Grigori Melnik: Thoughts on Agile Software Engineering and Beyond : VS2008

Just Released: Microsoft Enterprise Library 4.1 and Unity 1.2

gmelnik — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:17:00 GMT

From the floor of the Los Angeles Convention Center, I am writing this message in between many exciting PDC sessions and conversations with customers of Enterprise Library and other p&p assets.

Microsoft patterns & practices is pleased to announce the twin release of Microsoft Enterprise Library 4.1 and Unity 1.2.

What’s New in Enterprise Library v4.1?

This release of Enterprise Library is a service release that includes the following:

– Unity interception mechanism and integration of the Policy Injection Application Block with the Unity Application Block;

– Performance improvements;

– Usability improvements to the configuration tool;

– Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 support;

– Bug fixes.

For the detailed list of all changes, see About This Release of Enterprise Library.

What’s New in Unity v1.2?

− Added an interception mechanism (extension);

− Added two instance interceptors (TransparentProxyInterceptor, InterfaceInterceptor) and one type interceptor (VirtualMethodInterceptor);

− Improved support for generics;

− Added support for arrays;

− Registered names are now available as an ObjectBuilder policy so that you can do a ResolveAll from within the strategy chain. The container automatically registers itself with itself;

− Added PerThreadLifeTimeManager;

− Bug fixes;

− Performance improvements.

How to Get Started?

If you are new to Enterprise Library:

− read the Introduction to the Enterprise Library;

− download, compile, and run the QuickStart samples —study the code;

− read through the related QuickStart Walkthroughs and “Key Scenarios” sections of the documentation;

− practice the Hands-On Labs;

− review the source and unit tests for deeper understanding;

− view webcasts on Enterprise Library and Unity, review demo code.

If you already know and love the Enterprise Library:

− check out the change log for this release;

− upgrade to V4.1—no code change is required—simply update the references to the corresponding application block assemblies and to the common assemblies;

− download the updated QuickStarts and run through the Unity-integrated examples to get the flavor of new dependency injection style of using the Enterprise Library;

− review the documentation on how to use interception with Unity;

− view webcasts on Enterprise Library and Unity, review demo code.

Happy Coding!

Enterprise Library 4.0 for Visual Studio 2008 released!

gmelnik — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:16:00 GMT

Friends, I am extremely excited to announce the release of the Enterprise Library 4.0 for Visual Studio 2008. Congratulations to the team!

Quick Links:

– MSDN site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/entlib

– Community Forum: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=119312

– Community Extensions: http://codeplex.com/entlibcontrib

What is Enterprise Library?

Enterprise Library is a collection of reusable software components (application blocks) designed to assist software developers with common enterprise development challenges (such as logging, validation, caching, exception handling, and many others). Application blocks are a type of guidance encapsulating Microsoft recommended development practices; they are provided as source code plus documentation that can be used "as is," extended, or modified by developers to use on complex, enterprise-level line-of-business development projects.

Goals for Enterprise Library

Enterprise Library is a collection of application blocks intended for use by developers who build complex, enterprise-level applications. Enterprise Library is used when building applications that are typically to be deployed widely and to interoperate with other applications and systems. In addition, they generally have strict security, reliability, and performance requirements. The goals of Enterprise Library are the following:

Consistency. All Enterprise Library application blocks feature consistent design patterns and implementation approaches.

Extensibility. All application blocks include defined extensibility points that allow developers to customize the behavior of the application blocks by adding their own code.

Ease of use. Enterprise Library offers numerous usability improvements, including a graphical configuration tool, a simpler installation procedure, and clearer and more complete documentation and samples.

Integration. Enterprise Library application blocks are designed to work well together or individually.

What’s New in v4.0?

This release of Enterprise Library includes the following:

– Integration with the Unity Application Block

– Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) 2.0 support and improved instrumentation

– Performance improvements (particularly, in the Logging Application Block)

– Pluggable Cache Managers

– Visual Studio 2008 support

– Bug fixes

Note: existing public APIs (v3.1) are still supported.

The Application Block Software Factory and the Strong Naming Guidance Package are not included in this release but are available as a separate download. Thus, there is no longer a dependency on Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX).

For the detailed list of all changes, see About This Release of Enterprise Library.

