SpringFramework.NET, Never Heard of it..

I've asked around 10 .NET developers tonight whether they've heard of this framework and the answer was no.

This isn't to say these aren't qualified .NET gurus, in fact they are in my book. It's something that made me stand up and take notice as to me SpringFramework is the ultimate coolest framework going.

I say this with a degree of bias, as you see prior to joining Microsoft I was coding happily away with Java and Coldfusion. I also used implementations of this framework for both these languages, so for me it's second nature.

Once I joined Microsoft, I forced myself to go 100% .NET and this wasn't because I'm officially on the kool aid, it was more to do with dogfooding what my employer had to offer the world in .NET (how can I evangelize Silverlights ROI on workflow unless I put myself in the shoes of the most developers first).

At any rate, I've been trying to build a .NET version of WordPress (what better way to learn a technology then to build projects) so I can keep it all 100% Microsoft. In the process I've come across a number of points where ASP.NET on it's own has frustrated me. It mostly came about with User Controls and nesting controls within them.

I'm not a DataBinding expert with ASP.NET so rather than head down that path, I wondered what frameworks are around that can do this kind of thing for me.

I remembered that SpringFramework.NET was being developed so I searched for it and found it again. This for me is a perfect fit and I'm loving combining a concept I used prior to Microsoft with Microsoft today.

Will it replace the upcoming MVC Framework?

Nope, in fact via Scott Gu's blog (does this man ever stop with the golden gems of ASP.NET goodness) I found this link today:

https://weblogs.asp.net/fredriknormen/archive/2007/11/17/asp-net-mvc-framework-create-your-own-icontrollerfactory-and-use-spring-net.aspx

I've done some initial tests and it holds water.

I'm contemplating doing a "Newbies Guide" to SpringFramework but not sure if I'm just the only newbie around? If you'd like me to do this, please drop me a vote "yes" or email etc and if the numbers stack, I'll do it.

SpringFramework.NET : https://www.springframework.net