14 DAY TRIAL // Concomitantly with the release of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4, Microsoft is making available additional resources designed to accompany the latest iteration of the development platform and tools to the market. In this regard, as Visual Studio 2010 RTM and .NET Framework 4 RTM have now hit general availability, developers can access new Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) samples for version 4 of the .NET runtime.
Essentially, Microsoft promises that devs will find the samples offered easy to understand, an aspect that will make it easier for them to leverage Windows Communication Foundations and the Windows Workflow Foundation in .NET Framework 4 for their applications. WCF Samples are now live on MSDN: “Basic - shows samples that illustrate basic WCF functionality. Extensibility - shows samples that are related to the discovery feature. Scenario - demonstrates a WCF scenario,” the description of the samples offered reads.
As far as the Windows Workflow is concerned, Microsoft is offering: “Application (Samples) - provides samples that are related to workflow applications. Basic - provides samples that demonstrate basic Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) functionality. Scenario - provides examples of Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) scenarios,” according to the Redmond company.
.NET Framework 4 features improvements to WCF designed to streamline the way that customers/developers host and interact with workflows. Most importantly, Microsoft has labored to boost the performance of WF-based workflows, in addition to other changes. WCF enhancements in .NET Framework 4 are synonymous with the advent of new features including service discovery, routing service, REST support, but also diagnostics capabilities, and a performance boost.
“The .NET Framework is an integral Windows component that supports building and running the next generation of applications and Web services. The key components of the .NET Framework are the common language runtime (CLR) and the .NET Framework class library, which includes ADO.NET, ASP.NET, Windows Forms, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). The .NET Framework provides a managed execution environment, simplified development and deployment, and integration with a wide variety of programming languages,” Microsoft states.
.NET Framework 4 RTM is available for download here.