Acropolis Lives!
Acropolis is CTP! The WindowsClient.net site says:
Acropolis builds on the rich capabilities of Microsoft Windows and the .NET Framework, including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), by providing tools and pre-built components that help developers quickly assemble applications from loosely-coupled parts and services.
- Quickly create WPF enabled user experiences for your client applications.
- Build client applications from reusable, connectable, modules that allow you to easily create complex, business-focused applications in less time.
- Integrate and host your modules in applications such as Microsoft Office, or quickly build stand-alone client interfaces.
- Change the look and feel of your application quickly using built-in themes, or custom designs using XAML.
- Add features such as workflow navigation and user-specific views with minimal coding.
- Manage, update, and deploy your application modules quickly and easily.
You can download the CTP bits, get documentation, and see an intro video on Acropolis here.
Additionally, per Kathy Kam of the Acropolis product team, features in Acropolis CTP1 include:
- Declarative Composition - allows you to declarative program the structure of application components
- Navigation support - manages activation and deactivation of components
- Document Life Time support - manages the life time of a document object
- Layout Pane - Split style and tab style UI layout that leverages WPF
- Transition Animation - Prepackage transitions built on WPF
... and all these comes with Application Design Time Support!
This is a more technical topic than I usually delve into, and I hope my blogging colleagues like Darryl Hogan, Jon Box, and Josh Holmes will add their 2 cents and keep me honest!
The Acropolis CTP is a great step toward an turning an enterprise Software + Services vision into reality. From a manufacturing industry perspective, this news is especially exciting!
- Interknowlogy demonstrated how CAD data can be rendered, annotated, and shared with WPF and Sharepoint.
- The Northface kiosk and Surface show how WPF can be used to push the envelop on rich, immersive user experiences.
- Now, Acropolis promises to provide a way for sophisticated business users to bring these capabilities together by leveraging WPF to compose rich business applications that can display business data from multiple sources side-by-side and in context with CAD data in a single engineering desktop environment. And it does it by leveraging industry standard interoperability protocols, as well as a common workflow model that spans custom LOB apps, Office productivity apps, and Sharepoint collaboration apps!
Of course, we're only at the Acropolis CTP, but the future looks very exciting indeed!
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About john.mullinax
John Mullinax is a Platform Strategy Advisor with Microsoft's DPE Team. Before joining Microsoft in 2006, John held a vartiety of positions at Ford Motor Company, most recently leading IT services strategy to support explosive business growth in China. Other positions included: Enterprise Architect, Application Portfolio Management, Technology Governance, and Product Manager. Prior to joining Ford, John earned his MBA at the University of Washington. Before that, he was Director of Elections for Douglas County, Washington, where he conducted the first Federal mail-ballot election in the USA. Subsequently, he joined the Secretary of State's office as a consultant working with county election officials in Washington state to improve operational effectiveness, integrity, and security (aka, to prevent the kind of debacle we saw in Florida in 2000).
