How to Install and Use Windows Workflow Foundation Version 3.0.4203.2 in Visual Studio

Download Windows Workflow Foundation Version 3.0.4203.2

Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a .NET Framework technology that allows you to create, execute, and manage workflows in your applications. A workflow is a set of activities that perform tasks such as calculations, data access, communication, and control flow. WF provides a visual designer, a programming model, a runtime engine, and a set of built-in activities that you can use to create workflows.

Download Windows Workflow Foundation Version 3.0.4203.2

WF is part of the .NET Framework 4.x versions, but it is not included in the new .NET 5/6+ versions. However, WF is still supported by Microsoft until the end of the .NET Framework lifecycle, which is expected to be around 2030. If you want to use WF in your applications, you need to download and install the Windows Workflow Foundation component in Visual Studio.

In this article, we will show you how to download Windows Workflow Foundation version 3.0.4203.2, which is part of the .NET Framework 3.0. We will also explain the features and benefits of WF, how to install and configure it, some examples and tutorials of WF projects, and some alternatives and comparisons of WF with other technologies.

Features and benefits of Windows Workflow Foundation

WF is a powerful technology that enables you to create workflows that can automate complex business processes, orchestrate services, coordinate human tasks, and integrate applications. WF has many features and benefits that make it a viable choice for workflow development, such as:

Programming model, samples, and tools

WF provides a rich programming model that allows you to create workflows using either code or a graphical designer. You can use C#, VB.NET, or XAML to define your workflows in code, or you can use the Workflow Designer in Visual Studio to drag and drop activities onto a design surface. You can also use both approaches together by switching between the code view and the designer view.

WF also provides a set of samples and tools that demonstrate WF features and scenarios. You can access these samples from the [Windows Workflow Samples](^10^) page on Microsoft Learn. You can also use tools such as the Workflow Analyzer to validate your workflows, the State Machine Viewer to visualize your state machine workflows, and the Tracking Profile Editor to configure your tracking profiles.

Flow-control models and activities

WF supports different flow-control models that allow you to define how your workflow executes its activities. You can choose from sequential workflows, state machine workflows, flowchart workflows, or custom workflows depending on your needs.

A sequential workflow executes its activities in a predefined order from start to finish. A state machine workflow executes its activities based on transitions between states that are triggered by events. A flowchart workflow executes its activities based on conditional branches that are determined by expressions. A custom workflow executes its activities based on your own logic that you implement using custom activities.

WF also provides a library of built-in activities that you can use to perform common tasks in your workflows. These include basic activities (such as Assign, WriteLine, Delay, etc.), control flow activities (such as If, While, ForEach, etc.), primitive activities (such as CodeActivity, NativeActivity, AsyncCodeActivity, etc.), messaging activities (such as Send, Receive, SendReply, etc.), and workflow model activities (such as StateMachine, Flowchart, Sequence, etc.). You can also create your own custom activities by deriving from the Activity class or using the Activity Designer.

Extensibility and customization

WF is a highly extensible and customizable technology that allows you to modify its behavior and functionality according to your requirements. You can extend WF by creating custom activities, custom expressions, custom runtime services, custom tracking participants, custom designers, and custom hosts.

You can also customize WF by configuring its settings and parameters using the app.config file or the WorkflowApplication class. You can customize aspects such as persistence, tracking, transactions, security, hosting, performance, and debugging.

Installation and configuration of Windows Workflow Foundation

If you want to use WF in your applications, you need to install and configure the Windows Workflow Foundation component in Visual Studio. Here are the steps to do so:

Prerequisites and requirements

To install WF in Visual Studio, you need to have the following prerequisites and requirements:

• A supported version of Visual Studio. WF is compatible with Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019. You can use any edition of Visual Studio except for Express.

• A supported version of .NET Framework. WF is part of the .NET Framework 4.x versions. You need to have at least .NET Framework 4.0 installed on your machine. You can download it from the [Microsoft .NET Framework 4] page.

• A supported version of Windows. WF is compatible with Windows 7 SP1 or later, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 or later, Windows 8.1 or later, Windows Server 2012 or later, Windows 10 or later, and Windows Server 2016 or later.

Steps to install Windows Workflow Foundation component in Visual Studio

To install WF in Visual Studio, you need to follow these steps:

• Open Visual Studio Installer from the Start menu or the taskbar.

• Select the Modify option for the Visual Studio version that you want to use.

• In the Workloads tab, select the .NET desktop development workload.

• In the Individual components tab, select the .NET Framework 4.x SDK and .NET Framework 4.x targeting pack components.

• In the same tab, scroll down to the Development activities section and select the Windows Workflow Foundation component.

• Click on the Modify button at the bottom right corner to start the installation process.

• Wait for the installation to complete and restart Visual Studio if prompted.

