.NET Framework 4.0 and “Dublin” Application Server

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Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 and “Dublin” Announcement

Microsoft  announces via significant improvements to our existing Windows Server capabilities in the form of enhancements to both the .NET Framework and extensions to the application server role, codenamed “Dublin”.

Details

Microsoft disclosed a set of new enhancements coming in .NET Framework and Windows Server, including key enhancements to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) in the .NET Framework 4.0 release and an enhanced set of application server capabilities in Windows Server codenamed “Dublin.”

1. Windows Communication Foundation 4.0:   Microsoft is adding new capabilities to WCF to further simplify the creation of RESTful services, including REST Singleton & Collection Services, ATOM Feed and Publishing Protocol Services, and support for an HTTP Plain XML Service.  Additional messaging and correlation enhancements enable customers to work with the most recent transports and protocols.  By further extending WCF to enable seamless integration between WF and WCF and enabling a unified XAML model, developers can build an entire application in declarative XAML code from presentation to data to services to workflow.

2. Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0: Applications built using WF will realize significant improvements in performance (on the order of ten-fold performance enhancements) and scalability.  There are also new workflow models and pre-built activities (PowerShell, messaging, etc.). An updated visual designer will be easier to use by developers to use and be easier to rehost by ISVs.

3. “Dublin”: This consists of a set of enhancements to Windows Server application server capabilities that – when combined with WCF/WF 4.0 –represent a major step forward for our application server. “Dublin” will offer greater scalability and easier manageability, and will extend Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide a standard host for applications that use workflow or communications. 

Taken together, these enhancements will extend the power of Microsoft’s application server and simplify the development, deployment, configuration, management, and scalability of composite applications. 

Microsoft will be providing a first CTP of these technologies at PDC, and we encourage customers and partners to take the opportunity to evaluate and provide feedback on these new capabilities.  We will also be releasing some of the REST enhancements separately via Codeplex to allow for early trial and adoption via our WCF REST Starter Kit.

Key Features

Windows Communication Foundation 4.0

Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0

Windows Server "Dublin" technologies

RESTful enhancements

· Simplifying the building of REST Singleton & Collection Services, ATOM Feed and Publishing Protocol Services, and HTTP Plain XML Services using WCF

· WCF REST Starter Kit to be released on Codeplex to get early feedback

Messaging enhancements

· Transports - UDP, MQ, Local in-process

· Protocols - SOAP over UDP, WS-Discovery, WS-BusinessActivity, WS-I BP 1.2

· Duplex durable messaging

Correlation enhancements

· Content and context driven, One-way support

Declarative Workflow Services

· Seamless integration between WF and WCF and unified XAML model

· Build entire application in XAML, from presentation to data to services to workflow

Significant improvements in performance and scalability

· Ten-fold improvement in performance

New workflow flow-control models and pre-built activities

· Flowcharts, rules

· Expanded built-in activities – PowerShell, database, messaging, etc.

Enhancements in workflow modeling

· Persistence control, transaction flow, compensation support, data binding and scoping

· Rules composable and seamlessly integrated with workflow engine

Updated visual designer

· Easier to use by end-users

· Easier to rehost by ISVs

· Ability to debug XAML

Provide standard host for WF and WCF applications   

Pre-built developer services

· Message-based correlation

· Message forwarding service

· Content-based message routing

· Compensation service for long-running transactions

Greater scalability and easier manageability

· Enable scale-out of stateful workflow applications

· Persisting and rehydrating state for high scalability

· Enhanced management and monitoring functions

· Tracking store for workflow events

Supports “Oslo” modeling platform