Web Client Software Factory Guidance Assets are now Available on MSDN

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Some of you may remember that waaaay back in October (and earlier) the Web Client Software Factory team was shipping these things called "bundles".  A bundle was all a developer needed to get started and learn about a single concept, like the Model View Presenter pattern in a web application, or contextual auto-complete.  These bundles were released for VS2005 and .NET 2.0 on the WCSF community CodePlex site.

Now, the same bundles for VS2005 with .NET2.0 and new bundles for VS2008 with .NET 3.5 are available on MSDN's Web Client Software Factory page.  However, due to factors I do not understand and that are beyond my control, we are now calling these "Guidance Assets".

The first question everyone is going to ask is :

"How are these different from the Web Client Software Factory - February 2008?"

The Guidance Assets for .NET 3.5 are identical to the same assets inside the WCSF February release. This packaging just allows developers to grab one or two pieces of the factory at a time, or to share with a co-worker to get them up to speed on a concept.  For example, the Web Client Contextual AutoComplete Application Block for .NET Framework 3.5 is EXACTLY the same as the Autocomplete Quickstart in the factory, with everything you need to get started and stand alone documentation.  The .NET2.0 versions of the assets are identical to what we shipped in October on CodePlex (in fact, they were copied from CodePlex to the MSDN download center).

Why did we post the bundles on MSDN?

A number of customers complained that they wanted to use the bundles but their corporate policy does not allow them to use anything from CodePlex or other open source sites.  However, MSDN is a trusted source in their companies. To help these customers, we have have two distribution channels for identical assets.  :-)

Blaine has already blogged about this, Web Client Bundles for .NET 2.0 and .NET 3.5 Available on Download Center

Here is a comprehensive list of click-able links for all the ZIP files:

.NET 3.5 Assets for Visual Studio 2008: (All these are included in the Feb release of the factory, Web Client Software Factory - February 2008)

.NET 2.0 Assets for Visual Studio 2005: (These are what we released in October-ish)