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

Just released - Microsoft Enterprise Library 6

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:55:00 GMT

Five months ago we formulated our vision for the new version of Enterprise Library. Now we are delivering on it. I’m excited to announce the latest release of Microsoft Enterprise Library: version 6.

What is Enterprise Library?

Enterprise Library is made up of application blocks, each aimed at managing specific crosscutting concerns. Crosscutting concerns are those tasks that you need to accomplish in several places in your application. When trying to manage crosscutting concerns there is often the risk that you/different team members will implement slightly different solutions for each task at each location in your application, or that you will just forget them altogether. Writing entries to a system log file or Windows Azure table storage, dealing with transient error conditions and validating user input are typical crosscutting concerns. While there are several approaches to managing them, the Enterprise Library application blocks make it a whole lot easier by providing generic and configurable functionality that you can centralize and manage.

Enterprise Library application blocks are standalone. They work well together, but you only have to get the ones that you need. They are also customizable and extensible, so you can extend them to provide what you need in your specific contexts. You can choose to use it as a seedwork and grow your own library, which you can later reuse and sell. We ship under MS-PL, so this is allowed.

What are the main themes for this release?

Simplifying the library all around
Embracing semantic logging
Increasing resiliency to errors
Enhancing Unity type registration
Supporting Windows Store apps (Unity, Topaz)
Streamlining programmatic configuration of all blocks
Integrating with other technologies (ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Web API)
Improving ease of learning, ease of experimentation (fast start), and ease of use

What’s in the box?

New block

Semantic Logging Application Block (v1.0)

New programmatic configuration
Updated 7 blocks:

Data Access Application Block
Exception Handling Application Block
Logging Application Block
Policy Injection Application Block
Transient Fault Handling Application Block
Validation Application Block
Unity Application Block/DI Container (v3.0)

Configuration console (largely unchanged since v5)

As usual, we are shipping not only the binaries, but also the source code and test cases (unit, integration). To see the details of what have changed and deployment instructions, see the Release Notes.

The diagram below depicts all application blocks and their dependency on the Common package (needed to support configuration tool experience) and optional interblock dependencies.

Additionally, in the next couple of weeks we’ll be shipping a reference implementation and several Quickstarts to showcase how the Enterprise Library can be used in certain scenarios.

How to get it?

Our primary shipping channel for code is NuGet. There are 27 NuGet packages. Search for Unity or EntLib inside NuGet Package Manager.

Additionally, we’ve made all deliverables available as self-extractable zip packages via Microsoft Download Center.

Our guidance deliverables are available on Codeplex today. After post-production work is completed, they will be published on MSDN. You will also be able to order the hardcopies of the Developer’s Guides or get them in PDF, Epub or Mobi formats.

How to get started?

Whether you are experienced with Enterprise Library or new to it, we have guidance to help you make the most out of this release:

Dependency Injection with Unity – new Developer’s guide (preview on Codeplex)
Updated Developer’s Guide to Enterprise Library (preview on Codeplex)
Updated reference documentation (preview on Codeplex)
Reference implementation (v5 and v6) (available in May)
Reference API (on MSDN)
Quickstarts (available in May)
New Migration Guide to help you move from v5 to v6
Videos (on Channel 9)

The table below will help you orientate:

Do I have to upgrade?

Strictly speaking, no. If you are happy with Enterprise Library 5.0, you can continue using that version. If the new and improved features of Enterprise Library 6.0 appeal to you, then you would want to migrate. Note: Enterprise Library 6.0 targets .NET4.5 framework only. Enterprise Library 5.0 works fine on .NET3.5, .NET4.0 as well as .NET4.5. So, in order for you to move to .NET4.5, you don’t have to upgrade.

How to get help and provide feedback?

Many people provided feedback on our vision, our backlog and CTPs. We thank you all.

If you’d like to provide further feedback, please post it via the Codeplex forum. This is where you can also get support. We have a dedicated sustained engineering team monitoring the forum regularly. To report a bug, use online Issue Tracker.

If you have a story of how your team leverages EntLib and would like to share it with the broader community, please contact us. We’ll be happy to work with you on a case study.

Happy coding!

