Run WF 4.0 as a server-side component

Question

Hi all,

For a new project, we need to use WF 4.0 for deploying and running workflows. Instead of hosting workflows within the application itself, we decided to implement a server-side component that is in charge of running workflows.

Before WF 4.0, one had explicit access to the the runtime engine (WorkflowRuntime), which provided some basic management functionalities, such as retrieving the workflows currently running etc ... As far as I could find out, WF 4.0 lacks this explicit access, as workflows are created via the WorkflowInstance class and no reference is immediately available to the WorkflowRuntime ...

If I need these management functionalities on the server side, I'm a correct that I will need to implement these myself? Or did I miss out on something ...

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Answer 1

Here are some threads that seem related to WorkflowRuntime from the WF 4.0 Prerelease forums.

"Where's the run-time?" http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/wfprerelease/thread/7610c530-cb9b-43e6-8972-cb267116f475

"Run WF 4.0 as a server side component" http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wfprerelease/thread/079c81fc-354e-402c-ac04-607be706ebc8

From those threads I could summarize: Yes, there is no 'central runtime' tasked with creating workflows any more. Yes, you can create your own workflow hosting 'server'. If you are doing something 'messaging' related, you may want to base it on WorkflowServiceHost, otherwise it looks like you will end up writing one from scratch which uses WorkflowInvoker/WorkflowInstance to kick off workflows.

There is also something Microsoft has been working on called Dublin, which sounds like it is aimed at hosting WF/WCF services, but I am not sure what is going on with that - they said it would ship after VS 10 in the video. (Reference)

Comments or wiki edits with corrections welcomed.