P & P Summit Day 3 (Enterprise Library)

In an earlier blog entry I mentioned Enterprise Library. At day three of the Summit we spent the morning talking about Enterprise Library.

The Enterprise Library has an amazing resemblance to the PFC (PowerBuilder Foundation Class). Not that it's similar code or anything, but here we have a vendor with a development platform, and that vendor has written the starting of a framework we as developers can use to make it easier for us to get started building applications. If you use the application blocks this is going to be a good thing. Seven of the eleven available Application Blocks have been wrapped up and cleaned up and documented, and will be released around January 2005 to the general public.

What comes with the Application Library?

  • Data Access Application Block
  • Exception Handling Application Block
  • Configuration Application Block
  • Caching Application Block
  • Logging & Instrumentation Application Block
  • Security Application Block
  • Cryptography Application Block

The Enterprise library should make it easier to install and use the application blocks. They come with documentation including templates and samples. The Blocks are designed to work together, but they can still be used individually. The configuration tool that comes with Enterprise Library makes it look pretty easy to start using any part of Enterprise library.

Some promises from Microsoft.

  1. We will continue to enhance Enterprise Library, providing new Application Blocks to assist with additional scenarios
  2. We are planning a Microsoft® .NET 2.0 “Whidbey” compliant release around the time that .NET 2.0 and Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 are released