Enterprise Library
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Enterprise Library refers to a set of tools developed by Microsoft's patterns & practices department. It allows developers to integrate various "Application Blocks" into their .NET applications, which are designed to handle common tasks in enterprise-scale applications, such as logging, data access, exception management, and many others. Enterprise Library is provided as source code, which can be freely used and customized by developers for their own purposes.
The first release of Enterprise Library was created by a joint arrangement between Microsoft and Avanade, and merged many of the capabilities of older, stand-alone application blocks with Avanade's ACA.NET development framework. Two releases of Enterprise Library were released for .NET Framework 1.1. The first was released in January 2005, followed by a minor maintenance release in June 2005. The .NET 1.1 releases of Enteprise Library contained the following application blocks:
- Caching Application Block
- Configuration Application Block
- Cryptography Application Block
- Data Access Application Block
- Exception Handling Application Block
- Logging & Instrumentation Application Block
- Security Application Block
In January 2006, a new version of Enterprise Library was released that target .NET Framework 2.0. The most significant change in this release was that the Configuration Application Block was removed, and the blocks updated to use .NET's improved System.Configuration capabilities. This release also included significant improvements to the Logging Application Block, and much of the Security Application Block was removed due to similar capabiltiies provided in .NET Framework 2.0. The .NET 2.0 release of Enteprise Library contained the following application blocks:
- Caching Application Block
- Data Access Application Block
- Cryptography Application Block
- Exception Handling Application Block
- Logging Application Block
- Security Application Block
Enterprise Library is currently being updated for .NET Framework 3.0. The new release is expected to include a new Validation Application Block and a small Software factory designed to simplify the development of new application blocks and extensions.
The application blocks in Enterprise Library are designed to be as agnostic as possible to the application architecture, for example the Logging Application Block may be used equally in a web, smart client or service-oriented application. The patterns & practices team also produces more specialized application bocks that are not included in Enterprise Library, such as the Composite UI Application Block.
The patterns & practices team produces a number of other deliverables that leverage Enterprise Library application blocks. These include the Web Service Software Factory and Smart Client Software Factory.