Enterprise Library by Numbers:

2003	Year when the first application block was released
2005	Year when v1 of Enterprise library was released.
1,290,000	Total number of downloads of Enterprise Library since the first release.
»470,000	Total number of visits to the community site (since Dec 2006 when the Codeplex site was launched)
»1,600	Number of discussion threads on the community site
54%	NPS (Net Promoter Score)
6	Number of Enterprise Library releases (v1.0, v1.1, v2.0, v3.0, v3.1, v4.0)
9	Number of Application blocks in Enterprise Library 4.0
19	Number of weekly iterations to build Enterprise Library 4.0
401	Number of interim builds of Enterprise Library 4.0
»900	Number of pages of documentation in V4.0
»8,000	Number of automated tests cases in V4.0
»100,000	Number of executable lines of code in V4.0

Getting Started

If you are new to the Enterprise Library:

− read the Introduction to the Enterprise Library;

− download, compile and run the QuickStart samples—study the code;

− read through the related QuickStart Walkthroughs and “Key Scenarios” sections of the documentation;

− practice the Hands-On Labs;

− join the webcast in June 2008 (the exact date will be announced on the Enterprise Library landing page).

If you already know and love the Enterprise Library:

− check out the change log for this release;

− upgrade to V4.0—no code change is required—simply update the references to the corresponding application block assemblies and to the common assemblies;

− download the updated QuickStarts and run through the Unity-integrated examples to get the flavor of new dependency injection style of using the Enterprise Library;

− join the webcast in June 2008 (I’ll announce the exact date later).

Happy Coding!

Information on Microsoft patterns & practices

– Visit us at http://msdn.microsoft.com/practices/ to see the full line of existing patterns & practices.

Enterprise Library 4.0 March 2008 CTP released

gmelnik — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:36:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce the release of the EntLib 4.0 March 2008 CTP and invite your feedback.

This release has been adapted to work with WMI version 2.0 and version 3.5 of the .NET Framework.

Enterprise Library 4.0 has the Allow Partially-Trusted Caller attribute (APTCA) on all assemblies. This means that you can call the methods of Enterprise Library and the application blocks from an application running in a partial trust environment. You can do this with the signed assemblies provided with Enterprise Library. There is no longer any requirement, as there was in version 3.x, to recompile the source code then either use the unsigned binaries or strong-name them yourself.

The Caching Application Block has been refactored to allow developers to replace the CacheManager class with other implementations, including the ones offered by the distributed cache solution providers. This does not affect the API of the application block.

There are also additions in functionality to the Logging Application Block, the Validation Application Block, the Exception Handling Application Block. For details see the change log on the release page.

Note: This community preview does not include the integration with Unity or the integrated Visual Studio 2008 config tool. These features are plannned for the final release.

EntLib4.0 March 2008 CTP download site

We look forward to your feedback!

-- Grigori

GAX/GAT February 2008 Final Release

gmelnik — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:42:00 GMT

The Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX) expands the capabilities of Visual Studio by allowing architects and developers to run guidance packages, such as those included in Software Factories, which automate key development tasks from within the Visual Studio environment.

The Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT) is a guidance package which allows architects to author rich, integrated user experiences for reusable assets including Software Factories, frameworks, and patterns. The resulting Guidance Packages, composed of templates, wizards and recipes, help developers build solutions in a way consistent with the architecture guidance. In order to use the Guidance Automation Toolkit, you must first install the Guidance Automation Extensions.

New In This Release

The February 2008 Release of the Guidance Automation Extensions and Guidance Automation Toolkit has the following improvements to the earlier release, the July 2007 Community Technology Preview:

− Support for Visual Studio 2005 and/or Visual Studio 2008. This version of GAX will run on either version of Visual Studio. If you don’t have GAX installed, you can install GAX to support Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 or both. The installer will automatically determine which versions of Visual Studio you have installed.

− Updating GAX.

§ If you have a previous version of GAX installed on Visual Studio 2005, it will be updated to the February 2008 release of GAX. You are no longer required to uninstall GAX and the corresponding guidance packages.

§ Guidance packages that are registered with the previous version of GAX will automatically be registered with the current version of GAX (GAT, however, will require an update – see the information below).

− Visual Studio side-by-side support. If you have Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 running side-by-side, you can have GAX running against both versions. Guidance packages developed and registered through GAT for a specific version of Visual Studio (2005 or 2008) will only be available in that version. Guidance packages designed for Visual Studio 2005 and installed through an MSI will only be available in Visual Studio 2005. Installation of any guidance package through an MSI that does not explicitly prompt for the version of Visual Studio to install to, will install to Visual Studio 2005 by default.

