Patterns and Practices Releases Hands on Labs for EntLib and Unity

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| What’s Enterprise Library | What’s Unity | Content of this Release | Goals| FAQs | About patterns & practices | Ask patterns & practices |

Microsoft Enterprise Library is a popular collection of reusable software components (called application blocks) designed to address common cross-cutting concerns of enterprise application developers (such as logging, validation, data access, exception handling, and more). Entlib is provided as source code, test cases, and documentation that can be used "as is" or extended, and encapsulates the Microsoft recommended and proven practices for .NET application development.

We’re currently planning the next release of Enterprise Library and would love your feedback on what features are important to you and your customers. Please review our preliminary backlog, and vote.

Unity is a lightweight, extensible dependency injection container with optional support for instance and type interception. It facilitates building loosely-coupled applications and provides developers with the following advantages:

− Simplified object creation, especially for hierarchical object structures and dependencies.

− Abstraction of requirements; this allows developers to specify dependencies at run time or in configuration and simplify management of crosscutting concerns.

− Increased flexibility by deferring component configuration to the container.

− Service location capability; this allows clients to store or cache the container.

− Instance and type interception (via an extension introduced in Unity Application Block 1.2—October 2008).

Included in this release are three new hands-on labs covering:

- Interception (with Policy Injection Application Block and Unity)

- Dependency Injection with Unity

- Validation Application Block

There are also updates of the hands-on labs for the following blocks:

− Caching Application Block

− Cryptography Application Block

− Data Access Application Block

− Exception Handling Application Block

− Logging Application Block

− Security Application Block

Click here to download the complete set of Hands-on Labs for Enterprise Library 4.1. Unity 1.2 Hands-on Labs are also available as a separate download.

Additionally, a comprehensive set of Frequently Asked Questions is now available online.

With this release, the patterns & practices team reiterates its commitment to enhancing learnability and increasing ease of use of Enterprise Library.

The labs help developers who are new to EntLib, or perhaps somewhat rusty, quickly get started using the blocks. They will guide you through common scenarios of using EntLib in various application contexts, including advanced ones. They should reduce errors, frustrations, and promote faster skill acquisition.

The labs may also be of value to trainers and academics, since they can be used as teaching aids in the classes devoted to Enterprise Library specifically or in courses on Component-Based Software Engineering, Enterprise Application Development, and Aspect-Oriented Programming.

The Microsoft patterns & practices (p&p) team is responsible for delivering applied engineering guidance that helps software architects, developers, and their teams take full advantage of Microsoft’s platform technologies in their custom application development efforts.

Our goal is to help software development teams be more successful with the Microsoft application platform. We do this by delivering guidance that:

· Helps to simplify the Microsoft application platform.

· Provides solution guidance to common problems.

· Helps development teams grow their skills and learn.

For more information: https://msdn.microsoft.com/practices