If one were to want to extend the WinWF designer by, say, adding a friendlier, knowledge-worker-oriented UI on top of it, what would be the recommended way of doing so? I know I've read here and there that this is an expected scenario for WinWF, but I must be searching with the wrong keywords because I can't seem to find much information about how to do it.

So far, the most viable solution I've come up with is to build a DSL that would transform domain information into WinWF XAML and code. I'm not at all unhappy with this route (I think DSLs rock), but I also want to be sure I'm not missing anything that might make this a whole lot easier.

Thanks.

Hi Ambrose,

One way to do this is to build your own design tool that edits (or exports) the XAML representing the Workflow model. This is recommended for higher level users creating and editing workflows for specific types of applications.

Another way to do this is to extend the designer that we provide as part of the workflow runtime. You can write your own activity designers and you can create themes for the design surface. The designer we use in Visual Studio 2005 can be rehosted in your application. Lab 10 in the WF Beta 2 Hands on Labs demonstrates rehosting of the designer and Lab 2 demonstrates creating an activity designer.

Download the hands on labs from http://msdn.microsoft.com/workflow

Regards,
Paul