Web Client Software Factory 2.0 Now Available

There is a high-profile viral video of Steve Ballmer that is by now part of popular culture, which features the Microsoft Chief Executive Officer screaming "Developers! Developers! Developers!" until he runs out of voice. Ballmer's over the top reaction, however, does manage to point to the strong focus placed by Microsoft on developers. And one illustrative example, in this context, is the MSDN initiative. Actually, the name Microsoft Software Developer Network says it all. The Redmond company offers a comprehensive array of resources, from guidance to actual code via MSDN, and one area that has recently been enhanced is the Microsoft patterns & practices Developer Center. New to the Center's lineup of offerings is the Web Client Software Factory 2.0 for Visual Studio 2008.

"The Web Client Software Factory (WCSF) provides a set of guidance for architects and developers building enterprise Web applications. The factory includes samples, reusable code and a guidance package which automates key development tasks from within Visual Studio. Using the Web Client Software Factory assets, developers can create Composite Web applications composed of independently developed and deployed modules. These modules are dynamically brought together at runtime into a common shell. Additionally the factory includes support for ASP.NET AJAX thus providing users with a richer and more responsive user experience," revealed Miel Van Opstal, Microsoft Evangelist.

Containing reference implementation, QuickStarts, How-to topics, patterns, and Visual Studio .NET extensions, the factory is tailored to Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5, with full support. But this is not the sole enhancement of the Web Client Software Factory in comparison to the previous June 2007 release. Van Opstal enumerated some of new improvements synonymous with the February build of WCSF including: "added ASP.NET AJAX extenders for Context Sensitive Autocomplete, AJAX Validation, and Real Time Search that can be used in existing ASP.NET sites and ASP.NET sites built using the Composite Web Application Block. UI Composition capability through extending our dependency injection mechanism to support Pages, User Controls and Master Pages. Dependency Injection on ASMX Web Services and JSON services. A new set of Quickstarts and How-To topics on MVP, Modularity and the new AJAX extenders. And a new Order Entry Reference application that demonstrates all of the new functionality."

Developers can now access:

- Web Client Software Factory - February 2008
- Web Client Software Factory Source Code - February 2008
- Web Client Software Factory Source Code for Application Blocks - February 2008

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