Toby Kraft and Jeff Patterson of Keller Schroeder will present an overview of the Enterprise Library and how the application blocks can be used.
Enterprise Library 3.1 – May 2007 is a new release of the Microsoft patterns & practices Enterprise Library. The Enterprise Library is a collection of application blocks. These are reusable software components designed to assist developers with common enterprise development challenges. This release of the Enterprise Library includes two new application blocks, a software factory for creating application blocks and providers, and other new features and enhancements.
Benefits
Application blocks help address the common problems that developers face from one project to the next. They are designed to encapsulate the Microsoft recommended best practices for .NET applications. They can be added to .NET applications quickly and easily. For example, the Data Access Application Block provides access to the most frequently used features of ADO.NET, exposing them through easily-used classes. In some cases, application blocks also add related functionality not directly supported by the underlying class libraries.
Goals
The Enterprise Library is a collection of application blocks intended for use by developers who build complex, enterprise-level applications. These applications are typically deployed widely and have interdependencies with other application and systems. In addition, they generally have strict security, reliability, and performance requirements.
The goals of the Enterprise Library are the following:
- Consistency. All Enterprise Library application blocks feature consistent design patterns and implementation approaches.
- Extensibility. All application blocks include defined extensibility points that allow developers to customize the behavior of the application blocks by adding their own code.
- Ease of use. Enterprise Library offers numerous usability improvements, including a graphical configuration tool, a simpler installation procedure, and clearer and more complete documentation and samples.
- Integration. Enterprise Library application blocks are designed to work well together and are tested to make sure that they do. It is also possible to use the application blocks individually.