David DeWinter

I recently (well, a couple of months ago…) had to deliver a seminar for a class I’m taking—at work I was really getting into Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), so I decided to take a closer look at it and how it performs in the context of business process management (BPM).

Afterwards, I looked at some features of WF like implementing state machines and using the built-in rules engine. If you’re new to WF or just interested in how it compares to BPM suites on a general basis, then I’d recommend you check out the slides or paper I put together on the subject.

Enjoy, and feel free to leave any feedback here.

Windows Workflow Foundation (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa663328.aspx) is a relatively new technology released in .NET 3.0 for modeling workflows and business processes.

I’ve recently been working with the rules engine and PolicyActivity in WF. I’ve found that you can log what’s going on with the rules engine with the following configuration in the configuration file:

<configuration>

    <system.diagnostics>

        <switches>

            <add name=“System.Workflow.Activities.Rules“ value=“All“/>

            <add name=“System.Workflow.LogToFile“ value=“1“/>

        </switches>

    </system.diagnostics>

</configuration>

However, it’s also possible to trace using any trace listeners registered with the Trace.Listeners collection using the following:

<configuration>

    <system.diagnostics>

        <switches>

            <add name=“System.Workflow.Activities.Rules“ value=“All“/>

            <add name=“System.Workflow.LogToTraceListeners“ value=“1“/>

        </switches>

    </system.diagnostics>

</configuration>

I mention this because in the context that I found it, I found almost no documentation on this. It’s probably more easily accessible than I think, but it’s here just in case. =)