Enterprise Library 3.0: Whats New

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Enterprise Library 3.0 Whats New?
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The Story So Far

• Application Blocks are reusable, extensible
  source-code components that provide guidance for
  common development challenges
  
• Enterprise Library is a collection of general
  purpose application blocks
  
• Caching, Configuration, Cryptography, Data
  Access, Exception Handling, Logging, Security
  
• Emphasis on Consistency, Extensibility, Ease of
  Use and Integration
  
• Originally designed for .NET Framework 1.1
  (January/June 2005 releases) and updated for .NET
  Framework 2.0 (January 2006 release)
  
• Enterprise Library has become a standard for .NET
  development and is often used as a basis for
  custom frameworks

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Goals of Enterprise Library 3.0

• Address top feedback received for existing
  application blocks
  
• Provide new application blocks to support
  additional development challenges
  
• Support integration with relevant features of
  .NET Framework 3.0
  
• Improve the experience around key development
  activities
  
• Simplify the development of new application
  blocks and extensions
  
• Retain compatibility with Enterprise Library 2.0

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Enterprise Library 3.0 New Features At a Glance

• New application blocks
• Validation Application Block
• Policy Injection Application Block
• Improvements to existing application blocks
• Data Access Application Block
• Logging Application Block
• .NET Framework 3.0 integration
• Logging, Exception Handling and Validation
  Application Blocks

• Configuration improvements
• Visual Studio-integrated configuration tool
• Environmental Overrides
• Manageable Configuration Source
• Automation
• Application Block Software Factory
• Strong Naming Guidance Package

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Enterprise Library 3.0 Application Blocks
Core
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New Application Blocks
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Validation Application Block Goals

• Specify your validation rules once
• In configuration
• Using attributes
• Programmatically
• Easily validate data from anywhere in your
  application
  
• Programmatically
• Integrated into Windows Forms, ASP.NET or WCF
• Composable validation logic
• Built-in library of common primitive validation
  rules
  
• Combine validation rules on type members and
  using Boolean logic
  
• Apply multiple validation rule sets to the same
  types

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Supplied Validation Rules

• Validation Application Block includes the
  following rules
  
• Not Null (value must not be null)
• Contains Characters (e.g. does not contain any of
  /\?)
  
• Regular Expression (e.g. value is a valid e-mail
  address)
  
• Range (e.g. must be from 10-20 or 1/1/1950 to
  12/31/1999)
  
• Relative DateTime (e.g. birth date is more than
  18 years ago)
  
• String Length (e.g. string is at least 8
  characters long)
  
• Domain (e.g. must be one of John, Paul, George,
  Ringo)
  
• Enum Conversion (e.g. string can be converted to
  a value in the Color enum type)
  
• Type Conversion (e.g. string can be converted to
  a DateTime)
  
• Property Comparison (e.g. MaxDate MinDate)
• All validation rules can be negated
• E.g String Length must not be between 5 and 10
  characters

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Composing Validation Rules

• You can build complex validation rule sets by
  combining multiple primitive rules
  
• Combining rules with Boolean AND / OR logic
• Assigning different validators to different
  members of a type
  
• Specifying how nested objects or collections are
  to be validated
  
• A single type may have multiple rule sets that
  can be used in different contexts
  
• For example, Valid for displaying or Valid for
  persisting
  
• For example, Valid Customer or Preferred Customer

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Specifying Validation Rules using Attributes

• Attributes allow you to specify validation rules
  directly within the type being validated
  
• Validation logic cannot be changed without
  recompiling
  
• You must own the source code of the type

StringLengthValidator(1, 50, Ruleset"RuleSetA",
MessageTemplate"Last Name must be 1-50
characters") public string LastName get
return lastName set lastName value
RegexValidator(_at_"\w(-.'\w)_at_\w(-.
\w)\.\w(-.\w)", MessageTemplate"Invalid
e-mail address", Ruleset"RuleSetA") publi
c string Email get return email
set email value ObjectValidator("Rul
eSetA", Ruleset"RuleSetA") public Address Addre
ss get return address set addr
ess value
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Specifying Validation Rules using Configuration

• Validation rules are stored in XML and can be
  edited with the Enterprise Library configuration
  tool
  
• Validation logic can be changed without
  recompiling
  
• You dont need to own the source code of the
  type
  

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Validating Data Programmatically

• Regardless of how you specify rules, objects are
  validated in the same way
  
• If validation fails, you get a collection of
  ValidationResult objects
  
• Each result includes a message, tag, references
  to the object and property being validated, and a
  reference to the original validator.

