same workflow is by setting the CorrelationQuery on the two Receive activities. This is done in the CreateCorrelationQuery() function as follows:

private static CorrelationQuery CreateCorrelationQuery()

    var result = new CorrelationQuery();

    var xpath = new XPathMessageQuery()

        Namespaces = new XmlNamespaceManager(new NameTable()),

        Expression = "//sample:Person/sample:Id"

};

    xpath.Namespaces.AddNamespace("sample", "urn:WF4Sample:person");

    var messageQuerySet = new MessageQuerySet()

        Name = "RequestCorrelation"

};

    messageQuerySet.Add("PersonId", xpath);

    result.Select = messageQuerySet;

    return result;

The important part here is that the MessageQuerySet key value and the related Expression XPath must produce the same result for both request. Something that is easy here as I am sending in the same person object twice.

So the regular client has hardly any changes. All that is needed is the addition of the second operation to the ServiceContract like this:

[ServiceContract]

interface MyService

    [OperationContract]

    Operation1Response Operation1(Person request);

    [OperationContract]

    Operation1Response Operation2(Person request);

And calling the second operation like this.

static void Main(string[] args)

    var binding = new BasicHttpBinding();

    var endpoint = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost:8090/Sequence1/Operation1");

    var factory = new ChannelFactory<MyService>(binding, endpoint);

    var proxy = factory.CreateChannel();

    var request = new Person()

        Id = 23,

        FirstName = "Joe",

        LastName = "Regular",

        BirthDate = new DateTime(1975, 7, 1)

};

    var result = proxy.Operation1(request);

    Console.WriteLine(result.Value);

    //request.Id = 99;

    request.FirstName = "Maurice";

    request.LastName = "Chevalier";

    request.BirthDate = new DateTime(1888, 9, 12);

    result = proxy.Operation2(request);

    Console.WriteLine(result.Value);

    Console.WriteLine("Regular client is done.");

    Console.ReadLine();

Note that I cam completely free to change the person object as long as I use the same Id. Should I change the Id the WorkflowServiceHost would try and find an existing workflow with the changed person Id, fail and throw a FaultException with message “The requested operation could not complete because instance key '4d7e998a-4cff-4743-3dd4-2afd5578383c' could not be found.”. Not quite sure where the Guid comes from but there is no workflow with that instanceId.

The good thing here is that the client doesn’t need to be aware of the workflow implementation on the server and the server can use “regular” message data to determine the correct workflow to send the message to.

The Workflow client has about the same change. In this case the Send activity is duplicated but other that that there is very little change and certainly no code that makes the client workflow aware of the service workflow.

private static WorkflowElement CreateWorkflow()

    var result = new Sequence();

    XNamespace ns = "http://tempuri.org";

    var endpoint = new Endpoint()

        Uri = new Uri("http://localhost:8090/Sequence1/Operation1"),

        Binding = new BasicHttpBinding()

};

    var response = new Variable<string>();

    result.Variables.Add(response);

    var handle = new Variable<CorrelationHandle>();

    result.Variables.Add(handle);

    var person = new Person()

        Id = 7,

        FirstName = "Maurice",

        LastName = "de Beijer",

        BirthDate = new DateTime(1962, 8, 24)

};

    var request = new Send()

        OperationName = "Operation1",

        Endpoint = endpoint,

        AdditionalCorrelations =

           {"ChannelBasedCorrelation", new InArgument<CorrelationHandle>(handle)}

},

        ServiceContractName = ns + "MyService",

        Value = new InArgument<Person>(person)

};

    result.Activities.Add(request);

    var reply = new ReceiveReply()

        Request = request,

        Value = new OutArgument<string>(response)

};

    result.Activities.Add(reply);

    var write = new WriteLine()

        Text = new InArgument<string>(response)

};

    result.Activities.Add(write);

    var delay = new Delay()

        Duration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)

};

    result.Activities.Add(delay);

    var request2 = new Send()

        OperationName = "Operation2",

        Endpoint = endpoint,

        AdditionalCorrelations =

           {"ChannelBasedCorrelation", new InArgument<CorrelationHandle>(handle)}

},

        ServiceContractName = ns + "MyService",

        Value = new InArgument<Person>(person)

};

    result.Activities.Add(request2);

    var reply2 = new ReceiveReply()

        Request = request2,

        Value = new OutArgument<string>(response)

};

    result.Activities.Add(reply2);

    var write2 = new WriteLine()

        Text = new InArgument<string>(response)

};

    result.Activities.Add(write2);

    return result;

Conclusion.

