Using this new feature, instead of defining private variables and creating explicit getters and setters, you can create properties like this:

public class Employee
{
   public string ID { get; set; }
   public string LastName { get; set; }
   public string FirstName { get; set; }
}

The first version of Silverlight (formerly WPF/e) was recently released and can be downloaded from Microsoft’s web site.

Contrary to what many people believe, Silverlight is not simply a rich media player for the web. Nor is it just a replacement or a competing product for Adobe Flash. Silverlight is a technology that allows developers to deliver Windows-like rich user experience to the web. This includes animations, vector graphics, music, movies, etc., but it also includes the ability to develop WinForms-like applications with grids, treeviews, toolbars, and so on and so forth.

To get started with Silverlight, checkout these videos, or see this demo by Scott Guthrie and Jason Zander on the .NET Show. If you are looking to develop a WinForms-like user experience, you may also appreciate GOA WinForms which is an implementation of standard System.Windows.Forms .NET library for both Adobe Flash and Silverlight.

If you run Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation setup from a folder that already contains a setup.exe, your old setup.exe may run giving you the illusion of installing the WWF extensions. When you open up a WF project in Visual Studio 2005, you may receive an error message stating “Project type is not supported by this installation”. To correct this problem, run the extensions setup from a folder without any other executable (or at least without any setup.exe files).

Last week Microsoft officially released .NET Framework 3.0. .NET Framework 3.0 is the latest managed code programming model for Windows. It combines the power of the .NET Framework version 2.0 with new technologies for building applications that have visually compelling user experiences, seamless communication across technology boundaries, and the ability to support a wide range of business processes. These new technologies are Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows CardSpace.

The .NET Framework 3.0 is included as part of the Windows Vista operating system. If you are using Windows XP or Windows 2003, you can download the latest framework from Microsoft at:

• .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components
• Windows SDK for Vista and the .NET Framework 3.0
• Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation)
• Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF), November 2006 CTP

Since .NET 3.0 is going to ship with a first class workflow designer and run-time engine, someone asked me whether they should still be investing in BizTalk Server 2004 / 2006.

The answer really depends upon what they plan to use BizTalk for. If their primary use of BizTalk is to design simple workflows / orchestrations, then they might get that kind of functionality for free in .NET 3.0 Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF).

WWF is however just a framework, so-to-speak, not a complete product such as BizTalk. WWF, for example, does not have features such as pipelines or adapters, and there are no administration tools such as HAT or BAM that come with it. These functionalities can definitely be custom developed as required, but for large solutions (e.g. B2B or integration of desperate systems) it might be best to just invest in BizTalk and leverage all the tried and tested tools and technologies that come with it out of the box. For other solutions such as a program’s internal workflow, WWF will prove to be an invaluable tool.

While workflow capability has been available to developers using BizTalk Server and other third-party products, WF provides a single platform and programming model for Microsoft products (e.g. Office) and non-Microsoft products (developed using .NET) making workflow more of a mainstream paradigm.

In it’s simplest form, the workflow-based programming model consists of a set of business activities along with repetition and conditional logic that is modelled using some sort of a user interface. At run-time, the conditionals are evaluated and activities are executed based on the modelled workflow. If you have ever created a SQL Server DTS or SSIS package then you are already familiar with workflow-based programming model.

Some of the advantages of workflow-based programming include durability, transparency, and tolerance to dynamic change. It allows for rule-based programming and supports a declarative model which allows for easy modelling and modification of business processes.

WF nicely integrates into Visual Studio offering a rich design-time and debugging environment. Workflows can be hosted by any .NET executable assemblies including Win Forms and ASP.NET applications. WF comes with an array of built-in activities e.g. Code, Delay, Invoke, Throw, Suspend, etc., but the best part is that custom activities can be created as simply as deriving from the Activity base class and overriding the Execute method. Even composite activities can be created providing a rich and extensible programming model.

The Activity Framework in WF provides several of out-of-the-box services such as transactions, compensation, serialization, etc. Other services can be added as desired. For example, by default workflows are persisted using XAML, but if needed custom serialization may be added.

In conclusion, WF provides a very rich and highly extensible workflow-based programming model. With the passage of time we shall witness more and more Microsoft and non-Microsoft products using the WF to build and enhance applications that could use workflow functionality in new and innovative ways. As they say in French, the best is yet to come!

With such a diverse array of distributed technologies already floating around, each one with a distinct benefit, Microsoft decided to unify these technologies under a single unified platform that would not only simply developers’ lives but also pull in the benefits of all such existing technologies into one.

ASP.NET web services, for example, offer ease of programability, WSE offers security, System.Messaging offers guaranteed delivery of asynchronous messages, Enterprise Services offers attribute based transaction support, and yet .NET Remoting offers transparent use of objects. WCF unifies all these benefits and more such that the code base remains the same, while depending upon the requirements, features such as transactions can be configured mostly through XML configuration settings.

WCF is based on Microsoft’s vision of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), where developers shall be able to combine multiple services (could be cross-platform and cross-vendor) to invent software applications that have not yet been possible.

WCF is based on a well-thought-out design where services and clients define one or more end-points. Each end-point defines the address, binding, and contract (ABC) which can be configured independently, but work together to provide a distributed message-oriented communication infrastructure.

WCF runs on Windows Vista, XP and 2003. Beta versions of .NET Framework 3.0 (including WCF) can be downloaded from Microsoft.