Windows Workflow Foundation (which was announced today) is an extensible programming model and runtime components for building solutions on the Windows platform. Major highlights:
- Bundled part of WinFX runtime, should get released around Windows Vista timeframe
- First likely to get released as part of powers Office “12” Server workflow. Windows Sharepoint Server “12” uses WWF workflow internally
- It is important to understand WWF is not a server product, but BizTalk is a server product. WWF can do both Human Workflow and EAI/B2B. There is no server or service component for WWF. It gets kicked off from your main function. You call a start function of WWF and the WWF runtime runs inside your application. User has to develop the host application that hosts the runtime and also has to develop failure (Restart) and multiserver setup. Persistence can be stored to a File or a SQL Database through appropriate connection string to any machine.
- Workflow models and definitions can be stored as a .CS (.VB) File or as .XOML file
- Dynamic changes can be made to the workflow of a running instance
For more details, refer to MSDN WWF Site or Windows Workflow Site