The WF3/WCF marriage in Wf3.5 left quite a bit to be desired and fortunately live has become a lot simpler with WF4.

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

Sending your own objects to a WF4 workflow

Maurice — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In the previous two blog posts (here and here) I showed how to create and expose a Windows Workflow Foundation 4 workflow via WCF and have both a workflow and a regular C# client work with it. But the parameter and return value where real simple with just a string each. So how about passing some more complex data.

To show how to do so I will replace the singe string with a person object. Admittedly not the most complex person with only an id, first and last name and their birth date but enough to demonstrate the principal.

The main of the service, which uses a WorkflowServiceHost, stays exactly the same so see the first blog post for that part. The CreateWorkflow() function will change now reflecting the fact that the service will no longer expect a string but a person object.

private static WorkflowElement CreateWorkflow()

    var result = new Sequence();

    var input = new Variable<Person>();

    result.Variables.Add(input);

    XNamespace ns = "http://tempuri.org";

    var handle = new Variable<CorrelationHandle>();

    result.Variables.Add(handle);

    var receive = new Receive()

        OperationName = "Operation1",

        ServiceContractName = ns + "MyService",

        Value = new OutArgument<Person>(input),

        AdditionalCorrelations = {

           {"ChannelBasedCorrelation", new InArgument<CorrelationHandle>(handle)}

},

        CanCreateInstance = true

};

    result.Activities.Add(receive);

    var write = new WriteLine()

        Text = new InArgument<string>(env => string.Format("\tThe workflow was called with '{0}'.", input.Get(env)))

};

    result.Activities.Add(write);

    var reply = new SendReply()

        Request = receive,

        Value = new InArgument<string>("The result")

};

    result.Activities.Add(reply);

    return result;

Not a big change really as we only have to change the input variable from Variable<string> to Variable<Person> and do the same with the Value property of the Receive activity which goes from new OutArgument<string>(input) to new OutArgument<Person>(input).

That leaves the Person class and this is just straightforward WCF work by turning the basic class into a data contract.

[DataContract(Namespace = "urn:WF4Sample:person")]

public class Person

    [DataMember]

    public int Id { get; set; }

    [DataMember]

    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    [DataMember]

    public string LastName { get; set; }

    [DataMember]

    public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }

    public override string ToString()

        return string.Format("{0} {1} was born on {2} (ID: {3})", FirstName, LastName, BirthDate, Id);

Again no big deal

So with the service done we need to make the same changes to the two client applications. First the workflow client using the Send activity.

The Person class is exactly the same as on the server so just copy the code as is. Again the main in the workflow client doesn’t change, see the first blog post for that part. The part that does change a little is the CreateWorkflow() function so it creates and sends a Person instead of a string. The code goes as follows:

private static WorkflowElement CreateWorkflow()

    var result = new Sequence();

    XNamespace ns = "http://tempuri.org";

    var endpoint = new Endpoint()

        Uri = new Uri("http://localhost:8090/Sequence1/Operation1"),

        Binding = new BasicHttpBinding()

};

    var response = new Variable<string>();

    result.Variables.Add(response);

    var handle = new Variable<CorrelationHandle>();

    result.Variables.Add(handle);

    var person = new Person()

        Id = 7,

        FirstName = "Maurice",

        LastName = "de Beijer",

        BirthDate = new DateTime(1962, 8, 24)

};

    var request = new Send()

        OperationName = "Operation1",

        Endpoint = endpoint,

        AdditionalCorrelations =

           {"ChannelBasedCorrelation", new InArgument<CorrelationHandle>(handle)}

},

        ServiceContractName = ns + "MyService",

        Value = new InArgument<Person>(person)

};

    result.Activities.Add(request);

    var reply = new ReceiveReply()

        Request = request,

        Value = new OutArgument<string>(response)

};

    result.Activities.Add(reply);

    var write = new WriteLine()

        Text = new InArgument<string>(response)

};

    result.Activities.Add(write);

    return result;

Again a very minor change.