Unity Configuration - Registration by Convention

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:03:26 GMT

To make container setup easier and less verbose, we are adding a new feature in Unity 3.0 – registration by convention.

What is the Registration by Convention feature?

This feature (also referred to as auto-registration) is intended to simplify your type registrations. Rather than specify each type mapping individually (lots of container.RegisterType<IFoo, Foo>()) , you can direct the Unity container to scan a collection of assemblies and then automatically register multiple mappings based on a set of rules that identify the types and their locations.

The following code shows example usage of the current implementation of registration by convention:

using (var container = new UnityContainer()) {

container.RegisterTypes(

AllClasses.FromAssembliesInBasePath(),

MappedTo.MatchingInterface,

WithName.Default,

WithLifetime.ContainerControlled);

}

What conventions are supported?

A convention must specify which available types should be mapped in the Unity container as well as how those type mappings are defined. Currently, the available conventions work by specifying the following rules:

1. Identify the list of assemblies to scan for types to be registered: you can provide your own list of assemblies, use only currently loaded assemblies, or use assemblies that reside in the base path of your application. You can further filter the list of types by names, suffixes or other predicates by using LINQ queries or extension methods. This first step results in a list of types to potentially register with the container. By the way, by default, all system assemblies will be skipped – you have to opt-in for them to be included. Note: you don’t need to start from our helper method for loading types. You can use any method to obtain an enumeration of types, even as simple as an array of literal types.

2. Optionally, specify which types (typically interfaces or abstract classes) you want the container to resolve to each of the types identified in step 1. Currently, conventions include:

a. Create mappings where the following naming convention is followed: type Foo and interface IFoo.

b. Map each type to all of the interfaces it implements.

c. Map each type to all of the interfaces it implements where those interfaces are in the same assembly as the type.

3. Optionally, specify whether to use a named registration. In this case Unity uses the type name as the name of the registration.

4. Optionally, specify which lifetime manager to use for the registrations.

5. Optionally, identify any members of the type that should be injected.

What about Windows Store Apps?

The registration by convention will also be supported by Unity for Windows Store Apps with some limitations enforced by the framework, such as you won’t be able to scan the loaded assemblies and you won’t be able to scan a particular folder, but you can assemblies packaged with the app.

What other specific conventions should we support?

As always, we seek your feedback on the new features. As we are finalizing the implementation of the registration by convention, it would be helpful to get your thoughts on the following:

1. Do you see a requirement for out-of-the-box automatic creation of mappings for abstract types as well as interfaces?

2. Do you see a requirement for out-of-the-box support for scanning other locations for assemblies? E.g. arbitrary folders.

3. In scanning the assemblies in some location, would you want to have a way of annotating specific assemblies with an optional attribute?

4. Do you see any requirement for context specific conventions? Such as ASP.NET MVC, WCF, etc. Or is Unity auto-wiring sufficient in these cases?

5. If you are providing injection members, some of those will be associated with the “from” type, but most will be associated with the “to” type. Do you see the need to be able to specify more fine-grained injection members, or is the support for “to” types sufficient?

Enterprise Library 6.0 - Vision/Scope

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:50:14 GMT

TL;DR version

This post is an overview of the direction the patterns & practices team is taking with the next version of Microsoft Enterprise Library. Feel free to scroll down for the specific product backlog themes or just visit our Uservoice site.

Exploration and preparation

After a couple of months of exploration, we have finalized our plans for the next major version of Microsoft Enterprise Library. We have analyzed a sea of information from various sources, including:

numerous discussions with subject-matter experts and EntLib users
discussions with the members of the advisory board
discussions with various Microsoft product groups
suggestions and votes on our Uservoice site
IssueTracker items
MSDN, Codeplex and StackOverflow forums
suggestions from our sustained engineering and Premier support teams
review of remaining stories from the previous product backlog (that didn’t get done in v5.0)
team brainstorming, categorizing, filtering
responses to our blog posts
comments in social media over the past 18 months
direct email communications with the product owner and members of the dev team
observations of users in action
log analysis (popularity of certain parts of Enterprise Library based on number of downloads and page views of the corresponding pages on MSDN)
user ranking and commenting on MSDN articles
satisfaction exit survey data
logging scenarios survey data
conversations with //Build attendees
downloads and comments on the EntLib related videos on Channel9.