Validator validator
ValidationFactory.CreateValidator("Rules
et") ValidationResults results validator.Valid
ate(customer)if (!results.IsValid)
foreach (ValidationResult result in results
) Console.WriteLine("Message0,
Key1, "Tag2", result.Message,
result.Key.ToString(),
result.Tag null ? "null" "\""
result.Tag.ToString() "\"")
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Integrating with WinForms, ASP.NET or WCF

• Supplied Integration Adapters make it easier to
  validate data in UI layers and service
  boundaries
  
• Windows Forms and ASP.NET integration allow you
  to associate a control with the validation rules
  for a particular type and member
  
• Validation failures are displayed alongside the
  control being validated
  
• Includes events for converting user input to the
  correct type for validation
  
• WCF integration implemented as a WCF Behavior
  that validates data at the service interface
  layer
  
• Rules are defined within data contract types or
  using attributes on the service contract
  

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Policy Injection Application Block - Goals

• Separate cross-cutting concerns from business
  logic
  
• Use interception and injection to apply policies
  at runtime
  
• Allow policies to be defined using configuration
  or attributes
  
• Include matching rules for common scenarios
• Applies policies at fine-grained level (searching
  for specific members or attributes) or
  coarse-grained (all types in a namespace or
  assembly)
• Include handlers that integrate with Enterprise
  Library to implement common cross-cutting
  concerns
  
• Validation, Logging, Authorization, Exception
  Handling, Caching, Performance Counters
  
• Allow users to use custom interception mechanisms

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Policy Injection Application Block Basics

• Policy Injection Application Block provides a
  factory for creating or wrapping policy-enabled
  objects
  
• If policies are defined in attributes or
  configuration, a proxy is returned in lieu of the
  real object
  
• When calling policy-enabled members, a handler
  pipeline is executed before and after the real
  member is called
  
• Each handler can read and manipulate the data
  going in and out of the call
  

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Defining Policies

• Policies defined in configuration consist of a
  set of matching rules and the definition of the
  handler pipeline
  
• Matching rules are predicates that specify which
  members the policy should apply to
  
• Handlers can also be applied directly to types
  and members using attributes

ValidationCallHandler public void Deposit( Ra
ngeValidator(typeof(Decimal),
"0.0", RangeBoundaryType.Exclusive,
"0.0", RangeBoundaryType.Ignore)
decimal depositAmount) balance depositA
mount
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Supplied Handlers

• Validation Handler
• Validates parameters to a method using validation
  rules defined for the types or as attributes
  attached to the parameters. If validation fails,
  an exception is returned and the method is not
  called.
• Logging Handler
• Logs before and/or after the method is called,
  optionally including the call stack, parameter
  values, return values, exceptions and call
  execution time
• Authorization Handler
• Uses the specified Authorization provider to
  check if the current user (thread principal) is
  authorized to perform the operation. If
  authorization fails, an exception is returned and
  the method is not called.

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Supplied Handlers (continued)

• Exception Handling Handler
• If the method throws an exception, the exception
  is processed using the Exception Handling
  Application Block and the returned exception is
  sent back to the called
• Caching Handler
• Checks if the method has recently been called,
  and if so, returns the cached return value
  instead of calling the method. If not, the method
  is called and the return value is cached for
  future use
• Performance Counter Handler
• Increments a number of performance counters to
  measure the number of times the method is called,
  the rate at which it is called, the average call
  duration and the number of exceptions thrown

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Improvements to Existing Application Blocks
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Data Access Application Block