− Improved Uninstaller. During GAX uninstallation, you can click the Check Installed Packages button for the list of all registered guidance packages. If you proceed with GAX removal, the uninstaller will only attempt to automatically uninstall those guidance packages that were registered manually using GAT. If you have guidance packages that were installed through an MSI(s), you should not proceed with removing GAX. Instead, you should use the Add or Remove Programs tool to uninstall these guidance packages.

In addition, this release of GAX has the following fixes:

− A blank error message was displayed if you attempted to uninstall GAX before uninstalling GAT or other registered packages when running Windows Vista.

− A FileLoadException error was displayed if you used the Guidance Package Manager on Visual Studio 2008 Professional.

− GAX and GAT would not properly validate and recognize custom Visual Studio project types when unfolding templates for custom project types registered only in the experimental hive.

Downloads

GAX and GAT must be downloaded and installed separately. GAT requires that GAX is installed first.

If you have a previous version of GAX installed on Visual Studio 2005, it will be updated to the February 2008 release of GAX. You are no longer required to uninstall GAX and the corresponding guidance packages (with an exception of GAT, which must be re-installed).

Enjoy!

Enterprise Library product backlog

gmelnik — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:00:00 GMT

I've posted the current EntLib4 product backlog with prioritized stories on Codeplex: http://www.codeplex.com/entlib/Wiki/View.aspx?title=EntLib4%20Backlog

There are two main areas we are working on: introducing the dependency injection block (which I blogged about in my previous post ) and making enhancements to the existing blocks. As always, community feedback is welcomed.

-- Grigori

Planning the next release of Enterprise Library

gmelnik — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:47:00 GMT

We, at patterns & practices, are planning a release of Enterprise Library for Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas). It will happen at around the same time Visual Studio 2008 is out (Feb 2008 as per our roadmap). At a minimum, you can expect the current functionality ported to Orcas.

In order to identify potential opportunities for the next release, I would like to understand better the ways people in the trenches are extending EntLib today. I’d also like some feedback on app development scenarios that are hard today and that you want us to enable. Please submit your comments through this 10-question survey. Thanks for your input!

New GAX/GAT July 2007 Released

gmelnik — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:41:00 GMT

I am pleased to announce the release of the July 2007 CTP of the Guidance Automation Toolkit and Guidance Automation Extensions.
(Note, the updated MSIs are published and available for download; while the MSDN page may still be saying February 2007 - that will be fixed as soon as MSDN changes propagate)

New in this release

It is a minor update to the previous February 2007 CTP, and includes the following fixes and improvements:

Support for both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 Betas 1 and 2 (Orcas)
Improved installer (using The Windows Installer XML (WiX))
Support for Registration as Normal User (RANU) and experimental hive
Enhanced support for installing Visual Basic templates

Do I need to upgrade?

Upgrade is recommended but not required as there are no critical fixes. If you wish to design and run guidance packages on VS2008, this version of GAX/GAT must be installed.

How do I upgrade?

If you are running previous releases of GAX, you must

1) unregister all existing guidance packages (including GAT),

2) uninstall previous version of GAX

3) install the new version of GAX

4) reinstall the guidance packages.

This is far from ideal installation experience, but improving it is not trivial and was beyond the scope of this release.

Will existing guidance packages and software factories still work with this release?

Yes, if you run them on Visual Studio 2005.

However, any current guidance packages built against February 2007 CTP under Visual Studio 2005 (including all software factories provided by Microsoft patterns & practices on the date of this release - Web Client Software Factory, Smart Client Software Factory, Mobile Client Software Factory, and Web Service Software Factory) will NOT work on Orcas. Should you plan to design and run your own factories/guidance packages on Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, those will need to be specifically designed as such.

What kind of enhanced support is there for installing Visual Basic templates?

We have modified the GAX installation classes so they will not try registering VB templates at installation time if VB is not installed on the box. Previous versions of GAX did try this, and if no VB was in the box the entire installation failed. Now the installation will not fail and VB templates will simply not be shown.

Why is this still branded a CTP?

Like the previous releases, this new release is still labeled a Community Technology Preview. This is because the deliverables are still unsupported. Keep in mind that both GAX and GAT are only designed to run on development machines, not production servers. That said, we've gone through the same quality gates with GAT and GAX as we do with any other p&p release, and we are confident we have a high quality release.

Where do I get more information or post questions?

On the community forum: http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showforum.aspx?forumid=78&siteid=1