With some pride I wanted to let everyone know that today we have shipped the first version of WSS3 Workflow Tools, an open source framework for developing SharePoint workflows more easily.
For those who haven't heard about Chris and my efforts, let me explain a little about this project. WSS3 Workflow Tools helps developers create better WSS 3.0 workflows by providing a development framework and by integrating into the Visual Studio development environment. The primary focus for this first release is on making it easier to create ASP.NET workflow forms. We provide all common infrastructure and distill each form into two simple methods; load and save. Besides hiding all the complexity behind these two simple methods, the second benefit is allowing visual design of workflow forms, an obvious boost in developer productivity. We have implemented visual designers for InputFormSection and InputFormControl amongst others.
The first release consists of:
- Base classes for all workflow form types
- UserControl framework, quite similar (but better …eh..) to what InfoPath is providing in MOSS
- Visual designers for InputForm, InputFormSection, InputFormControl and ButtonSection
- Visual Studio templates for VS2005 / VS2008, for all forms and controls
- Easy to use installer
You can get the bits on CodePlex, www.codeplex.com/wss3workflow/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx
Please feel free to try it out, and even better, let Chris or me know what you think. We feel that this product is highly useful for SharePoint developers and is of a very high quality (2000 beta downloads, 1 or 2 issues).
Chris and I will be creating documentation, blog posts and videos on how to use this product. Stay tuned to learn more about how you can use this product, and yes, I'll fix the videos too! J