So how about the C# console client from the second blog post?

The service contract changes a little and is now:

[ServiceContract]

interface MyService

    [OperationContract]

    Operation1Response Operation1(Person request);

The person class is very different from the service though and looks like this:

[MessageContract(WrapperNamespace = "urn:WF4Sample:person")]

internal class Person

    [MessageBodyMember(Namespace = "urn:WF4Sample:person")]

    public int Id { get; set; }

    [MessageBodyMember(Namespace = "urn:WF4Sample:person")]

    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    [MessageBodyMember(Namespace = "urn:WF4Sample:person")]

    public string LastName { get; set; }

    [MessageBodyMember(Namespace = "urn:WF4Sample:person")]

    public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }

But besides the difference from using a message contract as opposed to a data contract this isn’t a big deal.

The main program changes a bit but not a whole lot. Again the only changes are due to the fact we are passing in a Person instead of a string.

static void Main(string[] args)

    var binding = new BasicHttpBinding();

    var endpoint = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost:8090/Sequence1/Operation1");

    var factory = new ChannelFactory<MyService>(binding, endpoint);

    var proxy = factory.CreateChannel();

    var request = new Person()

        Id = 23,

        FirstName = "Joe",

        LastName = "Regular",

        BirthDate = new DateTime(1975, 7, 1)

};

    var result = proxy.Operation1(request);

    Console.WriteLine(result.Value);

    Console.WriteLine("Regular client is done.");

    Console.ReadLine();

All together not bad.

But so far we have only used a very simple workflow with a single message send to it. Suppose you want to send multiple messages to the same workflow? Well in that case we need to use message correlation as we will see next time.

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

Using Windows Workflow Foundation 4 Receive from an non WF client

Maurice — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In a previous blog post I described how to use the WorkflowServiceHost and host a workflow with a Receive activity that waits for WCF messages. I also added a WF4 client that called the service and received a response. However a lot of clients out there are not going to be workflows but “regular” code that calls into out workflow. So what does it take to have a simple console application talk to our WF4 service?

The first thing we need is an service contract describing the operation we can call. In our workflow the operation is named “Operation1” and our service contact name was “MyService” with the default namespace of “http://tempuri.org”. So our service contract looks like this:

[ServiceContract]

interface MyService

    [OperationContract]

    Operation1Response Operation1(Operation1Request request);

Next up are the request and response objects. In this case I am using just two strings so they are pretty simple as well.

[MessageContract(IsWrapped = false)]

public class Operation1Request

    [MessageBodyMember(

        Namespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/",

        Name = "string")]

    public string Value { get; set; }

[MessageContract(IsWrapped = false)]

public class Operation1Response

    [MessageBodyMember(

        Namespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/",

        Name = "string")]

    public string Value { get; set; }

The interesting to note here is that I have to use a MessageContact instead of a DataContract and I have to make sure the data isn’t wrapped in an extra element. Also interesting is the fact that the data is send across using the name “string”, not the easiest C# identifier to work with so I called them “Value” instead.

Using these WCF definitions creating a simple console app that calls the workflow is a breeze.

static void Main(string[] args)

    var binding = new BasicHttpBinding();

    var endpoint = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost:8090/Sequence1/Operation1");

    var factory = new ChannelFactory<MyService>(binding, endpoint);

    var proxy = factory.CreateChannel();

    var request = new Operation1Request()

        Value = "Test from a console."

};

    var result = proxy.Operation1(request);

    Console.WriteLine(result.Value);

    Console.WriteLine("Regular client is done.");

    Console.ReadLine();

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

Combined DevelopMentor instructors blog feed.

Maurice — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Michael Kennedy, one of the co instructors from DevelopMentor, has created a combined feed from all the blogs of the various DevelopMentor. An awesome group of people with a lot of knowledge to share. Highly recommended in you RSS reader.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/DevelopmentorInstructors

If you want to check out a list of the individual blog feeds look here.

Enjoy!