Download ADO.NET Data Services 1.5 CTP2

A new preview release of ADO.NET Data Services version 1.5 is currently available for download from Microsoft. At the end of the past month, the Redmond-based company went live with the second Community Technology Preview of ADO.NET Data Services 1.5. Currently, the framework is designed to target .Net Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 and Silverlight 3, but Microsoft has plans to make the features available with version 1.5 an integral part of the next iteration of the .NET Framework, namely .NET Framework 4. With the ADO.NET Data Services, the software giant is providing developers with both patterns and libraries set up to streamline building and consuming web-based data services.

“This CTP is a preview of the set of features we are considering shipping with the next version of ADO.NET Data Services. This CTP targets the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and extends the functionality we provided in v1.0 of ADO.NET Data Services by providing additional features. This CTP builds on and makes updates to the functionality provided in ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 CTP1,” Microsoft noted in the framework’s description. “As this is a CTP release, we recommend that you do not install this release on your primary development computer. Also, be aware that the features that ultimately ship with the final release of v1.5 may be different than the features included in this CTP.”

With the release of ADO.NET Data Services 1.5 CTP2, the Redmond-based company has focused on improving the reliability and stability of the framework. In this sense, CPT2 comes with a range of fixes for bugs identified in version 1.0. But there are additional features that the latest Community Technology Preview offers developers, including row count, feed customization, data binding for WPF and Silverlight 3, improved blob support, server-driven paging, projection Support, and a new "Data Service Provider" interface.

“This CTP includes a ‘full’ (runtime & tools) and a ‘runtime only’ installer. The 'full' installer will install all required runtime assemblies as well update your VS2008 SP1 environment to work with the CTP. The ‘runtime only’ installer will install all the data services runtime assemblies as well as a command line tool (datasvcutil.exe) into the CTP2 directory. No visual studio integration will be installed by the ‘runtime only’ installer. Having two installers is a temporary solution (for this CTP only) to allow us to get this CTP out as soon as possible. In future we will have a single installer for the release,” revealed Mike Flasko, ADO.NET Data Services, Program Manager.

ADO.NET Data Services 1.5 CTP2 is available for download here.