We thank everyone who provided their thoughtful feedback.

We have now created a new Advisory Board, presented our vision to the leadership team, got business consensus on the themes and an approval to go ahead with the project. Our dev team is formed and we are excited about the project.

The Vision – simplification throughout

Here’s the formal vision for Microsoft Enterprise Library 6.0:

For developers, solution architects, DevOps and IT Pros building, extending and maintaining LOB systems on Microsoft platforms (.NET Framework 4.5 and Windows Azure), Microsoft Enterprise Library 6.0 will provide guidance and reusable components designed to encapsulate recommended practices for end-to-end application development in .NET which facilitate ease of use, consistency, and extensibility.

Let me share with you a couple of laptop stickers that I designed for EntLib5.0 and 6.0. They are meant to epitomize this project vision.

Here’s the one for 5.0 (on the left).

As you can see the key message here was to position EntLib as a developer accelerator meant to do heaving lifting for you. The Enterprise Library design has traditionally been guided by the principles of:

Consistency: Application blocks are written with and used in common patterns
Extensibility: Pluggable extension points
Ease of use: Config tool, tons of docs, simple interfaces, labs, webcasts
Integration: Work well together or separately

The vision of EntLib blocks addressing common-cross cutting concerns and promoting code reuse hasn’t changed. We still want to encourage devs to focus less on the plumbing and more on what matters to the stakeholders – business logic and overall user experience. However, the order of the guiding design principles has changed. Our primary consideration now (as can be seen from the stated vision above) is the ease of use and the fast start.

The metaphor for v6.0 is this one on the right.

As you can see, what we are envisioning is to make the Enterprise Library much lighter. This means deprecating the blocks that are not relevant anymore due to the modern capabilities of the platform itself (Caching, Security and Crypto), removing lots of historic cruft which we were carrying forward to support backward compatibility, and generally simplifying the underlying architecture. For example, there are currently four different ways to get your Enterprise Library objects. This is not needed – so we’ll simplify this and offer 1 or 2 recommended approaches. Simplification also means minimizing the number of interblock dependencies. We are going to emphasize that each application block can be used standalone. The vision is that if you download the Logging Application Block package, you will not need to marry into an extended family of other packages (like EnterpriseLibrary Common -> Unity Interception -> Unity -> Service Location). It will be just one package with an optional dependency on the configuration package (if and only if you want to use declarative configuration).

We are also making a substantial investment in tackling the configuration complexity. Our ultimate goal is to make it so simple, straightforward, and intuitive that no configuration tool is required at all. This is while assisting DevOps and IT/Pros in deploying, managing, and supporting their systems that are built with EntLib application blocks. This is a very ambitious goal. We feel with your feedback we’ll be able to pull it off. I will be writing a separate post dedicated specifically to our plans around configuration.

One other important aspect of the new release is that we plan to target both on-prem and cloud naturally, with no tension. This includes the configuration and all application blocks (including the Transient Fault Handling Application Block and the Autoscaling Application Block). This is also worth a separate post.

Target personas

These are our primary target personas with the corresponding goals:

Devs new to EntLib:

– Get going fast!

Alumni EntLib devs who are not using it today

– Reignite my passion for EntLib, make me see the value-adds; debunk the myth of all-or-nothing deal.

Current loyal EntLib fans

– Provide smooth migration experience, continuity and support.

DevOps and IT Pros

– Simplify deployment and operations by reducing the chance of errors.

Product backlog themes

Currently, our product backlog is organized by the following broad themes:

Fast start & learnability
Configuration
Architectural refactoring
Semantic Logging (new block!)
Generalizing the Transient Fault Handling Application Block (“Topaz”)
Autoscaling Application Block (“Wasabi”) improvements
Unity improvements
Logging Application Block improvements
Validation Application Block improvements

Individual user stories can be found on the Uservoice.

