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Reactive Extensions for .NET (Rx .NET)

The core interfaces for the Reactive Extensions, IObservable<T> and IObserver<T>, ship as part of .NET Framework 4 and on Windows Phone 7. For earlier versions of the .NET Framework and Silverlight, these interfaces are defined in the System.Reactive assembly which ships as part of the Reactive Extensions.

Download and Install Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio is the integrated development environment provided by Microsoft to create applications that use the .NET Framework. You can download the express version for free, or consider purchasing other versions that come packaged with larger feature sets.

The Reactive Extensions run on the .NET Framework, so both Visual Studio and the .NET Framework provide you with the necessary tools and technologies to begin developing.

Download the Reactive Extensions for .NET

The Reactive Extensions is released in two flavors: stable and experimental. The stable version includes support for the API surface and its target platforms. It also represents the point of reference used for the documentation and code samples.

The experimental version evolves more rapidly and is released on a larger set of target platforms. This version comes “as-is” and is not officially supported.

In general, we advise to use the stable version. If you want to try out the latest features and influence the design of the Reactive Extensions you can use the experimental release at your own discretion.

Stable release:

Download: Reactive Extensions stable release

Available for the following platforms:

  • .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
  • .NET Framework 4
  • Silverlight 4
  • Windows Phone 7

Experimental release:

Download: Reactive Extensions experimental release

Available for the following platforms:

Installing the Reactive Extensions through NuGet

Alternatively, the Reactive Extensions assemblies can also be included in a Visual Studio 2010 project using the NuGet package management system. For more information on how to install and use it, visit www.nuget.org. To locate the Reactive Extensions assemblies in the NuGet repository, use the “Add Library Package Reference…” dialog inside Visual Studio 2010 and search for the term “Rx”.

Documentation:

Both the conceptual and reference documentation of the Reactive Extensions is available through the following links:

Discontinued target platforms

Per the release of version 1.0.10605.1 (2011-06-05) the following target platforms are no longer supported:

  • Reactive Extensions for Silverlight 3
  • Reactive Extensions for XNA 3
  • Reactive Extensions for XNA 4

Notes for Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 ships with a version of the Reactive Extensions baked into the ROM of the device. For more information, see Reactive Extensions for .NET Overview for Windows Phone. The built-in version of the Reactive Extensions can be found in the Microsoft.Phone.Reactive Namespace.

This release contains an improved and extended version of the Reactive Extensions targeting Windows Phone 7. This implementation resides in the System.Reactive namespace in order to prevent possible conflicts with the built-in libraries. This release does not replace the version in the ROM, but lives side-by-side with the existing ROM version of the library.

Rx for JavaScript

The Reactive Extensions for JavaScript (RxJS) brings the power of reactive programming to JavaScript. It enables to use of Rx operators in JavaScript, and it does this in a download size of less than 7KB (using GZip compression). RxJS provides easy-to-use conversions from existing DOM, XmlHttpRequest (AJAX), and jQuery events to Rx push-collections, allowing users to seamlessly plug Rx into their existing JavaScript-based web sites.

(Optional) Download and Install Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio is the integrated development environment provided by Microsoft to create applications that use the .NET Framework. You can download the express version for free, or consider purchasing other versions that come packaged with larger feature sets.

The Entity Framework is part of the .NET Framework, so both Visual Studio and the .NET Framework provide you with the necessary tools and technologies to begin developing.

(Optional) Download and Install Expression Studio 4 Web Professional

Expression Studio 4 Web Professional includes a complete set of professional design and development tools for creating modern standards-based Web sites. You can download the express version for free, or consider purchasing other versions that come packaged with larger feature sets.

Download the Reactive Extensions for JavaScript (RxJS)

Rx for JavaScript ships as a ZIP file containing the core library, bridges to common JavaScript frameworks (such as jQuery), code samples, debugging assistance files, and testing support. Read the license for more information on redistribution of those files.

Download: Reactive Extensions for JavaScript experimental release