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| Essential Windows Workflow Foundation (Microsoft .Net Development Series) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Dharma Shukla, Bob Schmidt
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Category: Book
List Price: £39.99
Buy New: £16.61
You Save: £23.38 (58%)
New (44) Used (10) from £16.61
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 17287
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0321399838
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.76
EAN: 9780321399830
ASIN: 0321399838
Publication Date: October 19, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 4 - 5 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 A difficult book lacking practical information August 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm new to Workflow Foundation. I bought this book based on the other reviews and wish I hadn't.
I've bought other books in this series and found them of good value: accessible to someone new to the topic but also useful as a reference to the more experienced. This book does not fall into that category - it is virtually useless to the beginner. It does not contain practical examples or real-world scenarios and is dense and difficult to get into. The first chapter walks through the process of creating your own workflow engine. This is quite interesting but doesn't actually help you get started with WF.
If you're looking for the kind of book that starts in the real world with a look-you-can-do-this approach and later establishes how and why and gives you all the nerdy stuff, this isn't it. This book is Nerdsville from beginning to end. Not a bad thing in itself, but mis-titled with the word "Essential", in my opinion.
It was once explained to me that there are two main approaches to a situation: overview-followed-by-drill-down-into-detail and linear-start-to-finish. I prefer the former and this book follows the latter.
Perhaps of interest to someone who already knows how to do things with WF and wants to understand the gubbins but not to someone who just wants to get things done.
 I seem to disagree with some other reviews August 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this book to be quite dry in style - don't get me wrong, I don't want (or expect) jokes to help me along in development books, but the written style is hard-going.
It also jumps straight in in some respects, and I only actually 'got' some of the material contained within after I'd read other books and blog posts. To me, that doesn't make it the best book to begin learning about workflow.
I advise you consider other books before you look at this one.
 Good material ... but hold on before you buy ... January 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having read this book from cover to cover I can categorically say that Shukla and Schmidt really know their subject. This book covers the essentials of the workflow foundation (WF); I would recommend buying this book as you will be all the better off for having read this material. However, as an application developer I very much doubt you will find yourself closing the book firing up Visual Studio and subsequently authoring business class workflow applications, as this simply isn't intended to be that book! It doesn't cover much real world material, e.g. How to decompose you business processes into activities, how to handle exceptions or inject compensations into your workflows, how to implement security in your work flows or even how or configure passivation using SQL Server. If you are looking for a text in order investigate the WorkFlow foundation for your business this book ISN'T it. The truth is WF is a VERY powerful tool and with Visual Studio as a companion product you can easily add Workflow to an application and achieve stunning results, I don't feel this book conveys the power of the toolset. In summary, buy it, but prepared to buy another in order to become that doyen of the Workflow art you know lurks in the depths of your soul.
Comprehensive and well written March 29, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is well written description of the Windows Workflow Foundation. The text moves from aspect to aspect in a logical order which gradually introduces the complexity and flexibility of WF.
One criticism I would have is that I found the first chapter to be a little unnecessary. It basically describes what workflow is by describing how you would write it in ordinary C# and I don't think this is the best approach to take.
Otherwise, I would thoroughly recommend this book which does have the advantage over others of actually reflecting the final API accurately and is not based on early Beta versions.
 what are you waiting for? January 31, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
My book arrived this morning. I didn't go to work. I haven't eaten. I haven't slept, and now my new TV is feeling left out. This book REALLY is just that good. Since it was written by some guys who worked on the WF project, you can feel their passion about the product. It's not some half wit author that goes "hmm, what shall I write a book about today". These guys know their stuff; so much so that I can feel my IQ clicking up a notch with each page.
If you have at least a slight interest in WF, buy this book. In fact no, even if you're not interested in it, buy the book anyway, and put it on your desk at work and command instant respect from your collegues.
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