Steps to create a Workflow project in Visual Studio

To create a Workflow project in Visual Studio, you need to follow these steps:

• Open Visual Studio and select Create a new project from the start page or the File menu.

• In the Create a new project dialog box, search for Workflow in the search box or filter by Language: C# or VB.NET and Project type: Windows Desktop.

• Select one of the Workflow templates from the list. You can choose from Workflow Console Application (.NET Framework), WCF Workflow Service Application (.NET Framework), Activity Library (.NET Framework), or State Machine Workflow Library (.NET Framework).

• Click on the Next button to proceed.

• In the Configure your new project dialog box, enter a name for your project and optionally change its location and solution name.

• Click on the Create button to create your project.

• You should see a Workflow project with a default workflow file (.xaml) and a program file (.cs or .vb) in your Solution Explorer window. You can double-click on the workflow file to open it in the Workflow Designer.

Examples and tutorials of Windows Workflow Foundation

To help you get started with WF development, we will show you some examples and tutorials of WF projects that demonstrate some common scenarios and features of WF. You can also find more samples and tutorials on the [Windows Workflow Samples] page on Microsoft Learn.

Basic Workflow console application

A Workflow console application is a simple way to create and run a workflow in a console window. You can use this template to create sequential, state machine, or flowchart workflows using the Workflow Designer or code.

For example, you can create a sequential workflow that asks the user for their name and prints a greeting message in the console. To do this, you need to follow these steps:

• Create a Workflow console application project in Visual Studio as explained in the previous section.

• Open the Workflow1.xaml file in the Workflow Designer and delete the default WriteLine activity.

• Drag and drop a Sequence activity from the Toolbox to the design surface.

• Drag and drop a ReadLine activity from the Toolbox to the Sequence activity. This activity will read a line of text from the console.

• Click on the ReadLine activity and go to the Properties window. Set the BookmarkName property to "Name" and the Result property to "name". This will create a bookmark named "Name" that will store the user input in a variable named "name".

• Drag and drop another WriteLine activity from the Toolbox to the Sequence activity. This activity will write a line of text to the console.

• Click on the WriteLine activity and go to the Properties window. Set the Text property to "Hello, " + name + "!". This will concatenate the greeting message with the user input.

• Save your workflow and run your project. You should see a console window that prompts you for your name and greets you accordingly.

WCF Workflow service application

A WCF Workflow service application is a way to create and host a workflow as a web service that can communicate with other applications using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). You can use this template to create workflows that expose endpoints, send and receive messages, and implement service contracts using the Workflow Designer or code.

For example, you can create a WCF Workflow service that calculates the factorial of a given number and returns it to the client. To do this, you need to follow these steps:

• Create a WCF Workflow service application project in Visual Studio as explained in the previous section.

• Open the Service1.xamlx file in the Workflow Designer and delete the default ReceiveAndSendReply activity.

• Drag and drop a ReceiveAndSendReplyWithFault activity from the Toolbox to the design surface. This activity will receive a request message from the client and send back either a reply message or a fault message.

• Click on the Receive part of the activity and go to the Properties window. Set the ServiceContractName property to "IFactorialService" and the OperationName property to "CalculateFactorial". This will create an interface named "IFactorialService" that defines an operation named "CalculateFactorial".

• Click on the Parameters property and add a new InArgument of type Int32 named "number". This will define an input parameter named "number" of type Int32 for the operation.

• Click on the SendReply part of the activity and go to the Properties window. Set the DisplayName property to "SendReply" and click on the Parameters property.

• Add a new OutArgument of type Int64 named "result". This will define an output parameter named "result" of type Int64 for the operation.

• Drag and drop an Assign activity from the Toolbox to the ReceiveAndSendReplyWithFault activity, between the Receive and SendReply parts. This activity will assign a value to a variable or an argument.

• Click on the Assign activity and go to the Properties window. Set the To property to "result" and the Value property to "Factorial(number)". This will assign the value of the Factorial function applied to the input parameter "number" to the output parameter "result".

• Right-click on the design surface and select Generate Service Contract. This will generate a code file that contains the service contract interface and the data contract classes for the service.

Open the code file and add the following code above the IFactorialService interface declaration:

[ServiceContract] public interface IFactorialService [OperationContract] long CalculateFactorial(int number);

• This will add the ServiceContract and OperationContract attributes to the interface and the operation, which are required for WCF services.

• Save your workflow and run your project. You should see a WCF Test Client window that allows you to test your service.

• In the WCF Test Client window, expand the IFactorialService node and double-click on the CalculateFactorial operation. Enter a positive integer value in the number field and click on the Invoke button. You should see the result value in the bottom panel.

Custom activity library

A custom activity library is a way to create and reuse custom activities in your workflows. You can use this template to create custom activities using code or the Activity Designer, and then reference them in other workflow projects.

