Are workflows good for web service business logic?
- by JL
I have a series of complex web services that are getting used in my SOA application. I am generally happy with the overall design of the application, but as the complexity grows, I was wondering if Windows Workflow might be the way to go.
My motivations for this are that you can get a graphic representation of the applications functionality, so it would be easier to maintain the code by its business function, rather than what I have now ( a standard 3 tier class library structure).
My concerns are:
I would be inducing an abstraction in my code, and I don't want to spend time having to deal with possible WF quirks or bugs.
I've never worked with WF, is it a solid technology?
I don't want to hit any WF limitations that prevent me from developing my solution.
Is a WF even the right solution for the task?
Simply put I am considering writing my next web service in this app to call a WF, and in this work flow manage the tasks the web service needs to carry out. I think it will be much neater and easier to maintain than a regular c# class library (maintainable by namespaces, classes ).
Do you think this is the right thing to do? I'm hoping for positive feedback on WF (.net 4), but brutal honestly at the end of the day would help more.
Thanks
