Chapter 5: Workflow Hosting, Execution, and Communication

Overview

Workflows need a host application to run. The host is responsible for starting and maintaining workflows - the workflow itself doesn’t need to know anything about the infrastructure in which it is running. However, this infrastructure is very important to the lifecycle of workflows.

Part of the concept of hosting is workflow communication. Workflows need to be able to communicate important information to the outside world, and vice versa. Windows Workflow Foundation provides the necessary components and architecture to facilitate this communication.

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Workflow hosting

• Workflow runtime

• Workflow and runtime management

• Workflow communication methods