In talking with customers about the workflow creation process, one customer got quite excited about how quick and easy it is to create a workflow. Suddenly, the customer asked, "If I can create a workflow this fast, I want to create a lot of workflows. Can I display the workflow using some existing GUI without having to design a custom GUI?".

Custom GUI's take time to create. The objective of Jetfire is to simplify the workflow creation/modification process so that Power Users can build workflows and upgrade them. But what good is a simple workflow creation process if there is no GUI to use it?

This is a common problem with workflow systems. I have not seen a workflow system that provides a user GUI that adapts to new workflows. However, with the experience from Tracker, we decided that a general GUI is best addressed by a data-driven system.

Using Web Parts, we created a set of Web Parts that provide a general purpose workflow display for Jetfire. (see http://Jetfire.ca/pages/JetfireWebParts.aspx for more informaiton.)

Sep 19, 2007
Jason Beres from Infragistics in Boston, Mass was the guest speaker at Ottawa dot net community Events speaking about Silverlight. Silverlight was just released on Sep 5.

We have been testing CTP's for WPF/E, now called Silverlight, since 0.8 release. There have been some subtle changes in the interface definitions. In upgrading our Silverlight projects from 0.9 to 1.0 (see http://www.trackerrealm.com/blogs/WPFEControls/images.htm), we noticed the following changes:

• Javascript is no longer a part of the Xaml file. Events have moved from the Xaml file to a "code behind"Microsoft Javascript file using an AddEventListener method.
• I refer to it as a Microsoft Javascript file, because it does not conform to the standard JS file format. Rather, Microsoft have created a Javascript object model.
• A number of Xaml Control properties are gone. (not deprecated, but gone)

Meanwhile, back to Jason - fantastic presenter and presentation. Jason discussed Silverlight 1.0 and 1.1. He juggled back and forth between the formal release and the CTP highlighting differences. Key points:

• Silverlight is Microsoft's competitor to Adobe Flash. (great graphics and animation.)
• Silverlight is a cross-browser plug-in.
• Silverlight is Xaml-based.
• Silverlight is a stand-alone product, ie. not dependent on .net. (Microsoft are integrating base classes from .net)
• Silverlight 1.0 release is 4.6 MB. (expect Silverlight 1.1 release to be about 7 MB)
• Silverlight language for the code behind file in 1.0 is Javascript
• Silverlight language for the code behind file in 1.1 is C# and VB.net

Blogging has taken a back seat over the past few months while we have been working on Jetfire - a new approach to designing workflows. Well, Jetfire has arrived and blogs should start coming.

Labels: Jetfire

Monday, Sep 24, 2007
John and Charlie present Jetfire Workflows to an Ottawa developer audience. (See FAQ at http://Jetfire.ca/pages/JetfireFAQ.aspx for more info.)

The demo showed a DVD Tracking application. DVD's are added to Jetfire and tracked by Home, On Loan, Lost and Dead states. Commands, e.g. Lost, Found, Died) and Properties (On Loan To, Loan Timestamp, Returned Timestamp, and Lost Timestamp) are displayed on a general Web Demo available to ALL Jetfire workflows.

The Jetfire code, written in a C#,Java-like language was developed by John and Charlie at TrackerRealm. The language is workflow specific and makes it quick and easy to write workflows.

Demo key figures include:

• Multi-language strings (see English and Swedish-Chef instructions)
• Command Method and Property filtering by state (only see what you need to see)
• Change state (uses keyword: 'enterstate')
• Enter 'On Loan To' name causes state change, On Loan To Timestamp to be automatically updated

Bottom line: Comments like "Is that all the code there is?" tells me that we are on the right track.

Test Drive Jetfire yourself at http://jetfire.ca/Pages/JetfireDownload.aspx

The DVD workflow (100 lines of code) is shown at http://jetfire.ca/Code/Apps/DVDInventory.txt.

Labels: Jetfire

ASP.Net C# C# Coding GuideLines Jetfire Regular Expressions SharePoint Silver Light Visual Studio Web Parts Workflow WPF WPF/E