January 2006

This deliverable is available on MSDN at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/EntLib2.asp

About the Deliverable

The patterns & practices Enterprise Library is a library of application blocks designed to assist developers with common enterprise development challenges. Application blocks are a type of guidance, provided as source code that can be used "as is," extended, or modified by developers to use on enterprise development projects. This release of Enterprise Library includes six application blocks (Caching, Cryptography, Data Access, Exception Handling, Logging and Security), and provides similar functionality to the previous releases for the .NET Framework 1.1; however, Enterprise Library has been redesigned to use the new capabilities of the .NET Framework 2.0.

Highlights of this release include:

• Support for .NET Framework 2.0 Best Practices. This release makes use of many exciting new features of .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005, including generics and Visual Studio Team System unit tests. In addition, the new platform capabilities have enabled us to deprecate certain Enterprise Library features including the Configuration Application Block and much of the Security Application Block. Migration guidance is included in the Enterprise Library documentation.
  
• Improvements based on customer feedback. It has been almost a year since the original release of Enterprise Library and we incorporated many improvements based on feedback from customers including our online community of over 15,000 people. This includes configurable instrumentation, improvements to the flexibility and performance of the Logging Application Block, and support for more database types through the Data Access Application Block.
  
• Simplify and accelerate common development scenarios. As with previous releases of Enterprise Library, this release is designed to help developers with common enterprise development challenges, and provide a foundation library that can be customized and extended to meet unique requirements.

Roadmap

No new releases of Enterprise Library are planned for 2006. As customer feedback is received about the January 2006 release, the patterns & practices team will evaluate when it may make sense to release an updated version and what this should contain. The team will also evaluate the opportunity to update Enterprise Library as new platform technologies such as WinFX and Language Integrated Query (LINQ) are released. In the meantime, the team is focusing on new deliverables that will assist developers in using multiple application blocks together to form solid end-to-end applications. More information about this initiative will be available on the Enterprise Library community site.

Resources

• Introduction and Downloads: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/EntLib2.asp
• Community Workspace: http://practices.gotdotnet.com/projects/entlib
• Webcasts: Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0: Overview, Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0: Core Architecture
• Hands-On Labs: Coming Soon

Authors and Contributors

This release of Enterprise Library was produced by the following individuals:

• Program Manager: William Loeffler (Microsoft Corporation)
• Product Manager: Tom Hollander (Microsoft Corporation)
• Architects: Edward Jezierski, Jonathan Wanagel (Microsoft Corporation)
• Development: Scott Densmore (Microsoft Corporation); Brian Button (Murphy and Associates); Fernando Simonazzi (Clarius Consulting); Olaf Conijn (Macaw); Lenny Fenster, Brad Wilson, Peter Provost (Microsoft Corporation)
• Test: Mohammad Al-Sabt (Microsoft Corporation); Mani Krishnaswami, Gokula Thilagar, Jeevarani Radhakrishnan, Manickavasagam Shanmugasundaram, Meenakshi Krishnamoorthi, Umashankar Murugesan (Infosys Technologies Ltd); Bhavin Jayantilal Raichura; Pavan Kumar Sura (Volt); Carlos Farre (Microsoft Corporation)
• Documentation: Tim Osborn (Ascentium Corporation); Roberta Leibovitz (Modeled Computation LLC); Alex Homer (Content Master Ltd); Sharon Smith (Linda Werner & Associates Inc.); Tina Burden McGrayne (TinaTech Inc.); Nelly Delgado (Microsoft Corporation)

Many thanks to the following reviewers who provided invaluable assistance and sign-off: Brian LaMacchia, Carl Ellison, Mike Downen, Pablo Castro, Eric Deily, Krzysztof Cwalina, Jonathan Keljo, Shanku Niyogi, Stefan Schackow, Dave McPherson, Thomas Marquardt (Microsoft Corporation), and to everyone in the Enterprise Library Community who provided feedback that helped improve this release.