You can use the Web Client Software Factory to address common requirements for different areas of your Web client application architecture. Figure 1 illustrates the primary application areas targeted by this release of the software factory.
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Figure 1
Application architecture requirements targeted by the software factory
The following table lists the capabilities that the Web Client Software Factory–February 2008 release offers.
| Web Client Software Factory Capabilities | Application Blocks and Web Controls | Visual Studio automation | How-to topics and QuickStarts | Documentation and patterns | Reference implementation |
| Modularity | | | | | |
| Composing applications from individually developed, tested and deployed units (modules). | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Supporting XCopy deployment through distributed Web.config files | Yes | | Yes | | Yes |
| Unit testing Web user interface application logic | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| User experience | | | | | |
| Separating the responsibility of UI design from UI development | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Building responsive user interfaces | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Using ASP.NET master pages, themes, and skins | | Yes | | | Yes |
| Dynamically interacting with ASP.NET site map | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Yes |
| Deployment and updates | | | | | |
| XCopy deployment and updates of independent modules | Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Module versioning by separating interfaces from implementation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Security | | | | | |
| Authentication (using Forms Authentication) | | | | | Yes |
| Profile based user interface and authorization | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Yes |
| Input validation and output validation | Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Exception shielding | | Yes | | | Yes |
| State management | | | | | |
| Session | Yes | | Yes | | Yes |
| Manageability | | | | | |
| Handling exceptions | Yes | Yes | | | Yes |
| Logging exceptions | Yes | Yes | | | Yes |
| Web service communication | | | | | |
| Communicating synchronously with external Web services | | | | | Yes |