Espresso Fueled Agile Development : Windows Forms

How to migrate from CAB/SCSF to Composite WPF

mpuleio — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:12:10 GMT

Blaine recently posted that there is a CAB to Prism Comparison Available on Codeplex. This links to Composite Application Guidance for CAB Developers, a download from the CompositeWPF community site.

While this document does not help you decide IF[*] you should switch from CAB/SCSF to CompositeWPF, it does help with HOW, the differences between the two coding models, where the WorkItem went, how to emulate the behavior of WorkItems, and a few other interesting things. If you are a CAB developer considering the transition to WPF, you should definitely read this.

[*] Deciding which to use should be fairly simple: If you already know CAB/SCSF and you need to work in Windows Forms, stick with CAB/SCSF. If you need to host some WPF widgets in a Windows Forms environment, use CAB/SCSF. If you need a full WPF stack, use the Composite WPF guidance. If you are not constrained by the technology choice, things get tricky and the decision should factor in a whole bunch of factors including (but not limited to) which framework you are more comfortable in, which your team is more comfortable with, and where you see future investments in technology going. For each team/group/organization/company this is a different decision with different factors to consider.

Smart Client Software Factory – April 2008 Release is available on MSDN

mpuleio — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:25:00 GMT

The April 2008 release of the Smart Client Software Factory is now available at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480482.aspx.

This is a port of the last release (May 2007, if I recall correctly) to VS2008. No new features were added. A few bugs were fixed, and a number of work items from CodePlex were closed.

This release supports Enterprise Library 3.1. It does not support Enterprise Library 4.0. If you want EntLib 4.0 (once it is released) you have the source code, and should be able to get it to work, if you really need to. I would not recommend it, as you will end up with two containers (Unity and the CAB container), which means code bloat and challenges deciding where objects should go.

Smart Client Software Factory April 2008 Release Candidate Available

mpuleio — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:09:00 GMT

Friday, I posted we had a solid Beta. Today, I am letting you know that SCSF now has a Release Candidate (RC). The bug that appeared Friday is, we think, fixed. We actually published the RC before we completed any internal testing, so the customer who reported the issue would have a chance to verify the fix works on their system ASAP. Don't worry, we will do a solid test pass before determining if this RC will become the official release. (The fact that we are confident in our build system and the automated tests there helps with this sort of turnaround. :-) )

Please try out the Smart Client Software Factory April 2008 Release Candidate, and report any issues on the SCSF CodePlex community site.

Smart Client Software Factory April 2008 Beta Available

mpuleio — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:34:08 GMT

The SCSF April 2008 Beta Release that supports Visual Studio 2008 is now available.

We fixed all the known issues from the Alpha. It is solid, and may actually be a release candidate, rather than a beta.

Enjoy.

Smart Client Software Factory April 2008 Alpha Available

mpuleio — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:16:03 GMT

For the past month or so, Blaine and I have been overseeing the development of the April release of the Smart Client Software Factory. This release is being done mostly by a team of vendors, freeing Blaine to run Prism and I to run the Acceptance Testing Guidance project. Blaine and I are still very involved, and I still review code changes at random, but the team does most of the work. The team has been doing a great job, and I think the community will be pleased with the results.

This is a port of SCSF to VS2008 and the .NET 3.5 framework. It uses Enterprise Library 3.1, not 4.0, intentionally. There is very little in 4.0 that will effect CAB and SCSF development, except Unity. Using Unity would require a nearly full re-write of CAB, and we don't currently have the time or people to do it right and deliver on our other commitments. However, if you really need EntLib4.0, it should work, and if not, you have the source code to fix it.

We did need to create a custom data provider to wrap the SqlCE functionality, as the version number of the platform DLL went from 9.x to 3.5. This replaces the EntLib 3.1 provider for SQLCE.

Also, this version of SCSF, just like the last one, supports hosting WPF controls in your WinForms CAB application. It does not support a full WPF app. For that, you want to see Prism or the Smart Client Factory Contrib project on CodePlex.

We are also fixing a few bugs, and updating the guidance package (Visual Studio automation) to work in VS2008.

You can download the Alpha release from the SCSF CodePlex community site.

Warning: This is an Alpha. We did a minimal amount of testing ("It compiles and links." -- "Good enough. Ship it"), and the computer we installed it on still boots, still runs VS, and seems ok. Use at your own risk.

We are trying to get this project wrapped up this month. If you see issues, please post them to the Issue Tracker at the SCSF CodePlex community site, and/or post to the discussion forum there. We will try to get any major problems, but will not be adding features.

Blaine is also posting about this SCSF April 2008 Alpha for Visual Studio 2008 Published to CodePlex