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  • Dot Net Workflow

Dot Net Workflow

A Secure and Scalable Platform for Rapid Workflow and Federated Application Development

The Dot Net Workflow platform is a complete application design and server environment for creating workflow-driven applications on the SAML 2.0, Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, and Windows Identity Foundation frameworks. Dot Net Workflow is designed to provide a rich business process automation platform in which "the workflow is the application." What appears to the user as an entire start to finish task or application is actually a visually-designed workflow. These workflow applications include powerful shapes for displaying web-based user interfaces, as well as the shapes that pull live data from business systems and perform system actions.

Major benefits of developing in The Dot Net Workflow platform are: the ability to visually design workflows; to have Federated authentication and authorization built in as base plumbing, as opposed to having to independently develop a security structure -- a key advantage over other workflow tools; the ability to access a rich set of services to interact with other applications and platforms; the ability to reuse application code, the ability to integrate 3rd party PowerShell cmdlets; and the ability to collapse development times while being able to create robust applications with friendly user interfaces.

Enterprise Ready Workflow Engine for High Availability and Scalability

The Dot Net Workflow engine is a scalable multi-threaded 64-bit Windows Service designed to support extremely high loads. Compiled workflows are stored centrally in a Microsoft SQL server database and geographically distributed workflow servers download workflow files and distribute their load based upon a location-based mechanism. All components of the Dot Net Workflow platform intercommunicate over secure web services, allowing a single installation to support on-premise systems and users as well as cloud-based resources.

Complete Rapid Application Development Environment

Dot Net Workflow Studio dramatically cuts the time and expertise required to create and maintain secure workflow applications. Microsoft Visual Studio is a multi-purpose tool designed for a broad range of development activities. Dot Net Workflow Studio is designed and optimized for one specific purpose: To be a team-based rapid development environment for creating workflow-based applications and all the associated services and user interfaces that they require, without all the heavy lifting or detailed subject matter expertise. Dot Net Workflow Studio is a complete development environment and does not require Microsoft Visual Studio for any of its functionality. The Dot Net Workflow platform allows organizations to rapidly modernize their application infrastructure to leverage the latest SAML 2.0, WF, WCF, WIF, Silverlight, WPF, ASP.NET AJAX, and PowerShell technologies without the significant time and cost required to develop expertise in these areas or to create a new application infrastructure. The Dot Net Workflow platform makes hard to learn technologies like UI development, claims-based federation, workflow approval routing and security easier.

Code Free User Interface Creation for the Web, WPF, and Silverlight

Workflows designed in the Dot Net Workflow platform include shapes for the user interfaces that users see when interacting with workflow applications. Dot Net Workflow Studio includes drag-and-drop code free "What you See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) designers for creating workflow data entry forms, searchable data grid lookups, reports, and the actual user interfaces pages themselves. In all cases the designers are code free and allow the workflow designer to see how the interface will appear to the end user as they modify the design. One unique feature of the Dot Net Workflow model is that all workflows and their user interfaces can be run in ASP.NET, Microsoft Silverlight, and Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation.

The Dot Net Workflow platform also includes standard out-of-the-box user interfaces for publishing workflows in a self-service "Service Catalog" as well as a "Workflow Task List" for tracking the status of workflow requests. These user interfaces also operate in all client platforms.

Secure By Default Workflow Applications

Complex workflows that integrate and affect multiple business systems often bypass the native security of the systems they touch. The Dot Net Workflow platform offers a powerful alternative model called "Rights-Based Approval Routing" (RBAR). With RBAR, security access checks to an external centralized source are "baked in," freeing workflow designers from the need to be aware of or write this logic into the workflows themselves. A user's actual permissions for any affected resource in a process are continuously managed and enforced by its centralized role-based security, regardless of the complexity of the workflow created. With RBAR, when a workflow encounters a secure workflow shape called an operation, it checks to see if the current user has the right to execute this action at that time against the intended target. If so, then the action is executed and logged for reporting purposes. If not, then RBAR automatically determines who is authorized to perform this action and initiates an approval process with email notifications and task tracking. Operations represent protected code actions that can be delegated using role-based assignments. Organizations can wrap their own code, web service methods, PowerShell cmdlets and almost anything as operations for use in workflows with the built-in RBAR approval routing and logging.

Team-Based Source Control and Portability

Dot Net Workflow Studio leverages a SQL-based source control for storing all development components such as workflow designs, form designs, page designs, lookup designs, connector designs, report designs, etc. All design components are stored in the SQL source control which offers versioning, check in and checkout, backup/restore, and export for portability between environments. Portability options include the ability to export and then import any single item, the ability to export and import an entire package of items, and the ability to do a full source control backup and restore.

PowerShell Development with Workflow

Dot Net Workflow assists organizations with leveraging the full potential of Microsoft Windows PowerShell. PowerShell is an extensible command line interface shell and associated scripting language from Microsoft built on the .NET framework. Dot Net Workflow Studio's easy-to-use, graphical interface for workflow composition enables all Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets to be used in workflow processes by wrapping them into secure operations that can be dragged as shapes onto workflow designs. The Dot Net Workflow platform adds secure delegation, distributable execution through firewalls, automatic approval routing, and a full audit history and reporting of all PowerShell administration.

Extensible and Open-Ended Platform

The Dot Net Workflow platform is an enterprise platform for creating secure process-driven applications on a federated security and communication platform, and not simply a limited use workflow design tool. The Dot Net Workflow platform is highly extensible, giving the ability to rapidly develop a wide range of solution components ranging from workflows to custom Windows Services, Federation Extensions, Web Services, directory and application connectors, WPF applications, Silverlight applications, and even user interface wizards that can be used to configure your own custom workflow applications.

Why Dot Net Workflow

The Dot Net Workflow platform represents a new category of rapid application development tools, marrying the security of identity management and federation with the process design of workflow tools all on the .NET platform.

• Built on SAML 2.0 and the latest Microsoft .NET technologies WF, WCF, WIF, WPF, Silverlight, and ASP.NET
• Secure Workflows by design with automated Rights-Based Approval Routing (RBAR)
• Highly scalable and distributable workflow server engine
• Team-based development and source control environment
• WYSIWYG code-free user interface design
• Full development capabilities focused on rapid application development without requiring Microsoft Visual Studio
• A Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation-based architecture allowing complete customization of existing processes or creation of your own to match any business need
• Ability to utilize any PowerShell cmdlets as protected operations in workflows with granular delegation, approval routing, and built-in audit logging
• Flexible user interface options including web, Silverlight, and a rich WPF client

The Dot Net Workflow Platform Consists of the following components:

• Workflow Design Studio
• Workflow Server Services
• Metadirectory Services
• Federation Services (SAML, OpenID, WS-Fed)
• Authorization Services (RBAC and Claims-based)
• PowerShell Hosting Services
• User Experience Services
• Connector Framework