How much of WWF designer support in VS is managed by the project system?

How much of WWF designer support in VS is managed by the project system?

• Sean D

  Hi Don,

  Hopefully someone at MS can give you actual confirmation, but my guess is that the WF project system doesn't support flavoring.  From what I understand, a project system needs to be explicitly written to support flavoring, otherwise you can't customize it in this way.

  In my original post, I asked the question as to whether the workflow project type is a flavor of C# of VB.NET but didn't get an answer...

  Notre

  
  

• TerryMcP

  Hi Notre,

  I think the CSharp based workflow project is a flavor of a CSharp project. If you look at a standard workflow project file, it contains the entry:

  <ProjectTypeGuids>{14822709-B5A1-4724-98CA-57A101D1B079};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>

  The first guid is for the workflow, and the second is the well known guid for a CSharp project. (well known enough to Google it :-)

  From the VSIP CSharp sample ProjectSubtype it appears to be a simple matter to create a project flavor that itself can be flavored.

  Don.

   

   

  
  

• m1ch3ll3

  Hi Notre,

  Theoretically you can implement most of the functionality that you can see in the Workflow Designer by writing implementations for different things yourself though it will be non-trivial.

  Type system is the implementation for discovering types. You will have to write your own implementation to determine types that exist in code beside, referenced assemblies etc

  Devinder

  
  

• Moon3000

  Workflow designer will work only within Workflow Project System. Any other project system is not supported. There are many dependencies on project system like workflow compiler, code generation and type system. Some features will not available when WWF designer is rehosted and many will need a custom implementation.

  
  
  

• Andrei Saygo

  Hi Devinder,

  Thank you very much for your reply and your clarification, particularly with respect to code generation.

  I am currently using VSIP (the VS SDK 2005) to create my own custom project system.

  My goal is to allow creation and configuration of the workflow; it is not just a visual represenation of a pre-existing workflow.  I would like to achieve the richness of the VS WF project systems and then tailor it for my specific needs.  I would also like to create the ability for users to author/edit workflows inside a custom Windows Form application, outside of Visual Studio.

  I would appreciate any clarification as to Ghenadie's comment about the 'type system' along with guidance as to what features would require a custom implementation outside of the VS WF project systems, and whether there are any features for which it is simply not possible to provide a custom implementation.  Also, some guidance on whether there's much to be concerned about with using the workflow compiler or if it's just a matter of using the wfc.exe or the related build classes (which I've not yet explored) would be appreciated.

  So far, I've taken bits out of the Workflow Designer Control technology sample so that I could host the workflow designer in a custom VS toolwindow and I've provided basic integration with this and the VS toolbox and property grid.  It's looking promising so far, but I'm not sure of the scope of what I need to replicate/provide custom implementations for and any roadblocks that I might be expected to encounter by taking this approach.

  Thanks,

  Notre

  
  

• Gaara_btk

  Hi ghenap,

  Thank you very much for your reply.  I'd like to drill down on some of the points you made, if possible, as this is very important to me.  First, it sounds like having a workflow designer in any of the project systems other than the C# or VB .NET workflow project systems is a rehosting exercise on the order of rehosting the workflow designer in any 3rd party Windows From application, such as the Workflow Designer Control technology sample.  In other words, is it fair to say that just because my project system exists in VS, it doesn't provide any benefits over a custom Windows Form application, once I try to move the workflow designer files out of one of the Workflow project systems

  Naively, I'm not overly concerned about the dependency of the workflow project system on the workflow compiler.  I know that WWF offers the wfc.exe and I believe some classes to compile a workflow, so calling this from my own project system (or a custom Windows Form application hosting the WWF designer) should be trivial.  Is there more to it than this

  I'm confused on what you mean by code generation and type system.  Could you expand on these points   Likewise, you say:

  ghenap wrote:

  Some features will not available when WWF designer is rehosted and many will need a custom implementation.

   Could you give some examples of what won't be available and what will require a custom implementation   Is there anything that's not available that one can't provide a custom implementation for  

  I have two main goals.  First, to see if I can host the WWF designers in my own project system.  I may have to abandon this idea, if things get too messy or it's just not possible.  Second, to host the WWF designers in a custom Windows Form application.  I'd like to understand what areas I need to provide custom implementations for, and any anticipated areas in which I simply will not be able to replicate the design experience found within a workflow project system in Visual Studio.

