What was I just saying about Workflow != Rules? "Windows Workflow Foundation Rules Engine"

Introduction to the Windows Workflow Foundation Rules Engine

"Summary: This article provides an overview of the rules engine capabilities in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). It describes how conditions and RuleSets are used in WF and discusses the behavior of collections of rules, including forward chaining and tracking and tracing.

Contents
Introduction
Overview of Rules in Windows Workflow Foundation
Rules Evaluation
Forward Chaining
Forward Chaining Control
Additional Modeling Discussion
Tracking and Tracing
Conclusion
For More Information

Introduction

With the availability of Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Microsoft is introducing new rules capabilities to the WinFX developer platform. These capabilities extend from simple conditions that drive activity execution behavior all the way up to complex RuleSets executed by a full-featured forward chaining rules engine.

The rules capability allows for the declarative modeling of units of application logic within the scope of an overall business process. Sample scenarios for rules engine technology are order validation, pricing calculation, promotion enforcement, exception process management, and claims adjudication and management.

A key objective in developing this technology was to provide a truly integrated workflow and rules experience. Across the industry, rules and workflow have typically been quite distinct technologies, usually provided by different vendors. Third-party rules engines are often embedded or integrated by workflow and Business Process Management (BPM) providers, but the developer and administration experience is clearly not a seamless one.

With WF, Microsoft has been very focused on providing a seamless developer experience between workflow and rules modeling, so as to allow developers to easily incorporate rules at any point in their workflow. Developers are able to make the determination of whether to model their logic in the workflow model, rules, or code without having to worry about the integration implications of those decisions. This has been achieved, however, without sacrificing the ability to execute rules outside the scope of a workflow.

...

In addition to providing an approachable model, WF also provides a powerful evaluation engine to support complex rules scenarios, demanding forward chaining evaluation and precise evaluation control. This is delivered in a manner that provides a number of extensibility points, allowing developers to build on our platform and deliver rules capabilities in support of a wide spectrum of scenarios.

This document provides a technical introduction to the rules capabilities delivered in WF and an overview of the available features and their use. ..."

In my "Building a Rule Engine with SQL Server" post I said, "The thing I have to remember is that "Rules Engine != Workflow"... "

I guess I lied...

(via Paul Andrew - Introdution to the Windows Workflow Foundation Rules Engine)

Related Past Post XRef:
"Building a Rule Engine with SQL Server"

Technorati Tags: Workflow, Rule Engine, WinFX, WF, Windows Workflow Foundation