Target framework

Let me make it clear: Enterprise Library 6.0 is primarily about the back-end story. We will target the .NET 4.5 framework and all platforms that .NET 4.5 is supported on, including:

Windows 8 Desktop (no Windows RT except for Unity)
Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Windows Server 2012 (64-bit)
Windows Sever 2008 R2 (64-bit)
Windows Server 2008 SP2 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Cloud-specific features will target the latest Windows Azure SDK.

Unity 3.0 is the only application block which will have a WinRT version for now. We have already released the preview of it. During this project, we’ll do the proper test pass, security review and other quality gates.

How can you help?

Please continue to comment/vote on use stories on our Uservoice site. We definitely appreciate your input and would like our backlog priorities and sprints to continue to be informed and driven by your feedback.

If you feel strongly about engaging with us more closely, consider joining our advisory board. We are looking for both experience EntLib users and enthusiastic novices.

Unity 3.0 Preview for .NET Framework 4.5 and WinRT

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:51:00 GMT

UPDATE 8/13/2012 The Codeplex site has been updated with self-extractables. See http://unity.codeplex.com/releases/view/92699

Last year, we shipped a Preview of the Unity 3.0 port to .NET4.5 Developer Preview. Now, after the final versions of both profiles of the .NET Framework 4.5 have RTM’ed, we are releasing an updated version of the port. Please see the Release Notes.

The port is available today via NuGet. We will also update the Codeplex site with a zip including source and symbols. Please keep in mind that the NuGet packages are built as “Prerelease”. When installing them via the NuGet Package Manager, make sure to select “Include Prerelease” from the drop-down near the Sort-by field to see the package in the public NuGet repository.

As in the earlier preview, there are no new features in this release. All new features (registration by convention, web-specific lifetimes like Per-HttpRequest, etc.) along with further perf optimizations are planned to be done as part of the Enterprise Library v6.0 project. You are invited to submit and vote on feature requests through our Uservoice site.

Unity 2.1 - August 2012 update

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 21:49:00 GMT

Today we’ve shipped via NuGet an optional update to Unity (2.1.505.2) which includes the following fixes:

1. Addressing a thread safety issue:
http://unity.codeplex.com/discussions/328841

2. Improving debugging experience on System.Threading.SynchronizationLockException:
https://entlib.uservoice.com/forums/89245-general/suggestions/2377307-fix-the-system-threading-synchronizationlockexcep

3. Improving debugging experience through better error messaging when a type cannot be loaded:
http://unity.codeplex.com/workitem/9223

4. Supporting a scenario of performing a BuildUp() on an existing instance of a class that doesn’t have a public constructor:
http://unity.codeplex.com/workitem/9460

To make the update experience as simple as possible for users and to avoid the need for assembly binding redirects, we chose to only increment the assembly file version, not the .NET assembly version.

Unity 3.0 Preview for .NET 4.5

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:47:04 GMT

Unity has become a popular DI container with a solid base of users (last time I checked, there were 300K+ cumulative downloads of the Unity container through all channels – MSDN, Codeplex, and NuGet). Unity runs in the heart of Microsoft Exchange and Bing and many other systems. For all of you Unity fans and enthusiasts building Metro style apps for Windows 8 Developer Preview, we have ported the Unity dependency injection container to .NET 4.5 framework.

The Unity 3.0.1026.0 Preview enables Unity to work on .NET 4.5 with both the WinRT and desktop profiles. The major changes include:

Unity projects updated to target .NET 4.5
Dynamic build plans modified to use compiled lambda expressions instead of Reflection.Emit
Converting reflection to use the new TypeInfo for reflection.
Projects updated to work with the Microsoft Visual Studio 2011 Preview.

Notes/Known Issues:

The Microsoft.Practices.Unity.UnityServiceLocator class cannot be used under the WinRT profile because the CommonServiceLocator cannot be used under the WinRT profile currently.
Only the core Unity libraries will work with the WinRT profile. The Unity.Configuration, Unity.Interception, and Unity.Interception.Configuration assemblies will not work under the WinRT profile.
We removed the Silverlight versions for this preview.
Only unit tests from the Unity 2.1 suite have been verified. Full scale testing is to be done for the final release.
The preview release refers to the Unity 2.x documentation set.

