What is new in .NET 4.0?

The new version of .NET framework 4.0 should provide set of new features to target market demands of the near future. Some of these demands have been described in the "Magic Quadrant" post. And here is the list of features which targets connecting systems scenarios only:

WCF 4.0

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

Workflow Foundation 4.0

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

Application Server (Dublin)

Provide standard host for WF and WCF applications

- First CTP will be provided on PDC. The community feedback will influence the RTM.

- Application Server “Dublin” will first become available after the release of the .NET Framework 4.0 and Visual Studio “10”.

- Application Server “Dublin” will initially be made available for download and use by Windows Server customers; later, “Dublin” will be included in future releases of Windows Server.

- Application Server “Dublin” will extend Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide a standard host for applications that use workflow or communications.

- It will provide support for Oslo modeling platform.

- It will support existing .NET apps.

- It will support integration with BizTalk Server (in this context called "Integration Server").

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

- More about this at PDC :)

The official story about these topics can be found in this Steven's post. He is a good guy and director of product management for Microsoft's Connected Systems. Few more interesting articles about OSLO are here.