Developing Applications with Enterprise Library

Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0

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Enterprise Library can be useful in a variety of situations; the following are some examples:

  • Enterprise Library provides sufficient functionality to support many common scenarios that enterprise-level applications must address.
  • Enterprise Library can serve as the basis for a custom library. You can take advantage of the extensibility points incorporated in each application block and extend the application block by supplying new providers. You can also modify the source code for the existing application blocks to incorporate new functionality. You can develop extensions for existing application blocks and new application blocks yourself, or you can use extensions and application blocks developed by others. Finally, you can add new application blocks to Enterprise Library.
  • Enterprise Library is designed so that its application blocks can function independently of each other. You have to add only the application blocks that your application will use; you do not have to add the entire library.
  • Enterprise Library includes the source code for the application blocks. This means you can modify the application blocks to merge into your existing library or you can use parts of the Enterprise Library source code in other application blocks or applications that you build.
  • Enterprise Library includes comprehensive documentation. This means that you can use the library and the source code as tools for learning architectural, design, and coding best practices.
  • A wide range of examples, Hands-On-Labs, and other learning materials are available from the Enterprise Library community Web site.

This section describes the general procedures for working with Enterprise Library in your applications. You can find details of how to use each of the application blocks in the relevant section for each. This section includes the following sets of related topics:

  • Configuring Enterprise Library. These topics describe the basic and more advanced procedures for configuring Enterprise Library; including using the configuration tools, sharing and managing configuration for multiple applications, configuring Enterprise Library programmatically, encrypting configuration files, and enabling the built-in instrumentation.
  • Using Enterprise Library in Applications. These topics describe how to add the Enterprise Library assemblies to your projects, import the required namespaces, and create instances of Enterprise Library objects that exercise the functionality of the application blocks.
  • Deploying Enterprise Library. These topics discuss the issues that you should consider when deploying Enterprise Library and applications that use it. This includes versioning and strong naming assemblies if you modify the source code for Enterprise Library, and pointers to help you use Enterprise Library in partial trust scenarios.
  • Administering Enterprise Library. This topic summarizes the techniques available to administrators and operators for running multiple versions of Enterprise Library, managing configuration, using the built-in instrumentation, and integrating with system management tools.
  • Extending and Modifying Enterprise Library. These topics provide advice on extending and modifying Enterprise Library by changing the source code, and information about creating custom providers that integrate with Enterprise Library and the configuration tools.