For example, you can create a custom activity that calculates the factorial of a given number and returns it as an output argument. To do this, you need to follow these steps:

• Create an Activity Library (.NET Framework) project in Visual Studio as explained in the previous section.

• Open the Activity1.cs or Activity1.vb file in the code editor and rename it to FactorialActivity.cs or FactorialActivity.vb.

Replace the code in the file with the following code:

using System.Activities; namespace CustomActivityLibrary public sealed class FactorialActivity : CodeActivity // Define an input argument of type int public InArgument Number get; set; // Define an output argument of type long public OutArgument Result get; set; // If your activity returns a value, derive from CodeActivity

// and return the value from the Execute method. protected override void Execute(CodeActivityContext context) // Obtain the runtime value of the input argument int number = context.GetValue(this.Number); // Calculate the factorial of the input number long result = 1; for (int i = 1; i

• overrides the Execute method to calculate and return the factorial of the input number.

• Build your project and copy the output DLL file from the bin folder to a location of your choice.

• Create a Workflow console application project in Visual Studio as explained in the previous section.

• Right-click on the References node in the Solution Explorer window and select Add Reference.

• In the Reference Manager dialog box, click on the Browse button and navigate to the location where you copied the custom activity DLL file.

• Select the DLL file and click on OK to add it as a reference to your project.

• Open the Workflow1.xaml file in the Workflow Designer and delete the default WriteLine activity.

• Drag and drop a FactorialActivity activity from the Toolbox to the design surface. You should see it under the CustomActivityLibrary namespace.

• Click on the FactorialActivity activity and go to the Properties window. Set the Number property to a positive integer value of your choice and create a new variable named result for the Result property. This will pass an input value to the custom activity and store its output value in a variable.

• Drag and drop a WriteLine activity from the Toolbox to the design surface after the FactorialActivity activity. This activity will write a line of text to the console.

• Click on the WriteLine activity and go to the Properties window. Set the Text property to "The factorial of " + Number + " is " + result + ".". This will display the input and output values of the custom activity.

• Save your workflow and run your project. You should see a console window that shows the result of the custom activity.

Custom activity library

A custom activity library is a way to create and reuse custom activities in your workflows. You can use this template to create custom activities using code or the Activity Designer, and then reference them in other workflow projects.

Alternatives and comparisons of Windows Workflow Foundation

WF is not the only technology that you can use to create workflows in your applications. There are other alternatives and comparisons that you might want to consider, such as:

Other .NET frameworks for workflow development

If you are looking for other .NET frameworks that can help you create workflows, you might want to check out these options:

• [Orleans] is a framework that provides a straightforward approach to building distributed high-scale computing applications, without the need to learn and apply complex concurrency or other scaling patterns. It uses virtual actors, also called grains, as units of computation that communicate with each other using messages.

• [MassTransit] is a free, open-source distributed application framework for .NET that supports various messaging patterns such as publish/subscribe, request/response, saga, and event-driven architectures. It uses message brokers such as RabbitMQ, Azure Service Bus, Amazon SQS, etc. to handle message delivery and routing.

• [NServiceBus] is a service bus framework for .NET that enables you to create loosely coupled, scalable, reliable, and maintainable distributed systems. It supports various messaging patterns such as commands, events, queries, etc. and provides features such as retries, timeouts, transactions, sagas, etc.

Low-code or no-code frameworks for non-developers

If you are not a developer or you want to create workflows without writing code, you might want to check out these options:

• [Power Automate] is a cloud-based service that allows you to create automated workflows between your favorite apps and services. You can use pre-built templates or create your own flows using a drag-and-drop interface. You can also use Power Automate Desktop to automate tasks on your Windows machine.

• [Logic Apps] is a cloud-based service that allows you to create scalable integrations and workflows using a visual designer. You can connect to various data sources and services such as Azure, Office 365, Salesforce, etc. and use built-in connectors, triggers, actions, and expressions.

• [Workflow Foundation Server] is an on-premises server that allows you to host WF workflows as RESTful services. You can use Workflow Manager tools to create and manage workflows using a graphical interface. You can also use SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio to design workflows.

CoreWF as an open-source runtime of WF

CoreWF as an open-source runtime of WF

If you want to use WF in .NET Core or .NET 5/6+ versions, you might want to check out [CoreWF], which is an open-source project that aims to port the WF runtime to these platforms. CoreWF is still in development and not fully compatible with WF, but it offers some advantages such as cross-platform support, performance improvements, and community contributions.

To use CoreWF, you need to install the CoreWF NuGet package in your project and reference the System.Activities namespace. You can then create and run workflows using code or XAML, similar to WF. However, you might encounter some limitations and differences, such as:

• CoreWF does not support the Workflow Designer or the visual debugging features in Visual Studio.

• CoreWF does not support all the built-in activities and services that WF provides. You might need to use alternative or custom implementations for some scenarios.

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