ASP.NET 3.5 Enterprise Application Development with Visual Studio® 2008: Problem - Design - Solution

7.4. Summary

If you made it through this chapter and understand every concept, then congratulations — you are way ahead of the game! However, most readers might need to review the chapter a few times or take a thorough look at the sample application to really understand what is going on. Even if you don't use the workflow features described in this chapter, some concepts are generic enough to use in your application. This chapter created extension methods, which are new to .NET 3.5; created a pattern to dynamically create read-only and required properties at runtime; used lambda expressions to search through lists; and created some complex queries in the stored procedures. It is hoped that these little nuggets were enough to make the chapter worth reading; and if you get the entire concept behind the workflow, then even better.

The key points to remember when creating a workflow are as follows:

• You need a good understanding of the business process from the client. As shown in this simple example, the number of states and transitions can explode. A clear understanding of the client's requirements for their business process will always be the hardest step in the process. It usually helps to create a workflow diagram and walk through the entire process with the client.

• All workflows must have groups of users who can own an issue. This needs to be defined in the requirements.

• All workflows must have states that have an owner group associated with them, and you can optionally assign ...