On Wednesday 16.2.2005 me and Ido Samuelson gave a presentation about the Enterprise Library at the Microsoft C# User Group.
During the presentation we presented the 7 application blocks of the Enterprise Library focusing on design and extensibility of each block.
We have shown some neat features such as extending the security application block to support xmlproviders and the ability to extend the logger sink to support sms messaging.
For anyone who missed the presentation be sure to catch us on a Microsoft WebCast scheduled at the beginning of may.
Click here to download the presentation
Download the Demos
Using the Configuration Application Block
Every Enterprise Library application block uses the Configuration Application block, this demo will demonstrate the ease of using the configuration application block
Using the DataAccess Application Block
This demo demonstrate the ease of use of DataAccess application block
Extending Security Application Block
This demo demonstrate the ability to extend the security application block to use XML files, here you can take a look at my XmlAuthenticationProvider, XmlProfileProvider, XmlRolesProvider
Using / Extending the Crypto Application Block
This demo demonstrate the easy of using the Crypto Application Block and gives a simple MySimetricCryptograpyProvider
Using the Caching Application Block
This demo demonstrate using the caching application block to share data between instances.
Using / Extending the Logging Application Block
This demo demonstrate the use of the Logging Application Block and a way to extend the logging application block by adding a SMS Sink using SMS2U (sms gateway provider in israel)
Using the Exception Handling Application Block
This demo demonstrate how you can easily use the Exception Handling application block to replace or wrap exceptions
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Since releasing Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) on January 6, 2005, we have received feedback from customers and have made enhancements to the software based on this feedback. We have enhanced some of the real-time protection agents, added new threat categories, and improved stability and performance. If you are using a previous version you can simply upgrade to the refreshed version. The version number of the refreshed version is 1.0.509. To check the version number, click About Microsoft AntiSpyware… on the Help menu.
Download here
MSDN Architecture Webcast: Overview (Level 200)
Thursday, March 03, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Ron Jacobs, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Enterprise Library is the next generation of the patterns & practices Application Blocks. The Enterprise Library is designed to assist developers with common enterprise development challenges and it delivers the most widely used blocks in a single integrated package. The vision at Microsoft is to build a broad community of customers and partners using, sharing and extending their own Application Blocks that are consistent with and integrate into the patterns & practices Enterprise Library. Please attend this webcast discussion which will provide an overview of the Enterprise Library.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032269668&Culture=en-US
MSDN Architecture Webcast: Enterprise Library Webcast Series: Configuration (Level 300)
Friday, March 04, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Ron Jacobs, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Configuration data is a constant challenge for application development because the way in which your application handles configuration data dramatically impacts its manageability. In this webcast we will discuss the requirements for building a great configuration system and how you can leverage the configuration application block to meet these requirements.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032269437&Culture=en-US
MSDN Architecture Webcast: Enterprise Library Webcast Series: Data Access (Level 300)
Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Ron Jacobs, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Why not leverage existing knowledge when designing your next solution? Discover how you can implement the recommended data access architecture using Enterprise Library to quickly build a robust and secure data access layer which supports connectivity to Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and DB2. Attend this webcast and find out more.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032269686&Culture=en-US
MSDN Architecture Webcast: Enterprise Library Webcast Series: Caching (Level 300)
Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Ron Jacobs, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Are you sure you're doing this right? Properly designed caching can make your system more robust and increase performance dramatically, poorly designed caching adds unnecessary overhead and provides little benefit. Join us for this webcast so you can learn how to make use of the new caching application block to help lessen the demand on your back-end systems while increasing throughput.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032269439&Culture=en-US
MSDN Architecture Webcast: Enterprise Library Webcast Series: Exception Handling (Level 300)
Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Ron Jacobs, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Exceptions happen...the question is what you will do to handle them. Poorly written applications behave unpredictably when exceptions occur and often this bad behavior results in crashes or security holes. Attend this webcast to learn how you can create exception policies that can be consistently and quickly applied in your application to insure predictability even when things go wrong.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032269748&Culture=en-US
MSDN Architecture Webcast: Enterprise Library Webcast Series: Crypto (Level 300)
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time
Ron Jacobs, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
So you have a secret...what are you going to do with that credit card number, connection string or password? Stuff in a secret place and hope that no one ever finds it? Of course not, you want to encrypt it. But how? With the Enterprise Library cryptography block you can quickly encrypt and decrypt these secrets allowing you to secure them and sleep better at night. Attend this webcast presentation to find out how.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42341
MSDN Architecture Webcast: Security (Level 300)
Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Ron Jacobs, Product Manager, Microsoft
It always comes down to security, but how do you implement it? Every enterprise needs security and within most large enterprises there are many different security systems. Discover how Enterprise Library's security block can help you to put a consistent API in front of many different back-end implementations allowing you to use these security systems without having to become an expert in them.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42438
MSDN Architecture Webcast: Enterprise Library Webcast Series: Building Your Own Block (Level 400)
Monday, March 28, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Ron Jacobs, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
So you love application blocks? You want to create your own and share it with your colleagues, your enterprise...the world? Great! We want to help you. In this session we will walk through a simple application block to consider how you can build a block that integrates with the rest of Enterprise Library. Don't miss it.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032269455&Culture=en-US
MSDN Architecture Webcast: Enterprise Library Webcast Series: Enterprise Library Applied (Level 200)
Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Ron Jacobs, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
You stand at your manager's door working up the courage to walk in and tell them that you want to use Enterprise Library in your next project. There are so many questions about support, licensing, maintenance and futures...good thing you attended this webcast to understand what it means for an enterprise to adopt this library. You'll be given real examples from enterprises like yours so you can see how others are managing the risks and opportunities associated with Enterprise Library.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42347
Sometime you add pre/post build event to your project and the build event fails.
How can you spot what exactly caused the fail?
There are several way to spot the error :
1. Use 'rem' to mark a line as remark like you used to do in dos batch files and spot the line with the error
2. Use redirection to a file meaning add '> mydebuginfo.txt' and search for that file in the bin\debug directory.
inside this fill you will find the error which caused the build to fail.
A much nicer and easier way would be to get the error in a message box, don't you think ?
1. Download Frank Westlake Popup utility (Batch file message box which can take pipe input)
2. Put popup.exe somewhere in your path (ie. c:\windows )
2. Add pipe redirection at the end of the line the suspicious line ' | popup'
and you'll get a message box describing the error.
Another way is to check the bin\debug dir for 'PreBuildEvent.bat' or 'PostBuildEvent.bat' which are the file that Visual Studio creates and run during the build events, if there is an error the files remain in the output dir and you can run them manually and spot the error.