Framework 3.0
What is the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0?
The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX), is the new managed code programming model for Windows. It combines the power of the .NET Framework 2.0 with four new technologies:
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), and
Windows CardSpace (WCS, formerly "InfoCard").
Use the .NET Framework 3.0 today to build applications that have visually compelling user experiences, seamless communication across technology boundaries, the ability to support a wide range of business processes, and an easier way to manage your personal information online. This is the same great WinFX technology you know and love, now with a new name that identifies it for exactly what it is – the next version of Microsoft's development framework.
Framework 3.0 Architecture:
- Windows Workflow Foundation (WPF):
What is Workflow?
In the business world, workflow is how an item is moved from one person to another through a process. That process is the business process, and it defines the steps necessary to complete a piece of work. Steps in the process can be required or optional. For example, a business process for a vacation request might be that the employee must provide some information, such as the dates requested, to his or her supervisor. Then, the employee's supervisor must determine if the employee has vacation time to use, and if the date or dates requested are available for vacation.
There are two types of workflow:
A state-based workflow :waits on external entities to perform some action before moving to the next step. This example of workflow has a large amount of potential branching. Within a workflow, branching is when a decision needs to be made, such as when the supervisor must determine if the employee has enough vacation time to use, and if company policies related to staff size within a department will be met. In this case, two decisions need to be made: first, if the employee has vacation time to use, and second, if policies have been met. For each branch in a workflow, there must be at least two alternatives. You can't have a workflow just stop at a decision point.
Sequential workflow : Another type of workflow is sequential. Sequential workflow is a workflow whose steps are performed one right after the other, but might include branching. In this case, sequential refers more to continuous operation, instead of the order in which actions are performed. The traditional concept of sequential in programming is without branching, but when related to workflow, sequential means continuous, instead of without branching. Steps in a Sequential workflow don't wait for an external entity to perform the next step. You can think of the Sequential workflow as close to continuous. There might be some external entity's action required to begin the flow, but once the flow is started, little if any external action is needed. Technology must be applied to a business process. For example, you might have a process that automatically updates a sales order as complete, and sends an e-mail notice to the customer and the sales person when a sales order is shipped. An external entity must start the process by saying that the sales order has shipped, but then some system would mark the sales order as complete, determine the customer's e-mail address, determine the sales person's e-mail address, and then send the e-mail. Once an external entity initiates the flow, the flow continues until an exception is encountered or the flow is completed.
Introducing Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF):
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a technology that Microsoft has packaged with the .NET Framework for Microsoft Vista. WF is part of the programming model for Microsoft Vista, the next release of the Windows operating system. The new name for that programming model is WinFX, and it's a significant expansion of the Microsoft .NET Framework that was first released several years ago. Although WF is part of the WinFX programming model for Windows Vista, it can be run on clients that have Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Home Edition, or Windows XP Media Center Edition. To develop workflow applications, you must be using Visual Studio 2005—any version except express. You can build workflow applications using VS2005 by adding the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation.
- Windows Communication Foundation(WCF) :
One of the biggest IT topics today has to be the concept of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).Service-Oriented Architecture isn't new. You'd think that with the coverage it has received over the past few years that developers and "techy" individuals would understand it better, yet it ranks fairly high on the misunderstood-o-meter because its interpretation, implementation, and use is pretty loose due to the fairly vague definition. When you want to understand the meaning of something, you usually go to a place that defines it, such as a dictionary. In this case, we turn to the W3C to understand the definition of SOA. The
W3C defines Service-Oriented Architecture as "A set of components which can be invoked and
Whose interface descriptions can be discovered and published" As you sit and ponder this definition, it becomes quite apparent that this definition is fairly broad. It also becomes apparent why the Service-Oriented Architecture picture is somewhat fuzzy, because the definition leaves a lot of room for interpretation.
❑ How Windows Communication Foundation addresses the SOA needs
Service-Oriented Architecture Principles:
Streams of information have been flowing from Microsoft in the forms of articles and white papers
Regarding its commitment to SOA and in this entire information one of the big areas constantly stressed are the principles behind service orientation:
❑ Explicit boundaries
❑ Autonomous services
❑ Policy-based compatibility
❑ Shared schemas and contracts
Built on top of the 2.0 .NET Framework CLR (Common Language Runtime), the Windows
Communication Foundation is a set of classes that allow developers to build service-oriented applications in their favorite .NET environment (VB.NET or C#). This section begins by taking a detailed look at the architecture of WCF and the components that make WCF what it is.
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF):
Introduction:
When .NET first appeared, it introduced a small avalanche of new technologies. There was a whole new way to write web applications (ASP.NET), a whole new way to connect to databases (ADO.NET), new typesafe languages (C# and VB .NET), and a managed runtime (the
CLR). Not least among these new technologies is Windows Forms, a library of classes for building Windows applications. Although Windows Forms is a mature and full-featured toolkit, it's hardwired to essential bits of Windows plumbing that haven't changed much in the past ten years. Most significantly, Windows Forms relies on the Windows API to create the visual appearance of standard user interface elements such as buttons, text boxes, check boxes, and so on. As a result, these ingredients are essentially uncustomizable. For example, if you want to create a stylish glow button you need to create a custom control and paint every aspect of the button (in all its different states) using a lower-level drawing model. And don't even think about introducing animated effects such as spinning text, shimmering buttons, shrinking windows, or live previews because you'll have to paint every detail by hand!
The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) changes all this by introducing a new model with entirely different plumbing. Although WPF includes the standard controls you're familiar with, it draws every text, border, and background fill itself. As a result, WPF can provide much more powerful features that let you alter the way any piece of screen content is rendered. Using these features, you can restyle common controls such as buttons, often without writing any code. Similarly, you can use transformation objects to rotate, stretch, scale, and skew anything in your user interface, and you can even use WPF's baked-in animation system to do it right before the user's eyes.
The Internet continues to be increasingly valuable, and yet also faces significant challenges. Online identity theft, fraud, and privacy concerns are rising. Users must track a growing number of accounts and passwords. This burden results in "password fatigue," and that results in insecure practices, such as reusing the same account names and passwords at many sites. Many of these problems are rooted in the lack of a widely adopted identity solution for the Internet.
CardSpace is Microsoft's implementation of an Identity Metasystem that enables users to choose from a portfolio of identities that belong to them and use them in contexts where they are accepted, independent of the underlying identity systems where the identities originate and are used.
But as the value of what people do online have increased, the Internet itself has become more complex and dangerous. Online identity theft, fraud, and privacy concerns are on the rise. And increasingly sophisticated practices such as "phishing" are invented. In response, a multitude of systems designed to protect identity have been devised. The diversity results in the aforementioned password fatigue and unsafe practices.
The root of these problems is that the Internet was designed without a system of digital identity in mind. In efforts to address this deficiency, numerous digital identity systems have been introduced, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. But no single system meets the requirements of every digital identity scenario. The reality is that many different identity systems are in use today, with still more being invented. The result is an inconsistent patchwork of improvised solutions at every Web site, rendering the system as a whole fragile, and constraining the fuller realization of the promise of e-commerce.
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In a dramatic about-face, Ask.com is abandoning its effort to outshine Internet search leader Google Inc. and will instead focus on a narrower market consisting of married women looking for help managing their lives.
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