[CAnet - news] Microsoft uncorks workflow tools

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[Like everyone else I have deep reservations about Microsoft's hegemony of
the desktop.  But to be fair .Net is not too bad and this new announcement
is pretty cool. Besides if Toney Hey can find it in his heart to work for
Microsoft it can't be all evil. But sadly no reference to open standards
like BPEL - classic Microsoft uber alles stuff -- BSA]

http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/004013.html

Microsoft uncorks workflow tools

Wednesday at PDC, Microsoft announced Windows Workflow Foundation, a new
Windows technology that will let developers stitch together Microsoft Office
apps and custom-built software into composite, enterprise-class workflow
applications.

With WWF, according to Microsoft group product manager Scott Woodgate,
Microsoft will be able to offer "the first workflow-enabled operating
system."

WWF will have the effect of making Office, which in version 12 will support
WWF, part of a distributed app dev environment. For example, with MS's
SharePoint portal server as the front end, developers will be able to
exploit Outlook for routing messages and use templates in Word, Excel, and
Access to create powerful, process-driven apps.

Developers can take advantage of WWF using a GUI plug-in to Visual Studio
2005 or simply edit the underlying WWF code. Changes to the code are
immediately reflected in the graphical schematic and applications can even
be constructed to enable end users to change workflows. "With WWF, Microsoft
will let programmers to isolate process logic and business rules as they
create composite applications," says Woodbridge. Yet WWF is
language-independent, using a sequencing engine to run processes. A BPEL
(Business Process Execution Language) module is available now as a free
download, but other orchestration schemes will be supported as well.

Perhaps the biggest shocker is that Microsoft is announcing WWF and making a
beta version available the same day -- not long after releasing the WinFS
beta early. For shipping versions of these and other nexgen APIs, we'll have
to wait until the second half of 2006, when Vista and Office 12 are also
supposed to ship. Until then, developers can take advantage of these four
technologies' backward compatibility and play with betas on Windows Server
2003 or Windows XP.



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