Note, there are no new features in this preview. All new features (registration by convention, web-specific lifetimes like Per-HttpRequest, etc.) along with further perf optimizations are planned to be done as part of the Enterprise Library v6.0 (codenamed “Reinvented”) project. You are invited to submit and vote on features requests through our Uservoice site.

In the meantime, enjoy the Unity 3.0 preview and please provide feedback on it.

Kudos go to Bob Brumfield for he is the one who’s actually done the bulk of work on this preview release. Also, I’d like to acknowledge David Hill, Chris Tavares and Fernando Simonazzi who helped with the approach, code review, and provided early feedback.

Finally, you can get the Unity 3.0 Preview from Codeplex.

Interception in Silverlight demo

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 01:20:54 GMT

Interception has been released as a Unity container extension since v1.2 (October 2008). However, it was not available on Silverlight. Until now.

In this Channel9 screencast, we discuss interception as a code modularization technique for dealing with cross-cutting concerns. We contrast 2 types of interception - instance and type interception.

Using the newly implemented interception support provided by the Silverlight Integration Pack, we show a virtual method interceptor in action (which can intercept any methods declared virtual on your type). We also show the nuts and bolts of implementing custom interception behaviors and connecting them into a chain-of-responsibility.

Though the demo targets Silverlight, it can also be helpful for those learning how to take advantage of Unity Interception in their desktop CLR apps.

See also: sample code used in the screencast, other Silverlight Integration Pack demos.

Hands-on Labs for Enterprise Library 5.0 and Unity 2.0 Released

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Tue, 25 May 2010 04:51:28 GMT

In the continued commitment to our users - .NET enterprise developers, we are releasing a fully updated set of hands-on labs today. These are built by developers for developers! The set includes exercises for all application blocks as well as Unity, Interception and complex configuration scenarios. Once you download the msi, you can choose which labs to install (the installer simply unpacks selected labs). You can do them in any order. All labs come with solutions and detailed instructions. C# and VB.NET are available. You can download the labs from here.

Please let us know what you think.

Also, if you develop your own tutorials, screencasts, webcasts, tutorials or other learning materials, feel free to let me know. I’d link to them from the EntLib’s codeplex page dedicated to learning.

- Grigori

Enterprise Library 5.0/Unity 2.0 – second batch of deliverables

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:50:00 GMT

We’ve released the following on MSDN today:

Enterprise Library 5.0 Final Doc Set (includes the topics on Unity, Interception and Advanced Configuration Scenarios)
Unity 2.0 (release notes)
Unity 2.0 for Silverlight (release notes)
Unity 2.0 Final Doc Set

Available from the landing pages:

On to the next piece now – Hands-on Labs…

Don’t overlook Enterprise Library 5.0 Migration Guide

Grigori Melnik MSFT — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:52:50 GMT

Enterprise Library users’ community, hello!

The 5.0 release has received quite the welcome from so many of you with many thousands in downloads and hundreds of tweets and blog posts just in 3 days after the release.

I would like to draw your attention to one piece of guidance we’re providing as a part of v5.0 release. It is the migration guide. This is a part of our ongoing commitment of addressing learnability of Enterprise Library and helping you to get going with it quickly.

This guide explains the opportunities open to you for migrating applications built using Enterprise Library versions 3.1, 4.0, and 4.1, and versions 1.0 and 1.1 of Unity to use version 5.0 or Enterprise Library and version 2.0 of Unity. It also serves as an aid for initial evaluation of effort required to move to 5.0.

Because individual application scenarios and environments vary, and the way Enterprise Library and Unity are used within existing applications will differ considerably, this guide cannot guarantee success in every situation. However, it contains practical guidance that is based on knowledge gathered during the development of Enterprise Library 5.0, and through test migrations of a range of different existing applications.

One more comment of importance for those who are on v.4.0 or 4.1 and are considering v5.0. Side-by-side is supported so you are not required to uninstall or change your current development environment in order to evaluate 5.0.

Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0 Migration Guide can be downloaded from from MSDN in PDF and XPS formats.

There’s also a community page on Codeplex that allows you to post comments. Should you find a scenario or a migration tip that is not covered by the guide, please share it with the rest of the community there.