  Thanks again for your help.

  Notre 

  
  

• PeepingTom1000

  This is to answer Notre's question a little earlier in the Thread about Type System. Type System is an internal implementation to discover types and hence you will not find any documentation related to it. What is referred to type system for e.g. are anything that shows up in the Type Browser(Select Different types of exception for e.g.), Interfaces being showing in the dialog box etc - All these are usages of Type System.
  

• Dribble

  Hi Devinder,

  If possible, would you be able to give me the names of a few type system related interfaces that I would need to work with/implement so that I can read up further on them

  Thanks,

  Notre

  
  

• bnanajo

  Hi Notre,

  I take my answer back on the TypeSystem. You can have a look at the documentation for ITypeProvider interface and it will allow you to work with the Type System. Sorry about the confusion.

  Thanks
  Devinder

  
  

• ajbj

  Hi Devinder,

  The question about flavoring the workflow project type is very important to me as well. Do you know who at Microsoft could answer this question Perhaps, if it is not possible to flavor WF beta 1, it will be for beta 2 Again, this is very imporant to me and I would be greatly appriciative if someone at Microsoft can provide an answer.

  Thanks, Don.

  
  

• Pr0g

  Rehosting of the Designer is as you mention - such as the Workflow Designer Control technology Sample.

  The part about integrating it with Visual Studio. We use VSIP - this is provided by VS to enable creation of Project Systems outside of the ones that ship out of the box. For more information on how you can create your own project system you can refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend/default.aspx

  What Ghenadie meant by Code Generation was - For example in C# Workflow Project if you drop a code activity and set the ExecuteCode property there is a handler that gets created in the code-beside file. This code generation is integrated with the setting of the property in the property browser. If you look at a vanilla rehosting sample it will demonstrate rendering of Workflows in a control. However if you want to configure properties when rehosted then you might need the ability to generate code etc.

  Also if you could provide more details in terms of what goal you are trying to achieve by rehosting then it would be great - is it just to provide user with Visual representation of the worklow, or assist in creation, or configuration

  
  

• Kaltenberg

  Thank you for the information, Devinder.  It's good to know it sounds like it is theoretically possible, if not easy to do.

  Where can I find more information on implementing a type system.  Is this part of VSIP or specific to Windows Workflow Foundation   Does the vanilla rehosting sample demonstrate anything related to the type system   If not, do you have any idea if this will be included in Beta 2

  Thanks again,

  Notre

  
  

• Rowland

  It seems like it should be possible to create a project subtype, or flavor, of the workflow project type and then override it's behavior as needed through the ProjectFlavor class interface. However, I have tried this and it doesn't seem to work.  

  Should this be possible Or has the workflow project type been created to disallow flavors of itself

  Here's what I've done: Created a project flavor in VSIP and a project file (as template) that references the guid of my project along with the guid of the workflow project type and CSharp project types, via the ProjectTypeGuids node, like this:

  <ProjectTypeGuids>{49436A9E-2160-435a-8EB1-0E152289265A}; {14822709-B5A1-4724-98CA-57A101D1B079};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>

  When attempting to load this project, VS (expermental hive) disiplays an error saying that the project type is not installed. But, workflow is installed because it shows up as one of the available project types. If I remove the reference to the workflow project type, leaving references to just my own and the CSharp types, the project loads - but the workflow designer is not functional...

  
  

• Kris B

  Hi Devinder,

  Thank you for the further clarification about the Type System.  It's really too bad that there's an internal implementation to discover types and that it's therefore not documented.  I would expect that people that wish to rehost the designer outside of VS would likely need to resolve these kind of problems, so having some guidance/implementation/documentation would go a long way.  Having said this, I really do appreciate your efforts in answering all my questions.

  At this point, I would like to echo Don's question about the project workflow project systems: are they flavors of C# and VB.NET And can an ISV further flavor the workflow project to provide some customization   While my preferred approach would be to host the workflow designer in my own project system and provide a completely custom and seemless integration, as a fallback flavoring the workflow project systems might be the seond best option.

  Thanks again,

  Notre

  
  
• How much of WWF designer support in VS is managed by the project system?