• SQL Server Compact Edition provider
• New SqlCeDatabase class that integrates with the
  SQL CE managed provider
  
• TransactionScope integration
• Prevents escalation to DTC when multiple updates
  are made to the same database within a
  TransactionScope context
  
• Batch updates
• UpdateDataset now supports an updateBatch size
  parameter

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Logging Application Block

• Rolling Flat File Trace Listener
• Automatically creates a new file based on file
  size or date/time
  
• Improved Text Formatter
• Reflected Property Token, to retrieve data out of
  custom LogEntry types
  
• Display timestamps in local or UTC time

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.NET Framework 3.0 Integration
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WCF Integration

• Exception Handling Application Block
• ExceptionShieldingBehavior can be specified on a
  service contract
  
• Calls the Exception Handling Application Block to
  shield exceptions from the caller
  
• Logging Application Block
• EntLibLoggingProxyTraceListener can be configured
  to enable the Logging Application Block to
  process WCF trace events
  
• XmlTraceListener can be used with the block to
  output events in the format consumable by WCF
  diagnostics tools
  
• Validation Application Block
• ValidationBehavior can be specified on a service
  contract to enable validation of data contracts

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Configuration Improvements
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Visual Studio-integrated Configuration Tool

• Edit configuration from within the IDE
• Launched from .config files in the Solution
  Explorer
  
• Can be configured to point to different sets of
  assemblies

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Environmental Overrides

• Simplifies management of configuration files
  across multiple environments
  
• Separates master configuration files from
  environment-specific delta files
  
• Specify which settings to override on a
  node-by-node basis
  
• Merge configuration files using the configuration
  tool or a command-line tool
  

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Manageable Configuration Source

• Configuration Source designed to make it easier
  to build more manageable applications
  
• Based on the FileConfigurationSource, allowing
  applications to read configuration from any
  .config file, plus
  
• Administrators may publish changes to
  applications configuration using Group Policy
  
• The resulting merged configuration is published
  using WMI to enable querying through operations
  tools such as Microsoft Operations Manager
  
• No code changes required by developers to support
  this!

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Automation
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Application Block Software Factory

• Enterprise Library 3.0 includes a new software
  factory for building your own application blocks
  and extensions to existing application blocks
  
• Features include
• Code generation in either C or Visual Basic
  .NET
  
• Solution templates for Application Blocks and
  Provider Libraries
  
• Recipes to create custom providers for Enterprise
  Library application blocks
  
• Including Validators, Trace Listeners, Exception
  Handlers and Authorization Providers
  
• Strongly-typed or property bag-based
  configuration
  
• Recipes to create new factories, provider bases
  and providers for your own blocks
  
• Recipes to create design-time configuration code
  from runtime configuration classes

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Application Block Software Factory
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Strong Naming Guidance Package

• Strong-naming Enterprise Library is recommended,
  but complex
  
• 90 projects, including design-time and tests
• Use of InternalsVisibleTo attribute for
  testing
  
• Strong Naming Guidance Package automates
• Generating strong-name key pairs
• Specifying that projects should be strong-named
• Updating InternalsVisibleTo to include public
  key
  
• Can be run on Enterprise Library or any other
  solution
  
• Enterprise Library 3.0 also ships with pre-built,
  strong-named assemblies which you can use if you
  dont want to modify the code.

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finally
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Migration from previous versions

• This release is 100 API compatible with the
  previous January 2006 release of Enterprise
  Library
  
• Configuration formats for existing blocks are
  unchanged, but assembly version numbers and
  possibly public key tokens will need to be
  changed
• Multiple versions of Enterprise Library can be
  installed on the same machine, but cannot be used
  together in the same application
  
• Enterprise Library 3.0 can be used with either
  .NET Framework 2.0 or .NET Framework 3.0
  installed
  
• WCF-specific functionality requires .NET
  Framework 3.0

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Resources

• Download Enterprise Library and related resources
  from
  
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/practices
• Join the Enterprise Library Community at
• http//codeplex.com/entlib
• Read blogs from the Enterprise Library team at
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/practices/Comm/EntLibBlo
  gs/
  

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